Save Time and Money by Adopting Craftsmanship Operating Procedures
Standards are a necessity in any business. In order to operate smoothly and efficiently, a task should have a methodology and completion timeframe. Let’s say you are managing a painting crew of ten employees. You give each of them a brush and a door to paint. In a successful business, ten workers plus ten brushes plus ten doors should equal a consistent level of quality and productivity. How confident are you that your employees will achieve this for you? You can have peace of mind by setting standards that prepare your painters to achieve quality results every time. With a small procedural investment, your business will save time and money – and your response to that question can be a resounding “Very Confident!”
The PDCA Craftsmanship Forum is on a mission to provide training standards. According to Mario Guertin, president at Painting in Partnership, Inc., “There is no standardized training in the open-shop environment. A person may do that door in 20 minutes, another person 45 minutes. You may have a person who is adept and precise who takes 25 minutes to do the door, and you may have a person who takes 45 minutes – but the door needs to be redone because it’s not adequate. This has huge consequences and costs the contractor a lot of money, time and effort.”Guertin suggests that these inconsistencies can tarnish the reputation of the business. “It undermines the brand,” he says. He believes the PDCA’s Craftsmanship Operating Procedures (COPs) is the solution to this problem.
COPs were developed by the PDCA Craftsmanship Forum to serve as standards to increase productivity, reduce mistakes and improve quality. The PDCA offers an interior and exterior series available to PDCA members and nonmembers, and they have sold 160 series in 4 years.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have training in place for new-hires?
Toby Kitchens, sales representative at Lancaster Painting, can attest to the procedures’ effectiveness. “We have a standard for training now. We’ve had a good success rate,” says Kitchens. As a project leader and manager of a thirteen member painting crew at the time of implementation, he headed up the training committee at Lancaster. Kitchens singsCOPs’ praises, “It’s really successful at the apprentice level. They (the apprentices) get out of the van and know exactly where to start. It’s an organized, fluid training.” Guertin felt the same new-hire pain and wanted to address it. “If you hire a person, what do you have in place to make this person a contributing member of the team quickly?” Guertin is certain these procedures will help contractors avoid “a lot of hands-on correction.”
Challenges
Like all undertakings, no implementation goes on as smooth as a fresh coat of paint – so we must address the challenges.Guertin acknowledges that implementation can be challenging. He knows from experience that it takes a commitment but is fully confident in the fruits of that labor. He recommends the free implementation tools offered by the PDCA, which are available at http://www.pdcacraftsmanshipforum.com/COPs.php. A training guide and checklist are provided, as well as forms for employee training and session attendance records. A scoring system and open and closed book tests are also available.
Guertin suggests organizations ask themselves a few questions to determine how the COPs can be most useful to them:
- Will this be required training?
- If so, will workers be paid to complete the program?
- Will there be completion Rewards?
- Will you conduct this training in the field or in the classroom?
The best part is that any answer to these questions is correct. The program is customizable, and these questions can help you decide how to address your organizational needs. Kitchens modified the “verbal testing” portion of the COPs to what he calls “participation level.” “We wanted to see the guys interjecting, having discussions about it. If they aren’t participating, they notice their score goes down,” says Kitchens. He admits that the biggest challenge was getting the veteran employees to buy into the program, but he insists “they came around.” Lancaster offered incentives like free t-shirts, but Kitchens made sure the procedures were standard by tapping the source of any hard worker’s motivation – money. “If the training book is not completed, we don’t give raises out,” said Kitchens.
COPs are now available in printed and digital form, but the PDCA has plans for a video version, which Kitchens would love to see happen. He has considered recording one of Lancaster’s own training sessions. He believes it would be beneficial to his organization and hopes it could help others. The PDCA is also planning to present the program in languages other than English. Kitchens says versions in Spanish and Arabic would be very beneficial.
For more information and pricing on COPs, please visit www.pdcacraftsmanshipforum.com.
