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HTSA Partners With MTI on New AV Installation Standardization MasterClass

Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) has partnered again with Maverick Technical Institute to create a new educational program based on the principles of the power of standardization to drive greater efficiency and success.

Home Technology Specialists of America has partnered again with Maverick Technical Institute to create a new educational program based on the principles of the power of standardization to drive greater efficiency and success. This new course, called the Standardization MasterClass, was first conducted to nearly two dozen HTSA members on November 6-8, only two weeks after the topic of the program was introduced to members at the 2017 Fall Members Conference in Chicago at the end of October. 

High performing integrators in the custom integration industry know that by standardizing processes they can greatly improve their organizational efficiency, productivity, and profits. The key is to develop best practices, then fully document them and provide training to all members of the team so that execution is consistent. The final step is to enforce the standard until it becomes second nature to all of the integrator’s team members.

Maverick Technical Institute is a tech training facility based in Nashua, NH. Founded by Dennis Jaques, owner of Maverick Integration, one of New England’s top integration companies, MTI is famous for industry-specific educational programs based on teaching pragmatic, real-world techniques to all levels of technicians. HTSA has been working with MTI on several educational initiatives for the last two years.

This latest Standardization MasterClass is another example of helping attending integrators recognize, adopt, and evangelize the benefits of running an integration company based on standardized best practices.

“The main purpose of the Standardization MasterClass was to help the participating integrators recognize the many opportunities for, and the many benefits of, finding those things that they could do more efficiently,” Jaques said. “Standardization is a tool that integrators can use to be more profitable.”

Because of the depth and intensity of the program, along with the fact that the class was designed to include direct hands-on system building in a laboratory environment – the number of participants was deliberately limited to less than two dozen attendees. The detailed course outline included key concepts, such as:

Demonstrate audio visual installation designs, knowledge of layout principles, aesthetic design concepts and the ability to apply those in repeatable configurations
, understand how the assembly process differs from the customization process in production, and applying concise verbal and written communication as it pertains to the assembly of the documented systems, and more.

Several HTSA vendors, upon learning of the creation of this new Standardization MasterClass, stepped in to offer their support for the program. Those vendors supporting the Standardization MasterClass include: Atlona, Chief, Control4, Core Brands, Luxul, Liberty Wire & Cable, and Vantage. 

“The Standardization MasterClass was a great experience,” said Bob Schuppe, operations manager for HTSA member AudioVisions of Lake Forest, CA and one of the attendees of the course. “The materials presented really got our creative juices flowing as we saw what was necessary to be successful with this Standardization initiative. The best part of the class for me was the immersion into both a working space and mindset where standardized assemblies are the rule, not the exception.”

Since the completion of the class, HTSA management and MTI instructors have heard very positive feedback from attendees who returned to their operations and began implementing some of the fundamentals learned during the class. The group is looking to schedule more Standardization MasterClass sessions so that more HTSA members have the opportunity to learn the principles of a well designed standardization program. 

“You know an educational program was successful when attendees leave more excited and energized than they were when they first arrived,” said Jon Robbins, executive director of HTSA, who also attended the course. “While many integrators intuitively understand the benefits of standardization, Maverick Technical Institute has devised a very solid and methodical process for introducing standardization principles into any organization – something that instantly benefitted all of the HTSA members who participated. We look forward to scheduling more sessions to allow more of our members the opportunity to adopt this standardization program in their companies.”

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