Press Releases
QUALITY ASSURANCE IS A WAY OF LIFE AT REWARD
Released: September 01, 2002
QUALITY ASSURANCE IS A WAY OF LIFE AT REWARD
Omaha, Nebraska, September 2002-Quality assurance as defined by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary is "a program for the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service, or facility to ensure that standards of quality are being met."
At Reward Wall Systems, Inc., that definition is lived daily. Reward, which has emerged as the leading full-service insulating concrete form (ICF) producer in the country, has the finest and most stringent quality assurance program in the industry. "Any ICF company that has applied for national code approvals is required to have minimal third party quality control and testing," said Director of Engineering and Technical Services Kelvin Doerr, "but we have taken our quality assurance efforts several levels beyond that." Doerr, as well as other Reward officials, have taken great pains to monitor and measure the performance of everything in the production of their ICFs, from raw materials to the machines, molds, and the molding process. To help ensure the high quality of Reward ICFs, the company has cultivated close relationships with both their molders and their raw materials suppliers. In addition to providing manuals and procedures that the molders are expected to follow, Reward holds regular quality control meetings and conference calls with each plant to make sure production is going smoothly.
Reward and its molders are constantly working to make sure every Reward ICF is produced according to specifications and free of flaws. In addition to the third party unannounced quality control audits of the molding facility required by the code agencies, Reward requires its molders to take direct responsibility for quality control. For example, in its Omaha, Nebraska, operation a separate quality assurance person works each eight-hour shift. These in-house inspectors are hand picked and are the most experienced and reliable personnel from each shift. The inspectors pull random samples and check several elements that must be correct in order for the form to pass inspection.
Reward's quality assurance policies have paid off in a big way. Less than one-tenth of one percent of the hundreds of thousands of Reward forms that have been produced nationwide so far this year were found to contain any flaws. In the rare cases where faulty Reward forms reach a customer, the company is quick to follow up and correct the problem. "Every customer complaint must be followed up with a specific course of action developed to reduce or eliminate the possibility of the problem occurring again," said Chief Operating Officer Hank Pfeiffer. "Although we would like for each and every order to be executed to perfection, we know that may not be possible. But we are doing everything in our power to come as close as we can to that goal. "Quality assurance is a key linchpin in the day-to-day execution of our overall business strategy. Developing a highly satisfied, growing customer base depends on a vigorous quality assurance program," he added.
Located in Omaha, Nebraska, for the past 14 years, Reward Wall Systems, Inc. was the first national manufacturer of two complete and diversified lines of insulating concrete forms used in residential and commercial structures. Reward's customers include general contractors, residential contractors, concrete contractors and construction supply distributors.