If you’re serious about quality, then improving your Quality Management System will probably be one of your main business goals. But what are the foundations of a good program?
By the way, if you’re not yet convinced that having the best possible quality program is a good thing, you might want to read our latest e-Book – Your complete guide to achieving First Time Quality excellence – where we explain the hidden benefits of a First Time Quality approach and bust some of the myths and misconceptions that stop people even trying to implement a quality management system in the first place.
In fact, we believe that defects are preventable and that achieving First Time Quality construction is possible for everyone – and we’ve made it our mission to help.
A Maturity Model to Define Quality Management Program Performance
At FTQ360, our team has devised a maturity model that defines Quality Management Program performance on a scale from level one to level four – from basic and professional to advanced and expert.
To build out the model, we considered the most important tasks and activities that make up a ‘best practice’ quality control program and grouped them into these ten categories:
- Organization –how the quality function is organized
- Management – the role played by senior management
- Strategy – the approach and methods used to track defects
- Accountability – formal methods for holding people to account
- Planning – the extent and nature of forward planning activities
- Processes – formal processes that dictate who does what and when
- Controls – methods and approaches for keeping defects under control
- Measurement – the metrics and measures used to track program performance
- Improvement – formal procedures to ensure continuous improvement
- Technology – the use of technology to help streamline workflows
Take the Test
In this article, we are going to explain what you need to do to reach level one in the Construction Quality Management – Maturity Model but before we start, you may want to find out what level you are already at. We have developed a simple, but powerful, Maturity Assessment that will pin-point exactly where you are on the four-level scale.
Just by answering a few simple questions on how you manage quality, you can find out how sophisticated your Quality Management program is today and how far you are on your journey to First Time Quality excellence.
Level One: Basic
At level one, punch lists take center stage as quality efforts focus on finding and fixing deficiencies. Over time, more and more defects are caught in-house and customers find fewer defects.
1. Automate your quality communication workflows
You can streamline communications by automatically sharing documented issues with all the relevant stakeholders. To further boost your efficiency, try centrally storing multiple deficiencies – fully documented with pictures, notes and reason codes – so they are always available at your fingertips.
To kick-start your First Time Quality journey, we recommend automating your subcontractor deficiency update notifications – ensuring that priorities and due dates are included.
2. Automate the administration of your deficiency backlog
You can eliminate burdensome administrative tasks related to clients and projects by automating overdue deficiency alerts specifically for clients and projects. At the same time, dashboards tailored to clients and projects can give you the instant visibility and control you need to efficiently manage your deficiency backlog for clients and projects.
To help achieve First Time Quality excellence, we also recommend measuring subcontractor response time performance and analyzing trends in your deficiency counts both by subcontractor and project.
3. Simplify your processes and eliminate unnecessary steps
You can stay on top of your deficiencies by implementing a specialist cloud-based platform – like FTQ360 – to make issue communication superfast and super easy.
To help prevent field personnel wasting their time firefighting a constant stream of problems and senior management dealing with quality crisis after quality crisis, you should focus on achieving First Time Quality excellence to improve both project profitability and customer satisfaction.
Stop Firefighting and use Punchlists to Help Find and Fix Deficiencies
Our key takeaway message here is that you stop firefighting and use punchlists to help find and fix deficiencies. It’s the first step on the road to First Time Quality excellence.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our Maturity Model and how you can measure your score, this article will tell you all you need to know: How to assess the maturity level of your Quality Management program – good luck!
We hope you found this blog article interesting and useful. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch. At FTQ360, we're serious about quality. If you are too, we'd love to talk.
This blog is part of a series on the 4 levels of our Quality Management System Maturity Model.
Reaching Construction Quality Excellence - Reaching Level 2
Reaching Construction Quality Excellence - Reaching Level 3
Reaching Construction Quality Excellence - Reaching Level 4
