One of the main questions to answer when setting up a quality program is whether to centralize or decentralize the team, tools, and systems. J.L. Ashford’s book, The Management of Quality in Construction, clearly establishes the difference between each. Regarding centralized quality programs, from pages 55 to 56: “Under a centralized system, these operations [quality […]
Category: Process Improvement
Create Flexible Frameworks
An industry friend of mine recently stated: “We need to give teams the tools to take ownership.” This is such a powerful statement. Many of our processes are extremely prescriptive. As we ask our teams to “own quality” on their project, we fail to realize that an overly prescriptive quality process is exactly what prevents […]
Simplify First, Automate Last
Many organizations wait for the perfect tool to automate their systems, yet we forget that automation is not a means of simplification. Simplifying a process and automating it are two separate actions. We must simplify a process first before automation. I recently wrote about waiting for the perfect tool and task containment as a means of simplification in design […]