Slowing down the pace of work to put quality over quantity.

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knoppdude

Senior Member
Location
Sacramento,ca
Hi all. I was posed with a question from a message that got me thinking about how I perform electrical work. I went through an apprenticeship that stressed production over all, and if you were fast at install, you stayed employed. I pushed myself to keep production up, and tried to keep the quality of what I was doing at an adequate level. There were times when I had to go back and fix my work though. At this point, I have been trying to train myself to slow down for the sake of reducing mistakes. From planning the job from beginning to end, to using the correct material and methods to the best of my ability. This is one of the things this question has made me strive for. That and trying to make up for my ignorance of business, as well as all of the areas of the electrical trade that I don't know. If I expect to be paid well, I should be expected to install work, no matter how simple, with the goal of ever improving quality. The customer deserves nothing less. This may sound like BS, but I mean it, and would like any feed back on others experience with this balancing act of quality over quantity. I am simply going to focus on improving quality, and expect that the quantity will occur as a byproduct of no rework.
 

__dan

Senior Member
Truthfully, I did not understand the question. The pace of the job is usually determined artifically by external factors and have no link to the pace you would choose to be comfortable with. For example, customer leases, the custormer may have an unrealistic time frame to acquire new space, renovate, vacate the old space, and move due to the leases they signed. The customer may have six weeks to move for a job that would be comfortably (honestly) 3 to 6 months.

The job could go to the better gameplayer, not the faster producer. Start the job and depending on the customer, the customer's schedule and budget could get 'politely ignored '. Or, the schedule could be a hard fact. The schedule could be set by the lease or the financing with no thought given to the construction process.

Securing the work is probaby a factor of the customer being more comfortable with you in sum, not solely to working fast.

You could bid the same job three times in 1.5 years and when the customer decides to move forward it 'has to be done right now'.

Quoting something from apprenticeship was a complete myth, something to be discarded when the underlying premises are tested for value. Certainly, the job has to be done right the first time consistently. The straw boss wants a horse race, for his amusement, not because he has superior knowledge.

An apprentice is a member of the 'great mass of man'. There is a surplus of this great mass of 'warm bodies' relative to demand and so, no pricing power. In economics, removing some of this surplus from the market, for example by faking it and slowing down, can improve pricing power by reducing the surplus relative to demand. The guy who says you have to hurry up because there is no money is clueless. Kick back, watch the job slow down, and the straw boss and the customer will have to spend more money, more bodies, OT, to hit the hard lease target dates. Artificial gameplaying.

Business is ultimately about giving the customer what they want, not about giving what you want them to have. The customer may want fast, hack, omission of quality extras, because that's all they want to pay for. The budget being set artificially with no real thought to the construction process. Or, the customer could be moderately clueless, but have their hands on the king's purse, purchase order book. They may just want you to be quick to schmooze and kiss butt.
 

satcom

Senior Member
We all want to preform quality work, but at what cost? in today's global market place price has taken the lead over quality, I purchased an early amercian hand crafted desk from a top manufacture, and the quality was poor, drawers are hard to open, finish is spotted and poor cover, I discover it was not made in the US they closed all the skilled craft plants that produced quality and now have the furniture produced in some global operation that has reduced costs and makes production a priority over quality.

The real question may be, will anyone be willing to pay the cost of quality?
 

jim dungar

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
PE (Retired) - Power Systems
....operation that has reduced costs and makes production a priority over quality.

The real question may be, will anyone be willing to pay the cost of quality?

When QC becomes quantity control instead of quality control, it makes no difference what country the product is produced in. Unrealistic expectations, usually result in unexpected outcomes.
 

tryinghard

Senior Member
Location
California
...I am simply going to focus on improving quality, and expect that the quantity will occur as a byproduct of no rework.
This is like machine operating you don't want to just move valves for functions something is supposed to get done with the machine. The speed is best to come natural with great timely moves; we should spend our careers watching this.
 

DavidA

Member
Location
Fresno, CA
It's a tough balancing act in a small shop (2+boss). He wants to get in and out to the next job yet with a small crew and only one truck a service call to fix something that wasn't right because it was rushed can really mess up a day.
 

readydave8

re member
Location
Clarkesville, Georgia
Occupation
electrician
The quality of my work tends to determine the kinds of jobs I get, if I rush a job and cut corners it gets me more work for customers that are focused on price, not value, these jobs are more stressful and less profitable. I haven't been consistent over the years but right now I'm shooting for high average, not perfect.
 

Teaspoon

Senior Member
Location
Camden,Tn.
The quality of my work tends to determine the kinds of jobs I get, if I rush a job and cut corners it gets me more work for customers that are focused on price, not value, these jobs are more stressful and less profitable. I haven't been consistent over the years but right now I'm shooting for high average, not perfect.

