Bold Group
The staircase was not what was failing.
A manufacturer of prefabricated staircases, selling to housing developers who install them on site. It kept replacing panels damaged on site, at its own cost, for damage it had not caused.
The situation
Every scratch came back to the factory, for damage it had not caused and could not prevent.
The staircase was finished, installed, and then left exposed for the rest of the build. Sales staff and prospective owners walked the house in heels. Subcontractors returning to fix walls worked over it with their tools. The factory sent staff to replace each damaged panel and absorbed the cost. Redesigning the staircase would not have helped.
The turn
The product was fine. The period after installation was not.
Damage on a delivered product is a product-quality problem.
If the product is not defective when it leaves and not defective when it is installed, what are we actually being asked to fix?
The decision: protect the finished surface through the exposure period, rather than keep replacing what that period damaged.
Before
- Made in the factory
- Installed on site
- Exposed for the rest of the buildvisitors in heels, trades with tools
- Factory replaces panels
- Handover
The cost lands on the factory, which did not cause the damage.
After
- Made in the factory
- Installed on site
- Polymer wrap stays on through constructionadapted from automotive surface protection
- Wrap torn off before handover
Protecting a finished surface through that kind of window is a problem the automotive industry solved long ago.
Schematic, not to scale.
How we worked it
How the real problem was located.
- 01
Follow the cost to its owner
Find out who actually pays for each defect, and whether that party caused it or is simply the easiest to invoice.
- 02
Find the exposure window
Locate the period between installation and handover when a finished surface sits unprotected among trades, inspections and visitors, and treat that window as the thing to design for.
- 03
Look where the problem is already solved
Protecting a finished surface through handling, transport and rough conditions is routine in the automotive industry. Adapt its answer rather than invent one inside construction.
Located the exposure window as the thing to design for, and looked to an industry that had already solved surface protection.
Developed the wrap with its own film supplier, and owns that relationship, that product and the decision to take it into production.
What came of it
The manufacturer worked with a film supplier from the automotive industry to develop a polymer wrap for the wooden panel. It stays on through construction and is torn off at the last step before the house passes to its owner.
The client implemented the protection under an NSTDA / I-TAP grant and runs it. No defect-rate, replacement-cost or schedule figure is claimed.
How we label evidenceIs this your situation?
Signs
- A company absorbs the cost of damage it did not cause and has no way to prevent.
- The failure happens outside the window the company controls, so better manufacturing cannot reach it.
- Another industry has faced the same physical problem for longer, and its answer can be adapted rather than invented.
Start here
Bring the result you need, and the thing you have been told cannot change.
One hour with a founder. You leave with a first view of where the answer may sit, and which engagement, if any, fits.
Teerasak WongpiyaCo-Founder and Managing Director
1 hour, in Thai or English, online or at your office.