Customer Focused

Football season is finally here and as you project which teams are the best, think about your own customer service. Great football teams are great because they do the basics extremely well every season. That means they do the blocking and tackling right. To give great customer service, a company must have its basic processes working right. Consider these questions:

How well does your estimating/bidding process work? Does it tell the truth? Does it focus on meeting customer needs?

How well do you deliver on your promises to your customers? Do you get back with them with the right information when you promised? Do you communicate clearly and regularly on the status of their projects?

How effective is your customer complaint system? Do you even have a defined system? Do you follow it? How do you know?

How do you teach your employees the basics of doing their job right the first time? How do you know they are performing as trained?

How do your employees treat the customers? How do you want them to treat your customers? How do you know?

Do your invoices meet your customer’s need for first time customers the first time you invoice them?

What do you have as punchlist items at the end of projects? What is common among all projects? What are you doing to prevent punch lists (rework) or do you just expect and accept it? Do your customers want punch lists?

Employee Focus - The Lesson of Kaizen and GM

Mark Breslin, noted construction speaker, talks about engaging employees:



“Last year Toyota Motor Corp. received one million suggestions from their employees on how to improve productivity, quality and the workplace. Also last year, Toyota began its final challenge to GM as the number one automaker in the world. Their net market worth is $ 103 billion. GM is begging and broke. I believe that all these facts are inter-related. I also believe the reason for Toyota's success and our lesson to learn is embodied in a concept they call "kaizen". (Kaizen [Japanese]: "kai" the action to correct / "zen" for good).



“Why is this important? Because the new game in our already tough market is how to keep every dollar we've got rather than chasing new ones. We had fifteen years of relatively fat times. Now, the new plan is getting and doing more with less. And the real question is how much money is our union industry leaving on the table by not tapping into our own apprentices and journeymen's buy-in and best ideas? This does not happen by putting out some lame suggestion box. Kaizen defines Toyota's approach to everything they do. For it to work it must operate with three principles in place:



“Leaders and workers consider both work process and the results (not results alone)

Leaders and workers are taught why things are done & given the big picture

Managers (foremen?) promote a learning, non-judgmental, non-blaming approach to allow re-examination of existing practices



“This simple and yet obviously powerful business strategy is applied from the CEO down to the production employees; all with one central theme—continuous improvement. How much time are we spending on this subject with our students and supervisors on this subject and why should you? There are a number of reasons:



“The GM Lesson: if you don't focus on continuous improvement and instead depend on old school thinking, your competition will eventually kick your ass. You can't increase (or even maintain) wages and benefits indefinitely just because the members want them. What got us here, won't get us there in the future. Construction is still in many ways a very traditional business model. It generally does not actively encourage a structured focus, discipline or commitment to continuous improvement vs. price vs market relevance. We need to breed this kind of thinking from the first moment of apprenticeship.



“The Culture Lesson: a central theme that employees come to understand, embrace and act upon is what defines an industry culture. Our culture needs to be High Value, High Performance. Nothing less can be priced at our level. In a tough market you need to start reinforcing this culture; asking your guys to take initiative and telling them that their jobs depend on it.



“The Empowerment Lesson: the second most powerful at-the-workplace motivator, behind praise and recognition, is participation in decision making. One million times per year Toyota employees rise to the challenge of improvement within their company. They know for absolute certain that everyone has the opportunity and obligation to create value. And supervisors are listening respectfully. What does this do for performance and unity? Again, how does our construction culture measure up? Or can even one great idea make it past the foremen's desire to maintain his authority? Do we teach that big picture or just how to perform the task at hand?



“How? = A New Way of Managing & Teaching



“The current management system and model in construction is something out of the dark ages. Contractor management systems are generally pretty good until you get to the field. Kaizen dies a horrible death on ten thousand jobsites every day in North America. In our industry, a great suggestion to a foreman is usually treated as a challenge to his authority. Especially by an apprentice. After he is shot down what lesson has been taught them loud and clear?



“My Italian contractor grandfather was a hard-ass yeller and screamer. And much as I revere his memory, some traditions die hard, but die they must. A culture of High Performance must be built on new ways of managing. Engagement, motivation, empowerment, codes of performance, peer-to-peer accountability and, of course, constant improvement. Fat times are over. Faster and smarter is required to even hope to compete with our open shop counterparts. From apprentice to foremen we need to communicate effectively about this NOW. Their job is not to have all the answers, but to harness the talent of the team. It is not about ego and authority; it is about results.



“Apprenticeship development needs to take a quantum leap forward. It will always be about skills, but perhaps most importantly it needs to focus on teaching people to think.



“How do I fit into the big picture of this industry?

How do my individual efforts matter?

How does my compensation relate to my performance and those around me?

How do I contribute to improvement of processes and productivity?

How do I lead to obtain buy-in and consistent improvement?



“Toyota's kaizen is about teaching people to think differently. That is what has provided them with world-class products and market leadership. GM has been about mis-placed pride, conformance, and tradition. The lessons are obvious. The solutions difficult. The time is now.



Source: Breslin Strategies Report, Mark Breslin, Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Keeping Score - Thoughts

Consider these measures that stink:

• Unit costs – drives us to not be Lean – leads to over production (waste)
  
• Tons of metal per hour fabricated in shop or installed – really tells us nothing because of the many variables involved!
  
• Productivity factor – estimate to actual. If the ratio is bad - was our estimate bad or our actual performance? How do we know?
  
• Units produced – just counts

These measures aren’t really bad – it’s how we use, or more often, misuse them that stinks! Measures are often feared but don’t have to be. If used to identify problems (opportunities) for improvement and to see if improvements made are working, measures can drive excellence in any organization. People fear what they don’t understand, sharing measures, posting results helps understanding. If measures are used to “catch” poor performers and discover who is at fault, they will be manipulated, falsified and mistrusted.



What measures do you use? How are you using measures today? What ones can you use to drive improvement not fear?

Consider these “wall” approaches to sharing performance:



Wall of Excellence – shows improvements, major events, recognition and awards, Credo, vision, and mission

Wall of Shame – shows all complaints, the top 10 most wanted defects, and negative events, punchlist items that appear on most lists

Wall of Metrics, Safety, and Environmental – displays business metrics (schedule, budget to actual) and state of the company to all associates

Wall of Employees & Training – pictured is each employee and listed by the picture are the training classes the employees have taken.

Learning Opportunities

You may be interested in attending one of these training seminars by Dennis Sowards:

• Sept. 17, 2009 - Customer Loyalty by Design – Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net
  
• Oct. 6, 2009 - Lean Works in Construction – Milwaukee, WI – Sponsor: Plumbing Mechanical Sheet Metal Contractors Alliance, Contact: Dajen Bohacek at 414/543-7622 or dajen@pmsmca.com Must be a SMACNA member company, associate or sponsored by one to participate.
  
• Oct. 15. 2009 - Introduction to Lean in Service – Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net
  
• Oct. 29, 2009 – Lean Construction Overview – Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: Arizona Lean Construction Institute – details to follow

Contact Dennis Sowards if you want a customized workshop exclusively for your company.

Thought for the day

Leaders are made, not born. They are made like everything else in this country, by hard work. - Vince Lombardi

For more information about the High-Performing Contractor assessment process contact Dennis Sowards at 480-835-1185 or YourQSS.com



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