Gerry: I feel terrible saying this...but there’s not a whole lot we do differently than any other builder in this market.
And thus begins our quality of construction series. I’m sitting in our future Parade home at Holly Glen with Gerry and Dan and I’m trying to coach them thru how to blog, why we should blog and getting them to think about the quality of our construction.
I pounce on Gerry like he's just solved one of the world's greatest mysteries, 'that's exactly how we should start the quality series!'
Gerry is perplexed, 'why would you write that down?'
I was not perplexed, 'because it's true, it's not just about our materials...quality of construction is about more than just the parts you put together so tell me why we still do it better, all other things being equal.'
Dan jumps in now...'building a house is 100% management...individual superintendent management. The coordination of the trades is critical...if your subcontractors aren’t able to get ahold of somebody or the house isn’t ready or the house isn’t open for them to do their work then that trade is gonna be unhappy and be less likely to do a good job.'
Gerry is in complete agreement, 'it doesn't matter how good your materials are if your people that are putting them together don't do a good job. Good management leads to good quality built houses.'
I can tell Gerry's on a roll now...'Our field managers have a policy...every room, every house, everyday.'
This is a new policy to me and I'm excited about it because I know this is the stuff that infuses quality into our homes from start to finish. This is the stuff that makes us different. I know it might seem like a really basic concept but I also know there are very few builders out there committing to a policy like this. Why? Because it takes a lot of time and a lot of discipline. But, it's one of those things that just makes sense-how can you manage or maintain a high quality construction process if you're not in every room of every house everyday? You just can't. At least not as well.
I look up at my two new bloggers and announce, 'cool, that's an entry. I love that policy.'
Dan & Gerry are surprised, 'really that's all you need?'
I assure them, 'yep. that's a great start.'
They're happy. Both are inherently task driven and marking this first entry off their list was important to them. Stay tuned for more from these guys...before you know it they'll be blogging on their own...unprovoked. Maybe. We'll see.
