Quality & The Fork in the Road

Hello again! Welcome to this 15th edition of Connected Concrete, where I like to pass on industry best practices for managing manufacturing companies. The principles apply universally but, since our company is dedicated to serving precast concrete manufacturers, I focus there.

Before I start, I want to thank all who have subscribed. I've noticed a steady increase in subscriptions since I started writing this four months ago. This is humbling and I truly appreciate your interest. If you have any suggestions or comments, please provide them so I can serve you better!

As I mentioned in last week's edition, today I am taking a slight break from relating what I've learned in my experience to present what we have been told directly by the precast concrete industry itself.

About a month ago we surveyed over 50 companies to understand what is most important to them and what is holding them back.

You will not be surprised to know that "quality" is top-of-mind for the precast industry, as it has historically been one of the industry's defining characteristics.

However, what intrigues me is the undercurrent in the responses that portends an upcoming fork in the road for the precast industry.

I will get into this after a quick review of the numbers:

What's the buzz? Tell me what's a-happening.

It makes perfect sense that more than a super-majority of respondents reported that "quality" and "company reputation" are the two most important attributes for which their companies want to be recognized. These are intertwined (product quality is the first determinant of reputation, after all).

The second chart reports "quality" as the number one competitive advantage, so respondents indicated that their primary strength is correlated with the attribute that they want to best define the market's view of their company.

It is also not surprising that "service" ranks number three in competitive advantage and also ranks as number three in the priority of how their companies are viewed in the market.

Both of the correlations described above are to be expected. It is human nature to create a mental equilibrium between what we are good at and how important we make that to our sense of self (in this case, our view of our company).

Following that same logic, the results would suggest that "efficiency/speed" (number two in the competitive advantage chart) is an important component of "company reputation" (number two of the top three characteristics for which they want their company to be known; first chart).

Of course, there are many other factors that combine to produce "company reputation" but, on the other hand, efficiency and speed are especially important in the construction industry where there are so many activities that need to work together to avoid delays.

Finally, it is no surprise to anyone that "labor" is, by far, the factor that frustrates the industry. Over 40% of respondents reported some version of labor issues, more than twice the percentage given to any other question. Specific answers referred to the labor shortage, lack of skills and work ethic. Given the importance of "quality" and "efficiency/speed" to a company's reputation, these issues strike at the heart.

So, in summary, the precast industry wants very much to retain its historic differentiators of quality and efficiency but it is being handicapped by labor issues.

What is an industry to do?

It's obvious. The industry needs to find an alternative to its historic dependence on labor to sustain its competitive advantage in both quality and efficiency. After all, these are the bedrock characteristics upon which the industry prides itself and trade organizations like the National Precast Concrete Association and Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute promote precast to the construction industry.

How?

The precast industry needs to embrace technology. There are many technology solutions that can help with this, including automated manufacturing solutions by Afinitas , automated solutions for collecting sample data by ForneyVault, automated collection of concrete maturity data by Sensytec , and our Idencia, Inc. data tracking system that automates reporting and analytics. These are just a few and more are coming to market every day.

Can you offer any help in sorting it all out?

Yes.

At Idencia, we view ourselves as solution providers, not purveyors of software. If you want some pointers on the solutions mentioned above or others, please feel free to DM me or reply in the comments.

We undertook the survey to learn more from the precast industry so that we can continue to evolve our system in a way that addresses its needs.

As an example of how we will respond to the industry's priorities of quality and efficiency, we will be offering a dashboard that allows QC managers to proactively analyze potential problems before they materialize. Something like this:

Where does all of this leave us?

The precast industry is at a junction in time.. a fork in the road... that requires a fundamental decision. A decision whether to continue acting in the old ways or to create new habits that will sustain its historic ideals of quality, efficiency and service.

Which will your company choose?

Next up, tying the 5 Principles of Lean together.

In the next edition, I will circle back to my discussion about Lean practices. I've focused on each of the 5 Principles of Lean in prior posts. Next time I'll wrap them up in a pretty bow!

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend everybody!

Jeff