Masonry Magazine August 1992 Page. 14
Now that we have a definition for quality, let's see how to make it work in your company. The commitment to quality must start at the top. You can't delegate a philosophy that you don't understand and believe in. Then, once top management makes the commitment to quality, it must be driven throughout the entire organization-Top to bottom.
The process continues with Crosby's first absolute and involves determining your customers' requirements. This involves the implementation of a formalized system of obtaining customer feedback. You must ask your customers how you are doing and how you can better meet their needs.
The next step in the quality process requires that you establish performance standards and make them visible to all of your co-workers. A football team never has a problem finding the goal line-it's marked with different colored lines, special flags and big metal posts. There is never a doubt in the team's mind as to where they are going. We need to do the same with our co-workers. Set goals to satisfy customer needs and make those goals clearly visible to your team.
Having set your goals, begin the process of defining the problems that keep you from reaching those goals. This is the process of measuring the gap between where you are now and where you want to be in terms of satisfying your customers' needs. Then, and only then, can you start the process of solving these problems and establishing methods of preventing those problems before they happen.
Now is the time in the process where you begin to focus on your employees your internal customers. The quality process takes training, training and more training. And, once your team is properly trained, your job as a manager is to get out of their way and allow them to have the authority to satisfy the customer.
Next, you need to properly motivate your co-workers. They need to know that their work is appreciated and will be rewarded. H. Ross Perot (as a businessman-not a politician) has said that we must reward the doer of the task before the sweat dries on his brow from doing the task. A proper system of recognition and reward is essential in implementing the quality process in your company.
And then the final step of the quality process is to do it all over again. Each of these steps must be formalized into a system that we repeat forever. Quality is a process, not a program. It goes on forever-there is no finish line.
How will you go about implementing the quality process? As we've said, it won't be easy. But there is help for the masonry contractor-one that will show you how to implement quality in your company. This year, in partnership with the National Concrete Masonry Association, we will imple-
Excellence Award for Clock Tower
THE MASONRY INSTITUTE of Indiana and the Indiana Masonry Contractors Association recently honored the finest in masonry architecture in their state. Awards were presented to nine projects at the annual banquet, and a special award was presented to Eggnik Architects and Borger Jones Leady, for the Elkhart Civic Center Clock Tower. The jury recognized the project not only for excellence in architecture, but also for its impact on the community. Elkart is the largest city in Indiana without a courthouse, leaving the city without a central focus. Eggnik, who teaches architecture at Ball State University, led a design team of students through Elkhart and started the ball rolling on the project, which was dubbed "Building the Dream." Mason contractor was Ramenda Masonry.
14 MASONRY-JULY AUGUST, 1992