Best practice is always the best option

Lancashire Trade Frames General Manager Gavin Stoddard tells us why best practice principles are the best thing for a crisis.

I don’t believe there’s a business in the construction industry that hasn’t faced serious challenges in the past two years. We have seen a perfect storm of problems: labour shortages, snarled up supply chains. rising prices and rocketing demand. What’s more, we don’t yet know when this storm will blow out. Many organisations are still engaged in daily firefighting.

It might seem strange therefore that amidst all the new challenges we face, I remain a huge fan of keeping going with the basic principles of best practice. When research and experience show us the most effective way to do something, we should adopt it. The trick is to make that work when we don’t have certainty.

Best practice for testing times

For example, just-in-time principles make perfect sense when you have confidence in your supply chain. But when you don’t, and your supplier is facing similar issues to yours, a more flexible approach is required. It’s not about ditching just in time and throwing caution to the wind on stockholding, it’s about finding the best answer for the situation you’re in.

Some best practices principles become even more important at times like this. Take preventive maintenance. When chances of getting hold of a specialist engineer are slim and spares are hard to come by, taking steps to avoid machinery breakdown is a sensible strategy. Similarly with shortages of skilled workers and the chance of another ‘pingdemic,’ supporting your existing staff shouldn’t be ignored. Training, apprenticeships, performance reviews and genuine two-way conversations all need to continue.

As well as the diverse range of day-to-day best practice subjects, there are big decisions that businesses need to make: the timing of investments, adoption of automation, implementation of new technology, changed routes to market. It isn’t possible to achieve long term success without considering the strategic issues. In March 2020, many organisations put their plans on ice. Those that didn’t are the ones most able to respond to the challenges they face today.

Getting on with it

It’s not easy to summarise how we’re managing this new business climate at Lancashire Trade Frames, but I’m giving it a go. It’s a mix of three elements:

• Awareness of the issues
• Flexibility
• Swift, sound decision making.

That last one is key. There’s a time and a place for postponing decisions, but there comes a time when that tactic results in paralysis.

As an example, with demand at unprecedented levels, it could be argued that we did not need to pursue further accreditations in 2022. But we did, fully aware of the demands this would place on us. That’s because the move was in alignment with our best practice principles around Quality Management, standards and compliance. It was part of our ongoing commitment to meeting ever higher standards in fenestration. We were delighted to achieve the Gold CMS Mark, the highest level that CENSolutions awards. That this award demands bi-annual auditing, and annual testing as required by key specifiers, including the NHBC and Secured by Design is more evidence of our long-term commitment to excellence.

Sticking with the subject of best practice, working to achieve this award paid dividends on the continuous improvement front. The detailed inspection provided many insights which we’ve now adopted.

There are several initiatives now in place within Lancs Trade: from Health and Safety actions to repurposing idle equipment, from the passing on of consumer leads to enhanced communication. All are the direct or indirect consequences of choosing to adopt best practice.

Can best practice deliver?

As a concept, best practice is simple. Much of it is common sense, but it has become heavily associated with mystical sounding business techniques, many with Japanese names or expensive routes to become ‘official’ practitioners. But if you go back to the why of your business, those best practice principles shouldn’t need to be justified. They should ultimately direct a business to the delivery of customer satisfaction.

The question then is whether these best practice principles are adequate. After a year when customers across the entire construction sector have experienced frustration, delay, rising prices, restricted choice, it would be easy to say they are not. But I would argue that when maintained they have done much to alleviate the impact of Covid 19 on our operation. Furthermore, by continuing to use these tools and methods, I believe we will move on from this disruption more rapidly. We will be in a stronger position to build a resilient, high quality, business able to stand proud in the construction sector.

Contact Lancashire Trade Frames here.