Total Quality Control

The Employees at Belmont Brokerage & Management, Inc. believe in the principals of Quality Control. Following these principals on a consistent basis insures we provide the professionalism required to manage our client’s properties—

THIS IS WHAT WE BELIEVE:

The Customer is King
In today’s buyer’s market, the customer is king. What your customer wants is value. Value. That’s a key word. It stands for quality and reliability at a reasonable price. In the competitive market it is imperative that each employee understands the importance of the customer.

Customers are:

  • The most important people in any business
  • Not dependent on us. We are dependent on them.
  • Not an interruption of our work. They are the purpose of it.
  • Doing us a favor when they come in. We are not doing them a favor by servicing them.
  • A part or our business, not outsiders.
  • Not just a statistic. They are flesh-and-blood human beings with feelings and emotions, like ourselves.
  • People who come to us with their needs and wants. It is our job to fill them.
  • Deserving of the most courteous and attentive treatment we can give them.
  • The lifeblood of this and every other business. Without them we would have to close our doors.

Good Enough is not Good Enough:

  • We can no longer live with the defect levels we have accepted in the past.
  • Our company needs to make fewer errors and permit fewer defect.
  • Poor training of employees, inferior supervision, and one-way communication must be corrected.
  • It is time to stop mediocre performance as acceptable and even as “exceeds expectations” at times.
  • One of the very best ways to improve is through improving the excellence of everything we do.

The Improvement Process:

  • When we stop improving, we start to slip backward.
  • We can not say to ourselves: “I’ve always done it this way and it worked, so it must be good enough.”
  • Many companies are content with getting by when they should be getting better. Unfortunately, when employees are content, they stop improving.
  • The improvement process is a group of activities that complement each other and provide an environment conductive to improving performance for employees and management alike.

Who are our Customers?

  • Tenants
  • Owners

Most repetitive activities can be considered processes and controlled much

What is Process Management?

  • Most repetitive activities can be considered processes and controlled much the same way as manufacturing processes are controlled.
  • To help bring this concept into focus, Process is defined as:
  • “A series of activities that takes an input, adds value to it, and produces an output.”
  • A System is defined as:
  • “The controls that are applied to a process to insure that the process is operating efficiently and effectively.”

Four Phases to the Business Process Improvement:

  1. Definition and Documentation
  2. Analysis
  3. Assessment
  4. Continuous Process Improvement

Phase I: Definition and Documentation

  • Develop a flow diagram of the process.
  • Establish measurement points and feedback loops.
  • Qualify the process
  • Develop and implement improvement plans
  • Report efficiency, effectiveness, and change status

Measurement Points and Feedback Loops

  • After the flowchart is complete, determine the measurement points and feedback loops. Without measurement of the activity, you cannot improve it.
  • Three types of measurements in the process:
  • Effectiveness-How well the process output meets customer expectations.
  • Efficiency—-The way resources, including time, are used to provide output that meets or exceeds customer expectations.
  • Adaptability-The ability of the business process to rapidly change or meet an individual, customer, or business need to stay ahead of the changing business environment.

Phase II: Analysis

Some of the items that should be looked at during the analysis phase are discussed below:

  • Eliminate No-Value-Added activities (Bureaucracy)
  • Self-inspection versus appraisal
  • More than one signature
  • Writing the same thing twice
  • Unnecessary delays
  • Redundant tasks
  • Simplification
  • Combine similar activities
  • Reduce amount of handling
  • Eliminate unused data
  • Clarify forms
  • Office layout
  • Report layout
  • Use simple English

Reduces processing time (look at activities that have long time delays).

  • Change activity sequence
  • Eliminate wait time
  • Reduce interruption
  • Improved timing (when employee receives input)
  • Reduce output movement
  • Set proper priorities

Computerization/mechanization

  • Can repetitive, boring activities be automated?
  • Which activities can be mechanized or computerized?
  • Should the data be handled in a batch or on-line mode?
  • Does the employee have the best work layout to accomplish the tasks? (Never start the process improvement activities with computerization or mechanization).

Phase III: Assessment

  • Evaluate the process and classify it into one of six categories:
  • Unkown-Process status has not been determined
  • Understood-process design is understood and operating to its prescribed documentation
  • Effective-Process is systematically measured, streamlining has started, and end customer expectations are met.
  • Efficient-Process is streamlined and is more efficient
  • Error Free-Process is highly effective (error free) and efficient.
  • World Class-Process is world class and continuing to improve.

Phase IV: Continuos Process Improvement

The continuous process improvement phase is simplicity itself: Keep doing what your are doing and when everything is going the way it should, withdraw something–pull something out and start over.

Define the Processes

  • Tenant Application Process:
  • Apartment Rehab
  • Rent Collections
  • Accounts Payable
  • Tenant Repairs
  • Building Ongoing Supervision and Maintenance