The (Q) A-Team
QUALITY CONTROL 14
Rebecca Guardino, Tilcon New Jersey’s quality control manager, says that a team approach to quality is the key to its success.
The
Operations, sales, and quality control should work together to achieve the consistent quality customers want.
by Therese Dunphy, Editor-in-Chief
hen it comes to ensuring not only the production, but delivery of a quality product, it’s important to have strong communication across the board. “Especially in the current economic climate, I think having a team environment between your quality control and operations is absolutely critical,” says Rebecca Guardino, quality control manager of Tilcon New Jersey. “It’s a competitive environment, and it’s important that customers have confidence in the quality of your products.” Over the last decade, quality control has evolved into a team effort at Tilcon. Guardino says that — after safety — quality control is considered the most important element of daily operations. “There are so many people in the production process that everyone needs to be quality minded,” Guardino says, ex-
plaining that while the quality control technician is responsible for testing and evaluating materials and comparing it to the specifications, everyone from the plant manager to the loader operator should understand how they impact product quality. “You can produce a product in spec and under the belt ready for your customer. Through handling it or loading it out, you can easily segregate a pile or create material that is not representative of that product,” Guardino says. “Everyone needs to be educated on how they can affect the end result.”
Getting a new perspective
At Tilcon New Jersey, the company has invested in training the whole team. The production team is educated about the quality side of the process and,