| The Business Owner Toolbox Part 11: Pro-Active Field "Must Do" Systems |
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| Written by George Hedley | |
| Thursday, 18 October 2007 | |
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6. Schedule Pro-Active “Must DO” Meetings.It’s next to impossible to communicate to everyone on your project team what you want done, how you want it done and when it must be completed without regular team meetings. Between every football play, the team huddles up and discusses the next play. Between games, football teams meet and talk about what needs to happen to meet the next week goal and what training is required. In order to get everyone on your project team on the same page, require mandatory field meetings. The meetings I recommend include:
7. Demand Pro-Active Quality and Safety.I don’t understand why an architect ever has to make a final job walk-through to identify the remaining punch-list items required to complete a project. The field foreman or superintendent has supervised the installation of the materials, walked the job a hundred times and still can’t see what needs to be completed to produce a finished project? This is unacceptable to me as a construction company owner. It makes us look bad to our customers and creates an impression we don’t know how to perform quality work—and what about safety issues? Why do I have to constantly remind my foreman to be safe, shore up trenches, wear safety equipment, install required barricades, keep the job clean of debris, fix unsafe conditions and use proper fall protection methods? In reality, everyone wants to build a quality project and be safe. But they don’t always make it their number one priority on an ongoing basis. So we created a system to insure quality and safety are a mandatory part of their jobs. We require superintendents and foreman to dedicate at least ten to fifteen minutes every day to quality and safety and perform a quality and safety walk-thru inspection. They fill out a report of what they observe, what needs to be fixed, by what date and by whom. Our goal is to fix every problem immediately if urgent, or by no later than by the next week. Don’t wait until the end of the job. It is too hard to get crews back to do the little things. For subcontractors issues, fax them your punch-list weekly and require them to complete their items immediately or at least by the end of next week or you will complete it and back-charge them. Be Pro-Active to Make More ProfitThe choice is yours. Let your field foreman, superintendents, suppliers and subcontractors run your projects. Or you decide how you want your projects managed. Install pro-active “Must-Do” field systems and standards. Get everyone doing business the same way and watch your bottom-line go up while your stress level goes down. George Hedley owns Hedley Construction and Hardhat Presentations. He is the author of The Business Success Blueprint Series available in eight workbook and audio CD sets. He is available to speak on his proven system to build profits, people, customers and wealth. Call 800.851.8553 or visit his website at www.hardhatpresentations.com. Comments (0)
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