Got a question for Jim?  email him at rjbiddle@amtelecom.net  any time.


Dear Jim,
I see signs in your shop that say DIRT.  Are you reminding your staff to keep things clean?
Just Curious

Dear Curious,
DIRT is an acronym that reminds my staff about our quality process.  It's how we make sure your boat is fixed right the first time.  The letters stand for the 4 steps:

Duplicate.  The first thing we do is make sure that we can duplicate the problem.  That's why sometimes we ask you a lot of questions.  We need to know what happens, or doesn't happen, and exactly what the conditions are.  Once we can duplicate the problem we can fix it.  If we can't, then all we're doing is wasting our time and your money.

Isolate.  We make sure we find the one thing, or group of things, that are the real cause of the problem.  We don't just try things and see if they work, that approach always takes longer.  It just wastes our time and your money.

Repair. We repair the thing that causes your problem. We use high quality parts and proven techniques.  We look for the most cost effective repair we can make.  We won't sell you parts you don't need, or charge you for extra labour.  That just wastes our time and your money.

Test.  We test after every repair to ensure that the problem is really fixed. We won't give you back a boat that might work; your boat is ready when my staff is certain that we've found the real problem and fixed it the right way. If we find another problem, or something about to go wrong, we'll let you know so we can fix it at the same time. If we let your boat go knowing it will only come back next week, we're wasting your time and your money.

DIRT is the best way I know of to fix the real problem the first time so you can enjoy more time with your boat on the lake. 

Jim