Groundbreaking ISO project sets Carson Nugget standards

When food arrives from wholesalers at the Carson Nugget, even employees who have been on the property's staff for less than a day know precisely how frozen items are to be stacked in freezers.

They need only look at photos and detailed instructions in a notebook stored nearby.

The same goes for employees setting a table for a banquet. A staffer working in the cage. An employee preparing for a drawing to pick the winner in a promotion at the Carson Nugget.

A two-year process to detail every business-related process in the Nugget everything from the poker room to the accounting office has paid off with a first-ever ISO 9001 designation for the property in downtown Carson City.

National Quality Assurance USA, a Massachusetts company that guided the Carson Nugget through the process, says the casino was the first in the nation to complete ISO 9001 certification.

While the national designation is a feather in the cap of the Nugget's staff, far more important are the step-by-step directions and the definition of clear-cut standards for quality that are part of the ISO process, says Denise Darling, the Nugget's controller.

Darling spearheaded the Nugget's successful effort to complete the ISO process, an effort that culminated with ISO certification last autumn.

"It was a huge undertaking," says Star Anderson, general manager of the Carson Nugget.

But Anderson says the investment began to pay off when careful examination of every process in the Nugget identified wasted time and effort.

Over the longer term, she says clear quality standards established by the process standards such as scores provided by guest surveys are expected to provide the big payoff in improved customer satisfaction.

Adds Darling, "The best thing is that it gives us focus. If we start to get off track, we know what to do to get back on track."

And because the operating standards are written, the property's managers don't need to worry about the erosion of standards and loss of knowledge that often results when experienced workers leave the company.

The Carson Nugget schedules quarterly meetings of its entire staff to review progress on the quality goals established in the ISO exercise.

While the detailed instructions for every process, many of them complete with photos and diagrams, ensure that the Nugget delivers services consistently, Darling says employees also are encouraged to suggest improvements to the process.

The suggestion program, in fact, works through a defined process of its own that makes sure that supervisors and managers give consideration to ways to improve the Nugget's operation.

On the casino floor, many of the detailed business processes outlined in the ISO documents are natural outgrowths of gaming regulations, she says.