Haste makes waste. We all have to deal with todays cheap scates.
How much is their first question? Electrical work is very critical to the home owner's safety and well being. We all want to do the best job we can. But customers pushing time tables,make our job stressful.But we need to just take a deep breath,and stay focused on the work at hand.
 

krisinjersey

Senior Member
First step

First step

It's admirable that the OP is taking the time to recognize the value in retraining himself to produce better quality work. That said, the biggest job killer is callbacks and you need to avoid that senario at all costs. Nothing makes you look worse than something being incorrect or failing to work. You need to make effective use of your time and pay attention to accuracy. Presentation is everything and that doesn't always meen the look of the finished product, but more the apperance of the company installing the work. We've all been on jobs where magazine quality pipe racks are constructed and I've heard so many project managers reffer to it as a huge waste of time. That's actually really far from the truth. Producing identical conduit runs take a few more minutes to layout, but alot less time to produce. In many cases the bending is identical and easy to replicate producing a quickly finished and great looking project.
I approached the first contractor I worked for with the choice of quantity or quality. He responded with "Get it done fast and perfect or find somewhere else to work." So the real trick is to be more effective and to build a mental procedure to get work from start to finish. Save time by limiting uneccessary travel trips to the van and to the supply house. Use some forethought and teach the people working with you to stay ahead of your thought process thereby feeding you the material rather than standing next to the ladder waiting to be told what to do. Teach yourself to recognize where you lose time and address it. If you really want to produce at a high level the key isn't to run from one task to the next, it's it's to run one task into the next. Keep thinking about what's next and what you'll need to accomplish that. Take the time to set the work up, and stop and regroup when you realize the train is coming off the tracks, before production grinds to a halt.
We've all got stories of how jobs got held up by some silly overlooked detail. It's run companies out of business, gotten guys hurt, and cost a ton of money.
A fool learns from his own mistakes, a wiseman learns form the mistakes of others.
And in an industry that is currently getting squeezed for every last penny, you need to adjust your mindset to stay competitive, not just cut the price. :)
 

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
I am simply going to focus on improving quality, and expect that the quantity will occur as a byproduct of no rework.

It really depends on what type work you are doing and how many men are working on the job as to how much is time saved by doing higher quality work.

If you are working by yourself or with a helper then you don't want to go back and do any re-work so you need things done right the first time. It just cost to much to have to go back and repair jobs that are supposed to be finished.

On the other hand if it's a large job with a big crew and you can send one man back to take care of problems that are left by the whole crew then it may well be worth it. There is normally a bit of punch out work to do anyway. Normally the pay roll is so high for a large crew the idea is to get the number of men down on the job as soon as possible with the bulk of the work accomplished and any punch out done by a very small crew.
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
If I expect to be paid well, I should be expected to install work, no matter how simple, with the goal of ever improving quality. The customer deserves nothing less.

I am going to be different and say that it depends on the customer.

If the customer has paid for a Kia I am not going to provide a Lexus. That does not mean ignoring the codes and job specifications that but it does mean speed is very important.
 

BJ Conner

Senior Member
Location
97006
Quality

Quality

There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over.

A happy customer will call you back, if's he not happy he can pick anyone out of the phone book and probably get just as good a job.:roll:
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
I am going to be different and say that it depends on the customer.

If the customer has paid for a Kia I am not going to provide a Lexus. That does not mean ignoring the codes and job specifications that but it does mean speed is very important.
So if you have two jobs that are identical electrically. Customer A is el cheapo and will only pay 90% of what Customer B will pay. Why does the electrician have to work faster on the Customer A job??? Seems to be some backwards logic going on here :)))
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
So if you have two jobs that are identical electrically. Customer A is el cheapo and will only pay 90% of what Customer B will pay. Why does the electrician have to work faster on the Customer A job??? Seems to be some backwards logic going on here :)))

You are right, electricians should not have to work hard, money should fall from tress and be handed to them for just looking good.
 

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
There's a saying in racing, "sometimes you have to slow down to go faster". If you're working fast and having to go back and fix it, you're not really accomplishing anything. I'm pretty lucky I guess, I've always been able to work fast and put out quality work and do it without killing myself, but I've also been at it for 35 years. There are also some guys you couldn't get to work fast if you stood over them with a whip.

But I do agree with some of the others, especially right now cost is driving the industry.
 

defears

Senior Member
Location
NJ
For me, it depends on if it gets covered up.
Behind sheetrock, above grid, as the crow flies.
Open means break out the laser level.
But I still pull circuits one at a time just to be safe.
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
I do not believe it is within the prerogative of a tradesman to determine what level of "quality" he should be providing.

That would seem to be the prerogative of the guy footing the bills.

Having said that, if you are working so fast that you are making lots of mistakes, I suggest you slow down enough that you stop making those kinds of mistakes, but understand that no one is perfect and no amount of slowing down will eliminate all mistakes.
 
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