All too frequently we are made aware of deliveries being made to the wrong site. Sometimes the error is noticed and the load can be re-directed to the correct site or returned, but on too many occasions the Technical department are asked to visit sites where remedial work is required as the material has been installed.

Supplying the wrong mix to site is by far the largest cause of product liability cost to our business in the removal of that material and the placement of the correct material. Removing hardened concrete is extremely expensive and a rough rule of thumb is that it costs £1,000 for every 1m3 of material supplied.

Please always check the customer and delivery address before the load leaves the site and before unloading.

This and other topics are explored in the new Quality Matters alerts from the Technical team.  Mike Higgins, National Technical Manager, commented: “The Quality & Product Technology team holds regular review sessions with the various businesses in the UK to make quality related improvements. Part of the most recent discussions were in relation to training, communicating learning points from issues such as complaints and quality near misses and sharing best practices in relation to product and service quality.

A regular communication containing these items will be circulated, please take time to address the content of each communication, even if it relates to a different business, there may well be points contained which translate across operations. There will also be short training sessions delivered virtually on key quality issues under the Quality Matters banner.”

The first content for the Quality Matters initiative is QuA-1005.  Please take the time to review and ensure the message is understood by relevant teams, there is potential for significant liability and impact to customer satisfaction when material is delivered to the wrong site.  The Quality Matters document can be found in the download section of the UK News website:  Quality Matters (654 downloads)

If anyone has quality related content for the Quality Matters drive please contact Mike, Terry Mulcahy, Chris Clarke or any member of the Quality & Product Technology team.