The sign of an effective quality management program is where preventive action is the rule and corrective action is the exception.
The next true-or-false statement from Philip B. Crosby's Quality Is Free is “A Zero Defects program is a management communications tool.” As I mentioned in my last post, if you have already answered true or false to the ten statements, to test your understanding of the concept of Zero Defects, please read ahead and continue. If you haven't already answered, please take the time to go back and read them to test your knowledge of the concept of Zero Defects, related to construction programs and Enterprise Quality Management in the construction industry.
Here is the answer to the fifth of ten statements: “A Zero Defects program is a management communications tool.”
ANSWER = TRUE
Crosby asserts that a Zero Defects program “…creates an attitude of defect prevention.” Generally, in the absence of a Zero Defects program or an Enterprise Quality Management program, an attitude of defect correction, as opposed to defect prevention, generally prevails. Work is not always put in place correctly or completely, in accordance with the contract documents and specifications, the first time. Then, the nonconformant and deficient work is identified, area by area and item by item, and retasked back out to the trade contractors and subcontractors. Subsequent rework is required, which inevtiably leads to cost overruns, sequencing bottlenecks and time delays, all jeopardizing already-thin profit margins.
The sign of an effective quality management program is where preventive action is the rule and corrective action is the exception.
Relationships between field personnel out on the job site and management personnel back in the head office or home office develop and evolve, as a mutual understanding of the quality-related issues at the point-of-construction develops over time as the quality program progresses. Problems and quality-related issues in the field gain visibility up to managers, directors and executives, who may be disconnected from the day to day activities on the job site. Problems and quality-related issues in the field are no longer isolated at the job level.
Leveraging a quality program as a “management communications tool” proliferates a culture of quality throughout the company, at all levels from the field up to the head office or home office. A culture of quality and the behaviors which support it are shaped by the best practices, project processes and communication tools utilized by the company, both at the project level and bewteen management and the projects. The “out of sight, out of mind” mentality ceases to exist. Quality becomes a priority for all company personnel.
Ask yourself the following questions about your company: How does your company create leverage a Zero Defects program or an Enterprise Quality Management program as a management communications tool? How does your company create the connectedness between many geographically distributed projects, regional offices and a head office or home office?
An effective quality management communications tool uses a three-pronged approach:
- A web-based quality management application, with no local software and accordingly easy to distribute across a broad install base, to enable real-time visibility in to project progress and status.
- Web-based analytic dashboards and reports, showing project and company performance over time, where information may be explored dynamically, ad-hoc and on-demand at any time.
- Scheduled reports, distributed to key project and company stakeholders in an automated way, via email, showing project and company performance over time.
More to come next week, when I answer and discuss question six. Appreciate all of you who are reading and following along each week as we continue to analyze some of the key principles and potential misnomers of quality management in the construction industry.
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