Indian Building Industry - Lack of Automation

Ask anyone who has occupied a new flat in Mumbai, about the level of satisfaction with quality of fittings and monitoring of quality of delivery and probably the response would be uniform - NOT SATISFIED. Right from taps exploding in faces once they are turned on, to incorrect installation of equipment - the woes would complete the veritable dictionary.

A lack of comprehensive focus on quality at the top management level percolates through to operational levels and results in air-brushing of the entire issue. An over reliance on manual labour in the industry, drags into the equation cases of individual interpretation over-riding corporate standards for various.

Lack of widespread usage of power tools and electronic aids leads to gaps in estimation and communication leading to inaccurate dissemination of information and loss of client satisfaction. The devil is in the details and the devil could very well be holidaying in Vegas if the builders' attention to detail is anything to base a premise upon.

I have recently moved into a new flat finished by an established name in the industry - and I am scared of actually opening a tap or closing too roughly a door too hard - for fear of the item losing its relevance and ending up in my hand in a non-servicable state.

Educating operational level staff about the importance of quality and how a delta improvement in quality leads to a butterfly effect realization of benefits at the customer end, is an important improvement area for the industry. This coupled with transparency and a slight flexibility at the builders' end as well as a focus on exploiting technology for creating open channels of communication can help the industry meet the expectations of a generation that is otherwise slowly getting used to being pampered by half hour turn-around times for requirements in various aspects of life.