4 Ways Your Production Tracking Is Losing You Money
Author:
Nicole Heger
July 9, 2020
Production tracking is the holy grail of construction. For a jobsite to run efficiently, knowing what work was done day to day and week to week is critical in order to adjust as needed and stay on track. But at what cost?
If you’re still using a team member to manually track production, you’re losing valuable time and money in the process. By dedicating labor hours to tedious tasks like statusing walls with a drawing and highlighter, you’re losing out on putting your team’s time and energy to where it’s going to have the most value.
It’s clear that manual production tracking costing you. But don’t fear! Luckily, identifying these areas is the first step to making changes, so we’ve listed four areas to take a closer look:
First, let’s talk about your team. Who is doing your production tracking? How much time is that person spending on it each week? How many hours are they spending tracking in the field, and how much time are they spending in the office to log those statuses?
Do the math. The hourly rate you’re paying for the cumbersome task of collecting and logging information multiplied over weeks and years adds up quickly. That money — and that individual’s time — could be better spent where that person can contribute more value.
When you track production manually, chances are that results vary from job to job. It all depends on who’s doing the tracking, and their particular methodology.
Consistency is the key to getting the accuracy you need. With inaccurate tracking methods, it’s not clear exactly was installed, which ultimately leads to inaccurate billing. You could be losing on labor and materials, ultimately sacrificing your profit.
Are you able to identify areas where you’re falling behind?
Your crew’s schedule depends on the planned productivity rate for any given project. Without true production rates, you don’t have a clear indicator of where you’re in danger of getting off track. If these areas of risk go unidentified, your schedule can quickly become a mess.
Whether due to rework or schedule delays, this is one of the fastest ways to lose both time and money on a project. Conversely, if you’re able to see where productivity is slipping, you can coordinate with the General Contractor and other trades to solve the issue, before it costs everyone. With reliable production tracking, you always know where you’re on track and, more importantly, where you aren’t.
When you don’t have accurate, reliable production tracking to reference past projects, it’s all but impossible to estimate a project correctly when submitting a bid. You’re caught in the middle, trying to give your project teams enough time to complete quality work without losing your competitive edge, or eat into your profit margins.
Without a historical database of productivity rates on past projects, a lot comes down to a best guess from the estimating team. However, if they are able to understand production rates across multiple projects and teams, estimators can understand the type of productivity rates that can be expected with certain project types. With more data, your estimating team can be more effective on future estimates, helping you win bids without sacrificing profits.
These four challenges brought on by manual production tracking can make it hard for your business to get ahead. Fortunately, you’re not stuck. Intelligent production tracking takes all of these challenges head on, helping your business get ahead. Our new tool, SmartTrack, does just that.
With this automated, photo-based production tracking tool, you’ll be able to tap into the ability to:
The old ways of production tracking are costing you. Our team is here to talk with you about SmartTrack and the difference it can make for your business. Get in touch to schedule a demo today.
