CPC Safety, Quality Control & Risk Management 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What quality management concept describes the total cost of preventing, detecting, and correcting defective work?
- Life-cycle costing
- Cost of Quality (COQ) (Correct answer)
- Earned Value Management
- Value Engineering
Correct answer: Cost of Quality (COQ)
Cost of Quality (COQ) encompasses prevention costs, appraisal costs, and failure costs (both internal and external) associated with achieving or not achieving quality.
Question 2: A construction manager conducts a pre-task planning meeting before each high-risk activity. This practice is BEST described as:
- Toolbox talk
- Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) briefing (Correct answer)
- Safety stand-down
- Incident command review
Correct answer: Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) briefing
A JHA (or JSA) briefing reviews task steps and associated hazards with workers before starting work, making it the best description of targeted pre-task planning.
Question 3: In a risk probability-impact matrix, a risk scored as 'High' probability and 'Low' impact typically warrants which response?
- Immediate escalation to the owner
- Avoidance strategy only
- Active monitoring with a prepared mitigation plan (Correct answer)
- No action required
Correct answer: Active monitoring with a prepared mitigation plan
High-probability, low-impact risks are typically monitored actively with mitigation plans ready, as their likelihood makes them likely to materialize even if individual impacts are manageable.
Question 4: Which OSHA program requires employers with 250 or more employees to electronically submit injury and illness data annually?
- VPP (Voluntary Protection Program)
- SHARP (Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program)
- 300 Log Electronic Reporting (ITA Portal) (Correct answer)
- EPCRA Tier II Reporting
Correct answer: 300 Log Electronic Reporting (ITA Portal)
OSHA's Injury Tracking Application (ITA) requires establishments with 250+ employees to submit OSHA 300A summary data electronically each year.
Question 5: What statistical quality control tool plots the percentage of defective items over time to reveal trends and special causes of variation?
- Pareto chart
- p-chart (Correct answer)
- Scatter diagram
- Run chart
Correct answer: p-chart
A p-chart (proportion chart) is a statistical process control chart that monitors the fraction of nonconforming items in a sample over time.
Question 6: Under CERCLA (Superfund), who bears primary liability for cleanup costs at a contaminated construction site?
- Only the party that caused the contamination
- Current property owner only, regardless of fault
- Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs), which may include current and past owners (Correct answer)
- Federal government exclusively
Correct answer: Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs), which may include current and past owners
CERCLA imposes strict, joint and several liability on a broad class of Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs), including current and former owners, operators, and waste generators.
Question 7: A project team uses a FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) during design. What is the primary output of this process?
- A list of approved change orders
- Risk Probability Number (RPN) scores prioritizing failure modes (Correct answer)
- A completed punch list
- A staffing plan for QC inspectors
Correct answer: Risk Probability Number (RPN) scores prioritizing failure modes
FMEA produces Risk Priority Numbers (RPNs) by multiplying severity, occurrence, and detectability ratings, allowing teams to prioritize which failure modes to address first.
CPC Safety, Quality Control & Risk Management 3
What quality management concept describes the total cost of preventing, detecting, and correcting defective work?