Q&A: Director of Quality Robert Achilles

As Sellen’s Director of Quality, Robert Achilles leads our quality management program to ensure we continuously improve our processes and deliver the best value for our clients. Robert joined the company in 2015 with a singular goal: to build a best-in-class quality program at Sellen. He and his team have made significant strides over the last seven years, resulting in a robust, data-driven quality culture at Sellen where everyone – no matter their title – plays a role in delivering quality.

Robert was recently promoted to vice president and joined the Construction Quality Executives Council (CQEC), a national peer group committed to sharing best practices to advance quality programs. We asked Robert a few questions about his work, the growing importance of quality in our industry, and his advice for others interested in building quality programs.

You often say that quality is everyone’s responsibility. How have you been able to build that culture at Sellen over the last seven years?

It really comes down to three principles: people, processes, and verifiable results. We trained our people, clearly communicated our quality message, and received buy-in from team members during the  planning and execution of the work. We established consistent processes that work for Sellen across all job sites and work groups, and we showed people how their participation in the program is integral to its success. Once the program was up and running, we shared the data we collected along the way to verify performance and identify opportunities to continuously improve.

A big part of shifting the culture has been talking with our teams and reminding them that nobody is perfect. We have incredibly talented craftspeople here, but at the end of the day, we’re human and we’re going to make mistakes. The key is making sure we don’t make the same mistake again and sharing the lessons we learn along the way with all of our project teams and work groups.

How is quality changing in the construction industry?

Quality used to have a reputation for being purely reactionary -- we would build a new space, catch an issue during the punchlist process, and make corrections after the fact. Today, the best way to succeed is through a proactive approach where you can anticipate challenges before they show up in the field.

The spaces we build are becoming increasingly complex and, in some cases, the materials we use to build them behave quite differently than what we have used for decades. As a result, it’s becoming more difficult to consistently achieve quality in the field – especially if you don’t have a verifiable program in place. We collect a ton of data from every project, which allows us to spotlight challenges that we are likely to see again in the future and mitigate them before they show up in the field.

There’s also a lot of attrition in our industry right now, so we’ve had to mentor and train people for new roles. It’s more important than ever to have a set of well-defined processes in place so that everyone is working off the same playbook and, when staffing does change, you can get new personnel up to speed quickly.

Pictured above: Sellen's quality program is supported by vast quantities of data collected across every job site. Using visualization tools like Power BI, pictured here, Sellen's team can quickly identify consistent challenges, ongoing trends, and opportunities for improvement. Data integration is an essential element to continuous improvement.

What’s the biggest misconception about quality in construction?

One of the earned misconceptions about our work is that the word “quality” must appear in your title for you to have some ownership of quality delivery. When I started at Sellen, there was this idea that the quality process was managed and executed solely by the quality team, and I know that mentality was prevalent throughout the industry. We have really turned it around today and made quality – much like safety – something that we are all striving for collectively. When people see value in the quality program and understand how they fit in implementing it, they keep reaching out for more and more resources.

You have spoken at some national conferences over the last few months and recently joined the Construction Quality Executives Council (CQEC). How do those conversations with your peers around the country help push the industry forward?

Those conversations connect us with people who have common goals: to share knowledge, evaluate where we are, and build a plan to get better. We talk through common challenges we’re experiencing and discuss solutions to help others achieve success. It goes beyond working with construction professionals – we’re talking to people from design firms and insurance companies to look at quality from multiple perspectives.

Pictured above: Robert and members of his quality staff, including Quality Control Manager Lily Iftner, have spoken at local and national conferences about quality in construction to share lessons learned and identify opportunities to improve.

What’s your advice for others looking to improve the quality program at their firm?

You need to have a clear understanding of your organization to determine what’s going to work. There are a number of different management models you can choose from – ours, for example, is a combination of two or three different quality management models. We needed a little of this, a little of that, and some of Sellen’s existing processes to build the model we’re using today. You have to find the right mix that works for your company.

The other thing I would say is that setbacks are going to occur and that progression may not be as clean and linear as you anticipate. For us, the most significant challenge ended up turning into our biggest success. My vision was a companywide commitment to quality that everyone owned, driven by a relatively small team of dedicated quality staff. We succeeded, but it took a lot of time and effort to build the momentum we needed to turn the corner. My advice is to keep pushing, provide your team with the communication tools and processes they need, and show people how their participation in the program can make a real, tangible difference in the finished product.  

Visit www.sellen.com to learn more about our people, our projects, and our purpose.