Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
This is a big one. Each service that you perform should also come with a qualitycontrol
check. If you start your business as a one-person operation, you can still check the quality
of your own work on a daily basis. If you've got two computers to service, repair one
of them and set it aside. Repair the second one, and then move back the first. Grab your
quality-control checklist. It should include a series of checkboxes that are designed for your
product to ensure that you checked everything after a repair is done, including functional-
ity, assembly, and cleanliness.
By taking time off from that first repair, when you come back to it, you can give it a fresh
look and maybe find flaws in your workmanship that you didn't see before.
Apply Your Related Work Experience
I first learned about quality control when I was working in the corporate world, managing
a large volume of computer repairs that were being performed by a large number of tech-
nicians. When I stepped into this role, the business did not have a quality-control team,
department, or procedures in place. Like many businesses, I was at the mercy of a budget
and there was no room in it to hire an additional team.
I ran a few reports to see what our warranty rate was at the time, and it was high. I felt that
the warranty rate, also known as the RmA rate (RmA stands for “return materials authoriz-
ation”) could be lowered by implementing a quality-control check on each repair as it was
being completed. As I interviewed the technicians about this, I received a lot of excuses
and whining about the extra work, because I was going to have them perform the quality
check.
In fact, I was going to have each technician perform a quality-control check on a different
assigned technician's repairs. This kept them honest with their work. As it turned out, em-
ployees don't want to be called out by their peers, so the technicians stepped up their game
and really took interest in making sure that each device was properly repaired and ready for
inspection.
This lead to a decrease in RmA rate by over 8 percent, which in turn led to a bigger budget
for me and my department, as well as a bigger profits for the business owner.
Checking your own work by offering a quality control inspection can take some time, but
will pay back hugely in the long run. There's nothing worse than talking to customers,
selling them a repair, performing the repair then delivering it back to them only to find that
you forgot to put the screws in the case. It doesn't build confidence. Take the time to per-
form a quality check (and advertise that you do!) and you'll add to the professionalism of
your business.
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