Airtightness Quality Management Approaches in France: end and birth of a scheme. Previous and new schemes overview and analysis

Since 2006, the French Energy Performance regulation, named RT, has been allowing two ways to justify building airtightness: either with a measurement or with the application of a quality management approach. The quality management approach certification is managed by the French Ministry in charge of construction, for which it set up a specific expert committee to assess quality management approaches. Since 2012, the justification has been compulsory for residential buildings. This obligation led to a more systematic use of certified quality management approaches.
This paper aims at presenting the analysis of the current process, its results and the improvements to be scheduled in the next certification process which will be managed by accredited certification bodies.
The first part of this paper explains the certification process and tools. It presents the yearly follow-up requirements and the control process content. The second part presents and analyses the certified bodies characteristics and the evolution of measured values along the years. This part gives information about the type of bodies implied in French quality management approaches and the way they imply themselves in the yearly application of their approach. The third part deals with the analysis of the whole certification process: certification it-self, yearly follows-up and control campaign. This part shows the results of the processes and states pros and cons of the current process. A last part presents the new scheme for the certification obtainment. Indeed, to cope with the increasing number of applications, starting July 2015, French authorities decided to entrust accredited certification bodies under contract with the government to deliver these quality management approach certifications. An overall analysis of the current process is made, leading to the implementation of the new certification scheme. Both are presented in the paper. Moreover, the first decisions taken by the accredited certification bodies to implement their quality management approaches certification are also given.
The paper concludes on the overall analysis of the quality management scheme that has been implemented since 2006 in France, its pros and cons, and the evolutions decided for the new certification scheme. The current scheme has been improved year after year and is now robust enough to be transferred to private bodies. Moreover, some new developments were needed which could not be implemented by the French authorities, and which will be set up thanks to the new scheme.