More units, more profits, maybe even a new computer.
You've probably set some annual business goals. But what about your quality goals? Quality is an
important part of your success. So plan for quality improvement too! Every builder can do
it.
Tom Gillespie, President of Kennedy Community Development,
Arlington, Illinois, who builds 20 homes per year, says "As a small builder with
limited resources, we have to be very careful about [setting] our quality improvement
priorities. We can't afford to throw away time on things that don't really matter. We need
our improvement efforts to pay off for our customers."
It's easy to put together a plan. Put yourself in the position of
your home buyers and look through their eyes. What do you really like about the home and
the builder? What should get better? I challenge you to answer these simple questions.
Involve everyone you can in a working session -- sales,
construction, service and the office. Lay your customer surveys out on the table. Have
performance, cost and marketing data available. Invite your staff to tell stories about
what customers have said. Brainstorm, let it all hang out. Make long lists of the good and
the bad. Everyone should have at least one item on the list. Discuss only to gain
understanding, not to pass judgment or opinions on what someone else said. You'll sort it
out later.
Of course you can't work on everything on the list. So let's get it
down to a manageable size. Combine like items. Collect closely related items into groups.
Keep combining and grouping until there are less than 20 items on the list. Now you are in
a position to set priorities.
Setting priorities involves two steps. First, it involves examining
how important an improvement item is, as seen through the customer's eyes. A quick, easy
way is a secret ballot with each person choosing the top three most important items,
assigning 3-2-1 points respectively. A tally of scores provides a ranking of importance to
the customer. Things that are less important will be removed from further analysis. We
must also temper customer improvement priorities with the cost and effort involved. Make a
judgment about how much improvement can be gained if the improvement is made. MBAs have
fancy models for balancing costs and benefits, but if you've gotten this far, the
priorities should become clear.
John Weiland Homes, an 1995 NHQ award winner, has an annual two-day
planning retreat for key employees from every department. Along with sales and financial
objectives, specific quality improvement goals are set, and plans are made for how they
will be achieved.
An important benefit of this planning process is that even though
there may have been a variety of opinions at the beginning, by the end everyone is aligned
in the same direction and committed to move forward as a team. Now, your business plans
will have the added dimension of quality improvement.