How to assure as-built quality in self-certification
The Minister for Building and Construction has announced the Government's intention to allow suitably qualified builders, plumbers and drainlayers to self-certify certain types of builds without needing a BCA consent or inspection of their work. "Only proven professionals who meet strict criteria will be eligible for the scheme - and only for simple residential dwellings."
This will be seen as great news for plumbers and drainlayers. BCAs are also likely to benefit by being able to reallocate valuable resources into other areas that will improve the overall efficiency of the consenting process
It will also be viewed as a boon for volume builders, saving them time and money. However, it will be more important than ever that digital record keeping of compliance with the building code and the consent is not lost to the industry and homeowners in either scheme.
We believe that digital record-keeping will be a criterion of the schemes as a safeguard and to provide transparency for the as-built quality of homes built under the scheme.
For many industries where quality management and assurance systems are core to product and service offerings, regulatory oversight takes the form of attaining ISO or similar industry certifications. These assurance regimes are delivered through quality systems that provide for third-party audit and are recognised as verification methods for assuring standard and regulatory compliance.
Artisan is such a quality system. It was created first and foremost as a quality assurance platform for residential builds, and some volume builders have already adopted it as their QA system. For BCAs that already have Artisan, automating an audit oversight of self-certifiers using Artisan will be simple.
Artisan is an enterprise-strength, scalable cloud-based solution ready and able to provide the digital record-keeping and quality assurance elements that will be necessary to support the Government's self-certification schemes.
