Quality and Personal Finance

Almost three weeks ago I started a new role with my company, I'm responsible for the Quality Control and Assurance for the construction of a 5 star hotel and condo. I spend most of my day in the field performing inspections and overseeing the work being installed. Anyway this got me to thinking about how much money is being wasted on the project by subcontractors for taking a few extra minutes to install work correctly the first time. I don't think it for lack of caring that they don't take the few extra minutes because most everyone takes pride in their work, but we are almost 5 months over schedule and every hour, heck every second, on the job is precious especially since in the coming months we'll be going to three shifts and working 24 hours a day.

By not taking the extra few minutes upfront to make sure that the work is by the most recently issued blue print and is aligned etc everyone is having to go back and repair work that's already been installed and often times the repair takes longer than the initial install since most of the time the task must be started over from scratch after removing the first attempt. Plus the added time and cost of the subcontractor's management having to look at the problem I notify them of and then filter it back down to the workers.

Taking the extra time to make sure its right the first time applies to personal finance as well. If we took a few extra minutes to first determine what we really need/want so that we can ensure we're not overbuying or under buying either would led to more expenses. (Under buying because you'd have to re-buy to get what you really need.) After determining what is really needed or wanted we should all take a little extra time to research specifications, reliability, etc before larger purchases. Last put not least if we take a few extra minutes to comparison shop, even as little as calculating unit prices in the grocery store we can all save a few extra pennies.

I try and do all of those to save money. After watching all the money being wasted on the project for not doing everything right the first time I'm further motivated to make sure I don't waste money by not taking the time upfront.