NEWS
Bob Schmitt Homes becomes NHQ Certified
PRESS RELEASE
Bob Schmitt Homes becomes NHQ Certified
June 7, 2007
North Ridgeville, Ohio
Bob Schmitt Homes, Inc. a Cleveland-area custom homebuilder for over 60 years, is the first Ohio-based NHQ certified builder. To be NHQ certified holds great importance for a builder. However, most of us are unfamiliar with its meaning and benefits.
What does it mean to be NHQ Certified?
NHQ, or National Housing Quality Certification, is presented by the National Association of Home Builders Research Center (NAHBRC), which is dedicated to locating and recognizing the homebuilders with the greatest quality assurance and customer-based satisfaction.
This system certification represents the company’s ongoing commitment to improvement and continual customer satisfaction in the home building process.
As expressed by Paul Owen, the quality / warranty manager, “At Bob Schmitt Homes, delivering a quality home is always our first priority. We are committed to continuously improving our company, our process and to exceeding the expectations of our customers.”
What does it take to be NHQ Certified?
Receiving such certification requires an endurance of a rigorous 3-9 month process evaluation plan. Training for all employees is exercised, regular reviews of continual improvement are conducted and internal audits to ensure quality inspections are completed. Each home built has a total of 7 inspections. After applying for the certification, an NAHBRC auditor will schedule an on-site 2-4 day system audit. If approved, the homebuilder becomes certified.
In addition to the audits, Bob Schmitt Homes, Inc. was required to write a quality manual outlining their operating rules and regulations. This manual also consisted of a 32 page attachment which focused on their home-building phases.
Maintaining an NHQ Certification requires an annual audit by an NAHB Research Center expert. Quality representatives continue to manage this process by holding quarterly updates. Continual employee training is implemented. Each inspection warrants any mistakes and allows Bob Schmitt Homes, Inc. to locate where the problem may have derived. “They say that ‘experience’ is the ability to recognize a mistake, when we make it again”, Paul said, however “the NHQ Certified Builder Program is designed to help eliminate that type of ‘experience’”.
In the homebuilding process communication is key. Constant communication between individual phase managers, members of the design team, outside contractors and the customers is the key to a successful outcome.
Benefits to being NHQ Certified?
By having a continuous watch over the production of our homes, this certification reduces the amount of warranty calls and helps to shorten the building cycle times. This system also enhances cooperation among contractors as well as improving our customer satisfaction long after the building process is completed.
Mr. Paul Owen says he feels, “a renewed sense of pride” in the homes they produce. This sense of pride will be recognized through this certification and will inspire the company’s future success in the new home market.
Mr. Owen recalls a lesson taught to him by Bob Schmitt himself years ago, “A reputation is easier to keep, than to rebuild”. This is a responsibility that the entire Bob Schmitt Homes team takes very seriously. It is exactly this reliance to loyalty that will keep Bob Schmitt Homes, Inc. at the top of the home builders list for years to come.
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