Raisng The Standard-using Iso 9000 Improvement Business Performance

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Raising the standard: using ISO 9000 to improve performance Concrete Producer, The , May, 2005 by Rick Yelton z z

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When it comes to dealing with third-party scrutiny, J.D. Collins is an expert. During the college basketball season, he enjoys the rigors and responsibility being of an NCAA basketball official. This spring, Collins traveled the country refereeing March Madness. To be successful in his part-time avocation, Collins has learned the value in listening to both peers and customers (coaches) in learning how to be a better official. Every action and decision becomes a potential discussion point from each person's perspective, says Collins. Related Results z z z z z

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So it didn't surprise his fellow managers at Hartford Concrete Products in Hartford City, Ind., when his commitment to self-improvement spread to the precast business. The road to selfimprovement was paved when Collins investigated the best method to certify his operation for quality. We were looking for an objective method that would help us improve our processes, products, and relations with our business partners, he says. ISO certification wasn't Collins' first choice. I didn't know anything about the ISO process until a customer asked us about 11 years ago whether we would consider going through the process, says Collins, Hartford Concrete's president and CEO. He initially downplayed the suggestion. But after some discussion with fellow managers, Collins and his team began the trek of thirdparty approval of self-improvement. Collins at first thought the ISO effort would be a sales and marketing tool. But after preparing the operations manual and completing their first ISO audit, Collins says the process was much more than window dressing for a sales brochure. The principles of process improvement have greatly directed every aspect of our business, he says. Avoiding the cost of rework

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Half a continent away, Terry MacDow, general manager of The Shaw Group's brick and block division in Nova Scotia, shares a similar view of his company's involvement in the ISO certification process. As general manager of one clay brick plant and two concrete block plants for one of eastern Canada's largest material suppliers, MacDow has come to relay on his company's ISO process as a management tool to help insure that quality permeates all endeavors. MacDow began the ISO process about six years ago to validate his brick products so they would be accepted for exports. We ship a small percentage of our clay bricks to Japan and China, says MacDow. ISO certification does carry influence in the international market. But MacDow and his team found the effect of continuous improvement was so dramatic in the brick operation, he expanded the process improvement program to the company's two block operations. A fellow manager has since applied the ISO process to the company's concrete pipe plant. MacDow also finds ISO certification is now part of the producer's business operation rather than a marketing logo. While our domestic customers may know we are ISO certified, they know Shaw as a well-respected producer here in Canada's maritime provinces, says MacDow. The process has involved our employees in improving our company. It must work. This January, The Shaw Group was again selected as one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies. This is the fourth successive year The Shaw Group has earned this designation. Once considered to be a marketing tool to encourage international business, many producers have been slow to adopt the formalized approach of ISO continuous quality improvement. Only a handful of producers have followed the path paved by Collins at Hartford Products and MacDow at Shaw. In the ready-mixed business, only Scott Hammersley at Newington Concrete, Newington, Va., and Nick Maloof at Atlanta-based Thomas Concrete have embraced ISO 9000. Little acceptance Why has the concrete industry been so slow to accept the path of self-administered, third-party certification? Long-time concrete industry participant Ray Hays suggests one main reason why ISO 9000 has yet to take hold in the construction industry: Many consultants and testing agencies that deal with solving our industry's problems for a living would be out of business. If producers and contractors established systems that created defect-free products, who would need the testing? asks Hays. According to Hays, now a retired consultant in Birmingham, Ala., the U.S. construction industry has failed to keep pace with using management techniques that provide the customer with both cost and schedule control. Construction projects are often started without a clear definition of who does what, he says. Hays has the perspective to know. Before retired from Rust Engineering Co., an internationally respected contractor, he had been involved in many projects. While we didn't have the formal approach that an ISO certification offers, Rust was one of the first engineering firms to have a

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quality control division that reported to top management on problems in the field, says Hays. More recently, he has been championing the values of an ISO approach to construction while serving on ACI 121, Quality Management System for Concrete Construction. He believes the requirements of the ISO/ANSI/ASQ 9001: 2000 Standard provide a simple way to manage projects that will cut the rework cost and save time. z z z z z

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