Page 22 - Graypvine August 2021

Quality
with Trey Griffith
Director, Quality
As we look back, our Quality Management
Systems (QMS) has progressed over the years.
Recently, I commented on an audit that was
completed on one of our projects by Paul Lambert,
a Gray Site Manager for more than 30 years. In this
article, I want to dive into the true meaning of Quality
and the impact it has not only on our projects, but
on our lives.
Rewind the clock back to Kentucky Eagle where
22 fresh-out-of-college Josh Murtaugh was an onsite
intern and Paul was the Site Manager. Paul was not
fully up to speed when it came to computers and
gadgets – mainly our new iPads – and Josh needed
to learn what happens on a jobsite. Paul was
mentoring Josh on building the project while Josh
was mentoring Paul on audits and email. Together,
this team created a very successful project and great
team execution.
Fast forward to my recent comments on the
Quality audit and Paul’s reply. I was simply thanking
him for his use of the system, and he said, “Thanks
for noticing, Trey! I have the opportunity to put in
audits each day, and I feel like we need to record
work that goes on each day, but you can’t get this
many audits if you are in full charge of the job. Here
at Purina, I have time to look at work that is going
in and get an audit. I have completed over 70 jobs
in the 33 years I have been with Gray and have
mentored many young folks and tried to get them to
put in audits. I am just showing what you could do if
you were assigned to contractors.”
Well said, Paul! This brings me to the point that I
have made several times before. As a site team, if
we assign our scopes of work to an individual team
member, it will allow us the time to understand the
work that is going into place and ensure it is going
in correctly.
This reminds me of another conversation I had
with a Senior Project Manager who will remain
“As a site team, if we
assign our scopes of work
to an individual team
member, it will allow us
the time to understand
the work that is going
into place, and ensure it is
going in correctly.”
anonymous for now. He pushed us to try to be more
proactive, stating that inspections were reactive
every time. Well, he was right! That’s right, R.E,
and thanks for the mentoring and push back. The
inspection phase of quality is a checkpoint, and
any outcomes would result in re-work, which is
the definition of being reactive. The pro-active side
to this is educating and understanding the work
before it goes in place to ensure it will meet the
intended need. This is the point we are all trying
to make -- to prevent rework, we are required to
fully understand the work before it starts to take
place. We do this through owning scopes of work,
and through mentoring each other to understand
the work just as Paul and R.E. have done for well
over 30 years. Please take the time to look at your
jobsite structure and make sure that everyone on
your team understands what their scopes are. If
you’re on the team, you owe it to your leaders to
let them know if you don’t understand your scopes.
You're responsible for a scope of work, so it’s your
responsibility to read the specifications, and to
understand your submittals and drawings. Know
before you go!