Masonry Magazine August 1992 Page. 13
Quality Improvement Process
Quality improvement is crucial for business survival. You can't afford to lose money; you won't survive if you do. Quality tells us that if we could invest a small portion of this loss into understanding and implementing the quality improvement process, we could be saving the rest.
Crosby tells us that once we have determined our customer requirements, set our performance standards to equal those requirements, and then determined where we are by measuring the cost of quality, we must now establish a system in our company that's geared to preventing problems before they occur. This calls for a system of "prevention, not detection." This is Crosby's fourth absolute. If we don't prevent the problems, then our customers detect them and we lose customers and money.
As an example, think of the time and money you spend in correcting a poorly installed wall. Not only do you lose the cost of your labor and materials to do the job again the second time, you also lose the revenue that could have been earned by selling that time and material on another job.
But don't stop measuring the loss there. What about the unhappy customer? Eventually the unhappy customer will leave and take his business (and his referrals) with him. More lost money.
The cost is staggering. So let's take some of that money, determine why we are making mistakes, and train our people to do it right the first time. Let's look at all aspects of our business and set up systems to prevent these problems before they occur.
Quality is now defined as a process. And according to Crosby, this process involves four absolutes:
* Conforming to customer requirements;
* Establishing performance standards to meet those requirements; and
* Measuring the cost of quality;
* Creating systems of prevention, not detection.
All this sounds so simple. It says easy but it does hard. Crosby's book tells us that "Quality is Free"-but it certainly is not easy or cheap. It takes time and money to learn about quality. It takes commitment, and it takes even more time and money to implement.
Historic Theatre Renovation Wins Excellence Award
THE VICTORIA THEATRE RENOVATION project in Toledo, Ohio, a major engineering and architectural challenge for architects Lorenz and Williams in association with Edward Durell Stone, won a special Excellence in Renovation Award from the Masonry Institute of Dayton at their nineteenth annual awards banquet. The facility, which utilizes an unusual celluar block wall system, also received the state's ASO award at the Architects Society of Ohio convention. F. E. Longstreth, mason contractor, won a special craftsmanship award for the project. Suppliers were Snyder Brick and Block Company and Stone Centers of Ohio. It was necessary to bring the structure up to modern standards, while at the same time preserving the familiar historic limestone and brick building. Concrete masonry played an important role in this phase of the renovation, and it was also necessary for the masonry to perform as a structural material. Part of the stage renovation included a new roof, gridiron floor and fly galleries, all supported by new reinforced concrete masonry load bearing walls.