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Archives
 November 1999 Issue
Features
The Build: Quality: Get It Right The First Time
Effective Project Management Means Not Having to Say You're Sorry
By Randy Evans and David Wallace
Anyone who's ever built or fixed something knows the saying, "There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over." Doing it over is fine if you're fixing a lawn mower, but it's considerably less fine when the job at hand involves miles of cable plant. It pays to plan for quality up front.
In rebuilds and upgrades today, a critical component of total quality management (TQM) is providing a structured management process to ensure that all customers are satisfied with the materials and services provided. Quality must be designed, engineered and defined in the overall process long before the project starts. Reducing deficiencies means that fewer resources go to inspecting, repairing, replacing or doing work over again. Thus, proper planning directly improves quality and productivity.
Plan schedules in advance
A strategic component of TQM is work scheduling. Resource allocation by the multiple systems operator (MSO), utilities and owners of multiple dwelling units (MDUs) is critical to timely completion of a rebuild. Early in the process, all parties must define quality and schedule requirements. Partnering, involving all parties prior to the definition and development of design quality criteria, will reduce costs from design and schedule changes after the rebuild process has started.
Mergers can derail quality
We all hear this familiar comment: "My company was sold, and I don't know what the new company will expect of me." How does employee churn effect quality?
Rapid changes in the cable industry have disrupted standard quality definition practices. "Merger mania" and shrinking middle management staffs have created a vacuum in planning, QC and cost reporting.
Successful projects involve numerous interdependent resources. Because of high turnover in project management personnel, quality definition increasingly occurs during and after contract negotiations instead of up front, where it belongs. As a result, MSO and contractor requirements are not integrated, and costs escalate.
Downsizing, merging and employee turnover all have reduced the probability that corporate culture will automatically produce proper quality definitions. Despite this, the MSO stills needs to define quality objectives. Establishing the quality benchmark becomes even more critical as completion times shorten, material lead times lengthen and engineering resources dwindle.
Team integration and Partnering
The control process is a partnership between the cable operator, all suppliers and the general contractor. This flow defines:
- Communications, transmittal forms, approvals and so on
- Design, bill of materials (BOM), material releases
- Reports, variances for budget, schedule and so on
- Acceptance, QC, daily reports, testing, invoices
- Verification of capabilities and understanding by all trades personnel on the construction process
Developing integrated commitments for all contracted parties prior to the approval of materials and contracts reduces project startup costs for training, lost time for approvals, defines the flow of materials for the duration of the project, and reduces the cost of project administration.
Integration and partnering in the field include the relationships between MSO field QC, engineering documents and the rebuild contractor. This process includes defining working field relationships, their reporting requirements and the approval processes. All parties must understand that the time required for each item is critical to the working relationship.
An example of timing agreements would be a jointly developed material issue schedule for nodes, which commits the MSO to deliver complete material packages: all the electronics, taps, passives, hardline, connectors and so on needed to build the node. The contractor in turn must provide sufficient advance notice for materials. Overall integrated planning should have a total material node package sequence so that the right materials are delivered at the right time in relation to the project's progress.
The material suppliers, MSO and contractor need to agree upon the material flow requirement in conjunction with the build rate schedule. Any change in material lead times or BOM changes affects the timing of everything that follows, so any scheduling changes require adjustments to the rest of the schedule to keep materials deliveries in sync with the actual progress of the project. These relationships need to be written into the rebuild construction procedures manual, with the sequences and schedules attached, to serve as the basis for communication, reporting and conflict resolution on the project.
Total cost analysis
"Total cost" is the sum of all costs, regardless of which department or firm incurs them. The integrated team approach often can prevent errors early. If work is not completed according to the process, a total cost analysis can be applied to the cause of the work holdup. The mechanism for this analysis ought to be predetermined and could include labor costs and lost opportunity for profit. All parties need to sign on and be accountable.
Don't forget PR
Public relations (PR) for an MSO include relationships with employees, utilities, customers, governmental units and franchise areas. Predefining the sequence for work, scheduling, scope of MDU upgrades, timing of upgrades, and requirements for rights of way and pole make-ready simplifies the project for everyone. The sequence for notification of work, and knowing who will handle customer calls, also should be written into the rebuild procedure manuals. Early discussions will greatly reduce PR worries.
Outsourcing options
MSOs are starting to follow other industries by using outsourced planners and project managers. It represents a low-cost and responsive alternative to hiring long-term, mid-level employees to plan and implement rebuilds.
Outsourced personnel can be charged to capital on the project, rather than operations. Such personnel have a single focus, can devote 100 percent of their time to a project, and are off the payroll as soon as the project is complete.
The industry takes two approaches to outsourcing: one for original planning and staff integration, and another for project management, often provided by the contractor. Planners working for the MSO ensure that the MSO's quality and timing needs are met. Because they are part of the corporate team, they provide cross-training for operations personnel who will run the system when the project is done.
The point
Early involvement of all parties will reduce the cost and increase the quality of any project. If everyone involved knows what the other parties need, all can work together to satisfy those needs.
Total Quality Management Tactics
As you implement the total quality management philosophy into your upgrade process, be sure to keep the following tips in mind.
- The desired quality level starts with the customer and works backward to the operator.
- Quality planning defines the quality metrics. This provides the structured process for internal and external customers.
- Quality objectives must be attainable. Keep goals simple, visible and easily understood.
- Goals must be specific to each task associated with all processes.
- Quality assurance maintains the quality control (QC) process from the quality planning phase.
- Reporting from the quality assurance phase improves quality.
- Failure analysis reports deficiencies for continuing improvement.
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Bottom Line: Maintain Quality In a Tough Environment
As rebuild and upgrade activities shift into overdrive, maintaining quality control (QC) can be difficult. A critical component of total quality management (TQM) is providing a structured management process to ensure that all customers are satisfied with the materials and services to be provided.
Quality must be designed, engineered and defined long before the project starts. Reducing deficiencies means that fewer resources are employed inspecting, repairing, replacing or doing work over. If you improve quality by reducing deficiencies, fewer resources are required, and quality and productivity improve.
A strategic component of TQM is work scheduling. Resource allocation by the multiple systems operator (MSO), the utilities and owners of multiple dwelling units (MDUs) is critical to the timely completion of a rebuild. Early in process, all parties must define quality and schedule requirements.
To streamline your rebuild activities, consider using outsourced personnel. Outsourced project managers can spend 100 percent of their time on your project, and are off the payroll as soon as the project is complete.
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Randy Evans is a rebuild project manager for Harron Communications. He may be reached via e-mail at . David Wallace, P.E., MBA, is president of Benchmark Engineering Group Inc. He may be reached via e-mail at .
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