Do You Use Checklist?

We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies—neither seems to prevent grievous errors. For those of us in the Commercial Construction Industry, even the smallest error can mean the difference between a profit or loss and a satisfied or dissatisfied customer.

But in a hopeful turn, there is a remedy to errors in repetitive work in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. The checklist was first introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Have you ever noticed that when you board an airplane and peek into the cockpit, you’ll likely see the pilot going through a checklist?

Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third.

There are stories where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim in Texas who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. The checklist revolution has expanded into fields well beyond medicine, from disaster response to investment banking, skyscraper construction, commercial construction and businesses of all kinds.

With the advent of digital technologies, the checklist has become pervasive for most professions and the value created is staggering. Reduced errors, accidents, waste, improved quality and efficiency and the value-added continues to expand from the simple use of a checklist.

At DWC we have several Checklist to ensure that our client’s expectations are exceeded because we are committed to excellence in everything we do.