American Standard’s Mission:
To emphasize the high degree of importance placed on product quality, a weekly telephone conference to discuss any acknowledged product quality issues is held. Started in 1994, under the leadership of Craig Kissel (then Group Business Leader) and continuing like clockwork today under Dave Pannier's direction (current UPG Group Business Leader), this process provides our customers with a durable, reliable and efficient product that they can trust without any reservation. Says Pannier, "while business leadership may change, we're holding fast to the fundamental business asset on which all our success is built - to deliver the best in the business product quality. In fact, we don't so much measure ourselves against competitive quality levels as we do against our customers' expectations. Our customers are the ultimate (and more severe) judge of how we're doing."
Pannier gathers plant managers, product support team members, engineers, field service representatives, and other members of management for a discussion about quality. He says, "We also occasionally have a customer join our weekly calls to reinforce who we're doing this for. Direct customer input also eliminates any 'filtering' that may occur between real field experience and how we're progressing toward our quality metrics. There are enough business variables at play today that could allow us to lose focus on why our customers prefer to do business with us. We can't afford to trade quality for any other measurement."
Is it working? "Absolutely. The leaders of our business spend time on issues of quality on a weekly basis," he says. "This builds a discipline, and leads to specific results. What is most encouraging, however, is not the improvements we see in terms of internal measurement systems. It's the genuine positive feedback we're receiving from our technical support people working in the field and from our dealers as well as end-user customers. When our customer notices and compliments us, we know we're doing something right."
And, that's where it all starts. From the manufacturer to the distributor and on to the dealer, American Standard's chain of quality extends all the way to the homeowner. It's a heritage built on quality, reliability and efficiency - and on a solutions-oriented work ethic that has helped American Standard blaze a trail far ahead of the competition.
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