Producers Often Lean On “Quality Control” To Gain Sales Advantages

Ready Mix and Aggregates producers love to tout their “Quality Control”.  Sometimes they talk about their QC Department, or their QC Personnel.  Often the talk is about their focus on making sure that the product that is delivered to the customer is “in spec” and will meet all design requirements for content and performance.  They point to the past “performance” of their mixes or the consistent gradations of aggregates delivered.  “Customer X took the low bid and started with the competition but came to us after they rejected four loads in a row in the middle of a pour and ended up with a cold joint. We finished the project and delivered 1500 CuYds. all in spec”.

On the surface, that sounds like a solid foundation for building a sale, and in fact, it is a part of the foundation.  But before we continue to build our organization on a partial foundation, let’s take a look at a few other things.

What Did The Customer Want To Hear When You Promised QC?

• Your dispatch department will answer the phone without making me wait forever or putting me on hold.
• I’ll be able to place my order and get delivery on time, every time, no matter what the volume is.
• All of your people are the “best at what they do”.
• All of your constituents are in specification, in inventory and handled correctly.
• Your plant is well maintained and there is not a chance it’ll go down.
• Your company has plenty of trucks to deliver my order no matter who else they have on the books.
• All the drivers are going to be able dump their loads and then get out of my way without me babysitting them.
• My crew won’t be held up waiting on the first truck / last truck / clean up or while a load is replaced.
• I don’t have to worry about low slump, high slump, low air, high air, sticky paste, a rocky mix, early set, delayed set, strength issues, and certainly no gradation problems with crushed screened materials.
• The tickets will all be priced correctly, delivered in sequence and contain information that lets me compute the yield or total the tonnage so I can prove I was shorted.
• When I get the invoice from accounting everything will be correct so I don’t have to spend my time on the phone arguing.

Yes, all that from one statement!  Is it any wonder that your “Quality Control Department” is under staffed, over-tasked and can’t always meet the expectations of your customer?

So What Is Quality Control Really?

True quality control in the view of the customer is the assurance of the consistent performance of every process and system in your organization every time. Anything less and you have failed to meet their expectations.

 Check Back For Our Next Installment On “Creating a Quality Management System“