Posted on May, 1st 2013 By Denis Leonard
There are some characteristics that should be embedded in any New Product Development (NPD) process. This includes customer input, the involvement of cross functional teams, strong project management, concurrent engineering and risk management tools. For example marketing and design are not
Posted on Apr, 1st 2013 By Denis Leonard
Quality is not about tunnel vision, a focus only on the reduction of variation in production alone. Quality is no longer just about the product, but the management of all operations and should be integrated into all aspects of a business. Focusing on every aspect of a business requires a systematic
Posted on Mar, 1st 2013 By Denis Leonard
A question that regularly arises is how to sustain quality management or to put it another way, what are the reasons for quality management failing? There have been two significant studies on this issue and their findings cited the following obstacles.
Lack of leadership for quality
Lack of
Posted on Feb, 19th 2013 By Denis Leonard
Standards provide crucial communication, alignment and compatibility at an international, national, industry and individual organizational level. These standards, accessible to everyone from global powers to developing countries, from international corporations to the Mom and Pop small
Posted on Feb, 13th 2013 By Denis Leonard
For over 20 years, the National Housing Quality Award has been helping some of America’s best home builders improve their operations and make more money!
Learn how applying for the NHQ Award can help your company:
Increase profitability
Improve customer satisfaction
Sell more homes
Posted on Jan, 29th 2013 By Denis Leonard
Studies show that across industries Cost of Quality (Failure, Appraisal & Prevention) is: 2.6-4% of sales revenue.
In the construction industry the Cost of Quality profile is:
70% spent on Failure Costs
25% on Appraisal Costs and only
5% spent on Prevention Costs.
The cost of correcting
Posted on Jan, 15th 2013 By Denis Leonard
A report last year by the NAHB Research Center found that “increasingly, today’s homebuyers want energy-efficient, low-maintenance, well-insulated and well-sealed homes. Survey data in the last few years has also shown that consumers are willing to pay a premium for these types of
Posted on Jan, 1st 2013 By Denis Leonard
The Six Sigma methodology DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) is used to improve an existing process.
Design for Six Sigma is used to design a new product or service.
The methodology used is DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design and Verify).
Define the goals and
Posted on Dec, 17th 2012 By Denis Leonard
It is critical to know what our customers think of living in the homes we build for them and what it was like to be involved in the design and construction process with us. In the case of survey results, this is a lagging indicator but still a track record of how we have done and it is powerful
Posted on Dec, 7th 2012 By Denis Leonard
A recent research study on quality in construction projects established the following Quality Problem Factors as the sources of quality defects.
Quality Problem Factors
Managerial/Stakeholder
Lack of contractor supervision
Poor relationship and partnering among project participant
Reduced
