GRANITE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (GMS)
Glossary of Terms
Acceptance: Approval by the customer or authorized quality personnel of an item, facility, or service as
conforming to applicable requirements.
Area: A business unit within a Region.
Audit: A documented examination of internal management systems in order to evaluate how well these
elements comply with quality system requirements.
Best Practice (BP): Practice that is beyond a required procedure that has been proven the most efficient and
economical way to achieve the desired quality.
Business Unit: Defined profit center or operating entity, which has the authority, control, and responsibility for
operations.
Business Unit Manager: The manager with the ultimate responsibility/authority of a given business unit.
Compliance: Meeting a given set of requirements, usually regulatory or statutory in nature.
Conformity: Meeting a given set of requirements; a measure of quality.
Continual Improvement: Recurring process of enhancing the quality management system in order to achieve
improvements in overall performance, consistent with the organization’s quality policy.
Contract: A variety of agreements or orders for procurement of supplies or services. A binding agreement
between two (2) or more persons that is enforceable by law.
Contract Review: A set of activities that are carried out in order to make sure that customer orders and
contracts specify all requirements that must be met, and in order to establish that the organization can actually
meet these requirements.
Controlled Document: 1.) A drawing, specification, calculation, record, report, or other document where a
change could affect another design, construction or materials requirement. 2.) The condition or status of all
documents associated with the Granite Management System, stored in original format for future editing in the
GMS-SharePoint portal; electronically saved with the version number and effective date, with a record of
changes tracked by version number.
Corrective Action: Measures taken to remove the causes of systemic or recurring non-conformities or to make
quality improvements.
Customer Satisfaction: Customer’s perception of the degree to which the customer’s requirements have been
fulfilled.
Department: Division or business unit within the levels of the Company’s defined organizational structure (i.e.
Safety, Equipment, Quality Management, Environmental, etc.).
Description Document: Document that provides a description of an initiative, process, plan, etc., commonly
used as a communication tool.
Design: Technical and management processes, which commence with identification of design outputs and lead
to and include the issuance of design output documents.
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Document Owner: The individual responsible for the initial preparation and maintenance of a unique document
(i.e. the Senior Department Manager would be the “document owner” for their department documents).
Form: A table, chart, spreadsheet, etc., which outlines a format for completion and provides supporting
documentation for a GMS document.
Function: Refers to a specific department with unique responsibility within the organization (i.e. Safety, Human
Resources, etc.).
Granite Management Plan (GMP): Documented plan developed in compliance with the International
Organization for Standards, ISO 9001:2008, providing an introduction to the organization’s formal management
system - the Granite Management System (GMS). The GMP describes how Granite will establish, document and
implement management systems, policies and procedures, and continually improve their effectiveness.
Granite Management System (GMS): The GMS serves as the global foundation for the development,
implementation, and maintenance of quality management at Granite Construction. The GMS is the compilation
of management systems, policies, procedures, and all associated tools/supporting operational activities
employed at Granite. This system is commonly represented by and recognized as the Star Performance Process
(SPP).
Guidance Document: Document referenced within a Policy or Procedure that provides guidance on how to
accomplish an objective.
Inspection: Examination or measurement to verify whether an item or activity conforms to specified
requirements.
ISO: International Organization for Standards is the world's largest developer and publisher of International
Standards.
Management Review: An evaluation by executive management of the overall performance of the quality
management system to be used to identify opportunities for improvement.
Non-conformity: When one or more characteristics of a product or activity fail to meet specified requirements
(i.e. physical defects, test failures, incorrect or inadequate documentation, or deviation from the prescribed
processing, inspection, or test procedures).
Operating Group: Organizational groups that are comprised of Regions within a defined geography or a
collection of technical support departments.
Organization: For this document, Granite Construction Incorporated (“Granite”).
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle: Methodology common to ISO standards and the GMS. Reliance on the PDCA
assures Granite has clear, consistent expectations and responsibilities defined that are auditable, which in turn
can be used for continual improvement.
Policy: Describes a principle or rule followed to make decisions and achieve consistent rational outcome(s).
Preventive Actions: Steps that are taken to remove causes of potential non-conformities or to make quality
improvements. Preventive actions address potential problems.
Procedure: A documentation or description of how any activity is to be performed. It may include specification
of duties, functions and responsibilities, method to be employed, equipment and materials to be used, or
sequence of operations.
Process: Set of interrelated or interacting activities, which transforms inputs into outputs.
Process Control: Control or input, by production personnel or authorized quality personnel of an item, facility,
or service as potentially conforming to applicable requirements. All Granite personnel have input at some level
of their respective process.
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Quality Control (QC) Plan: A means of setting out practices, resources, and/or sequences of activities relevant to
the quality control of a particular product or group of processes.
Quality Management Plan (QMP): The QMP provides guidance on how quality will be ensured on a project or
operation through procedures, design reviews, documentation, and other protocols. It gives management and
the customer a clear understanding of how quality will be maintained and what documentation they can expect
(addressing quality).
Quality Management System (QMS): All-encompassing collection of Quality Management Plans, Procedures,
Manuals, and Best Practices to direct and control an organization with regard to quality.
Quality Record: A completed document or record, which furnishes documentary evidence of the required and
obtained quality of items or activities affecting quality.
Record Document: Stating results achieved or providing evidence of activities performed.
Reference Document: A document referenced in a GMS Policy or Procedure that is a supporting document, or
otherwise approved by that department’s Senior Department Manager for inclusion as a GMS document (i.e.
System Manual or Plan which provides links to other forms and supporting documents).
Region: A business unit within an operating group.
Remedial Actions: Measures taken to correct an individual non-conformance.
Specifications: The written portion of the construction documents which may consist of special provisions,
project standard specifications, and other published specifications referenced in the construction documents.
This may include the organization’s internal production requirements.
Standard: The result of a particular standardization effort approved by a recognized authority (i.e. ANSI, ASTM,
AASHTO, AWS, AREMA and/or ISO).
Star Performance Process (SPP): A high level representation of the Granite Management System highlighting
areas focused on in striving for operational excellence throughout the organization.
Subcontract: The document utilized to employ the service or support of a lower-tier party to perform all or part
of facet of scope of work under the provisions of the prime contract.
Supplier: Any individual or organization that furnishes items or services in accordance with a procurement
document.
System Manual/Plan: Manual or Plan describing the Company’s system of interrelated items used to direct and
control how Policies and Procedures are implemented to achieve desired objectives.
Testing: Subjecting an item to a set of physical, chemical, environmental, or operating conditions, in order to
determine whether the item meets specified requirements or not. Testing may be used for broader purposes
like product optimization or improvement as required by the organization.
Verification: Reviewing, inspecting, testing, checking, auditing, or otherwise determining whether items,
processes, or documents conform to specified requirements.
Work Plans (Package): A set of construction documents consisting of cost coding information, plans,
specifications, quality checklists, and a work description required for a single construction activity.
For purposes of this Quality Management Plan, the terms and definitions given in ISO 9000 generally apply. For specific
implementing procedures, terms and definitions may be included in the procedure or in a singular listing of terms and
definitions for the specific series of procedures.
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