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 […]
Tag: Quality
Establish Actions for Your Business Case
This article is Part 4 of the framework for How to Build a Business Case for Quality. Business Case Framework Starter Questions Analyzing Conversational Feedback As you gather feedback across your organization, record the specific themes you hear: For each comment, develop a solution. For example, for the team member who was never trained, one […]
Why Quality Programs Exist (and my conversation about it with ChatGPT)
I wrote a few weeks ago in the newsletter about how they achieved quality constructing the Empire State Building without the formal quality programs we have today. I’ve been trying to dig deeper on this topic for three years with no luck. (If anyone has any solid resources, please contact me.) Given my research struggles, […]
How to Build Compelling Business Case for Quality
Starter Questions What is preventing your organization from investing in quality? Does your organization view “quality” a process, a result, or both? Is “quality” clearly defined at your company? Quality as a Process Many individuals and organizations view “quality” as a process – tasks and tools that stand alone from the rest of our daily […]
Advancing Construction Quality 2024 – Phoenix, AZ
I’m a huge fan of Hanson Wade’s “Advancing Construction” conference series. I’ve attended the Design Quality Management, Operational Excellence, and Construction Quality sessions the past few years and have become a regular presenter. (I most recently gave a presentation on checklists at the Design Quality Management conference in Chicago). These conferences are great opportunities to […]
Cal Newport and Task Containment
A common complaint of the “modern quality system” or “process” is that it has too much documentation or takes up too much time. I don’t disagree. There exists a better method to managing quality that I’m implementing at my current organization, and Cal Newport’s new book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, […]
Simplifying Our Quality Systems
How can we simplify our quality systems? Project quality plans are often diluted – spread out across multiple documents and shared locations. Even our terminology – quality management, quality assurance, quality control – is too complicated for the teams in the field installing the work. Project teams are incentivized to utilize cumbersome corporate processes, yet […]
More on Quality Responsibility
I recently read about the idea of construction leaders writing the work instructions for processes they utilize – such as their quality programs – instead of a corporate overhead resource. I’m still reflecting on this and not sure if I agree. My guess is most of you will find it extremely contrary to our modern […]
A New Idea on Work Instruction Responsibility
The past two years I’ve read tons of books on construction quality, seeking answers to many of the questions I had about managing quality – questions such as how do we tangibly translate what our clients want into construction documents and further to the crews. Most of the books didn’t offer anything new or change […]
Trust Your Teams and Promote Critical Thinking
The superintendent or project manager role can’t be automated. There are many ways to manage, and each team must find their way. This occurs when leaders provide space for critical thinking and trust their teams, acting as coaches and guides to success rather than dictators of process. Process is important, but not at expense of […]