Have you seen the movie Gravity starring Sandra Bullock and George Cluney? In the film Sandra Bullock plays a medical doctor who is performing a specialized maintenance on a space station when massive amounts of space debris smashes into their shuttle, killing all but two crew members. Sandra's mission suddenly goes from space maintenance to a straight survival operation with ever diminishing resources. Ms Bullock and Mr. Cluney had to improvise with limited resources or die. As home performance contractors we are not facing life or death situations but the movie reminds me of how we are sometimes forced to improvise.
If you have ever retrofitted ductwork, installed a return plenum, or done air barrier work you know what I'm talking about. Maybe you have been doing some install work and you found you were short on materials or worked after hours where your HVAC supply store was closed and had to figure out a way to work with what you have.
Sometimes it's necessary to improvise, and I've been pretty happy with myself and my crew in those situations. Other times though improvising can be prevented with better upstream processes. Maybe your auditors can explore and document better the issues so you aren't caught with your pants down as frequently as before. What would you need to put in your field sheets to make sure every auditor is uncovering those hidden surprises. Do you require that every wye connection is covered, or the duct sizes are documented, or maybe the auditor has a checklist of materials needed, maybe your training needs to include putting your auditor with the crew for three weeks a year. The point is that the better your training and processes are, the better your close rates, installs and customer satisfaction will be.
Let us know what you are working on to make your processes or training better or your even the results you've seen. Good luck and onwards and upwards!
If you have ever retrofitted ductwork, installed a return plenum, or done air barrier work you know what I'm talking about. Maybe you have been doing some install work and you found you were short on materials or worked after hours where your HVAC supply store was closed and had to figure out a way to work with what you have.
Sometimes it's necessary to improvise, and I've been pretty happy with myself and my crew in those situations. Other times though improvising can be prevented with better upstream processes. Maybe your auditors can explore and document better the issues so you aren't caught with your pants down as frequently as before. What would you need to put in your field sheets to make sure every auditor is uncovering those hidden surprises. Do you require that every wye connection is covered, or the duct sizes are documented, or maybe the auditor has a checklist of materials needed, maybe your training needs to include putting your auditor with the crew for three weeks a year. The point is that the better your training and processes are, the better your close rates, installs and customer satisfaction will be.
Let us know what you are working on to make your processes or training better or your even the results you've seen. Good luck and onwards and upwards!
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