Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 2017 has been a good year for the Metro Atlanta construction market. Home sales are brisk, commercial construction is solid, and the construction tower crane is once again the unofficial state bird of Georgia.
Since you and I ply our trade in the construction industry, we are – to a large extent – dependent on the ups and downs of Metro Atlanta’s construction economy.
While a healthy economy presents us with presents us with challenges in manpower, scheduling and cost control, it is still a lot better than the challenges we face during a slow economy. Let’s all be grateful for the challenges we’ve had this year.
When there is a lot of work to be done, worker productivity is crucial. For trade contractors, the biggest area for improvement is on the labor side. Once the material costs are established, they rarely fluctuate enough to have an impact. The labor component is what determines if you make money or lose money on the job.
At Herbert Construction Co. we think a lot about having systems in place that improve labor productivity. How can we remove obstacles for our field crews? How can we reduce lost time due to waiting on supplies or not having the right tools? Where can we eliminate re-work due to changes or incorrect information?
All of these areas represent opportunities for improvement and profit – if we work on them. This is especially important as labor becomes more difficult to find.
Here are some ways we set our crews up for success, and how it helps our customers:
Foundation Checklist – We fill out a 39-point checklist before starting the job. This ensures that we have the correct information for the project.
CAD Plan – Every project we do is first drawn with our own in-house CAD system. This allows us to find dimensional discrepancies before we get to the jobsite. It also puts all the information in a clear, simple plan that our crews use.
Jobsite Meeting – During the footing layout, we meet with our customer to establish wall heights, determine water & sewer sleeve locations, and to gather any last-minute information. This is the one and only time our customer has to meet us on the site.
Robotic Layout – Each footing and wall is laid out with our Robotic Total Station layout instrument. This is a much faster and more accurate method than the ancient method of layout with tape measures and string line. The robotic layout ensures our foundations are straight, square and correct.
Stocked Crew Trucks – Each evening, job-specific tools and supplies for the next days’ projects are loaded onto each truck by our shop crew. With everything already on their truck, our crews leave earlier in the morning, which reduces their wait time in traffic and gets them onto the jobsite earlier. We are more likely to finish the job that day, which keeps our customer on schedule.
In what areas of your company can you create systems that reduce wait times, minimize mistakes, and increase productivity?
To Your Success,
