Incentive Programs for Superintendants
by schultissundberg
We have recently decided to introduce an incentive program for our superintendents in order to improve productivity and ensure that the schedule is met and customer satisfaction is attained. Here is a synopses of the program...
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Projecting 2012
by jamie
It’s that time of year again…time to put together your company projections for 2012! You may be in the process of crunching numbers to let your partners, bankers, and other stakeholders know your company’s outlook for 2012. Hopefully, 2012 will shape up to be a great year!
Instead of rewriting what has previously been written in past articles, below are some articles to reference to assist you ...
Is Your Company Aerosmith or an Airline?
by Craig Pierce
Construction subcontractors tend to be more like Aerosmith than like an airline. What exactly do I mean? Well to further the analogy, let’s look at the definition of both of these entities.
Rock bands are made of a small group of talented people that perform specific functions. As the band forms it is not a big secret what each person is to do, however, there are not written rules on how this ...
Project Fade (Discussion Board)
by jamie
The most frustrating experience for a project management team and the owners of a construction company is project fade. The process of margin disappearing as the project becomes more complete deteriorates moral, the balance sheet, and may threaten the ability for an organization to continue as a viable concern.
Fade comes from many causes: optimistic estimates, poor team performance, work outs...
Should You BAFO Your Vendors?
by Craig Pierce
Best and Final Offers (BAFO) are probably the fastest growing trend in construction, especially given the economy today. In a previous blog, I talked about the ethics of the BAFO process. There are legitimate reasons to utilize the process, but you have to have integrity from everyone involved or you may just be another bid shopper.
When dealing with vendors you need to ask yourself several qu...
How to Sell a Project Beyond Cost
by Craig Pierce
Last week I wrote about how proposals could help you win work more than numbers. I know that this is a controversial issue and most contractors are convinced that low cost will win the project every time, but in my career that is simply not true. Your customers are looking for the "lowest responsive bidder" and outside of someone buying the project or being smarter than you if they are much lowe...
Proposals, not numbers, WIN Projects
by Craig Pierce
Typically the Get Work activity for a project in construction is focused 95% on getting the "right" number and 5% on showcasing that number to the client (i.e. the proposal). Most companies don't have a Get Work department or Business Development; instead they have an estimating department. Why is that? It is confusing to me, because most contractors insist that they sell work by having the most c...
Enhance Your A-Team (Part 2)
by Craig Pierce
In part 1 we covered the basics of the Acquisition Team (A-Team), in this installment I would like to discuss some of the mechanics of procuring work. Like the construction of a building, procuring work does not just happen, it comes about through hard work and planning and a very focused effort. The most skilled craftsman without engineered drawings cannot accomplish as much as those with detaile...
Enhance Your A-Team (Part 1)
by Craig Pierce
Recently Ted Garrison from NCS Radio interviewed Terry Kramer with Kramer Management Consulting regarding acquiring more profitable business. In the interview the theme was repeated over and over that construction companies need to focus more attention on the Work Acquisition Efforts from the personnel they us to the systems utilized. It really struck a chord with me since the past 20 years of my ...
Increase Productivity in Your Construction Company
by Craig Pierce
It appears with 2010 behind us, the worst year of this economic calamity is behind us, that is good news. This upcoming year should show new projects being started which should allow for expansion in revenues and margin. This increase in construction work however will not be dramatic and increases will be slight over one of the worst years in a generation. So how are you going to handle the inc...
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Life of An Estimator, Tougher than You Think
by Craig Pierce
For those of us in the construction industry we know the Estimators that are more cynical than the average Joe. They appear to be more prevalent than the fun loving young estimator. The duties of an Estimator change that fun loving young kid into the cynic through years of performing one of the most difficult jobs in Construction. So what makes it such a difficult job?
The most difficult pa...
So What Does the Project Manager Do Anyway?
by Craig Pierce
At the expense of offending Project Managers as wells as the Monkey:
A woman was looking at the animals on display in a pet store. A few minutes later, a man walked in and said to the shopkeeper 'I'll take a Construction Monkey, please.’ The shopkeeper nodded and took a monkey out of a cage. He put a collar and leash on the animal and handed it the man, saying, 'That will be $5,000.' The man ...
A Tale of Two Boats
by Craig Pierce
By now most of us have seen the change order and contract boat image that has been circulating around the internet over the past several years. The big boat is rightly called the change order and the small dingy is called "Original Contract". This brings forward a very interesting question about how people think. When you view the image it enters into your mind that this must be Contractor's se...
How to Improve Construction Productivity
by Craig Pierce
pro·duc·tiv·i·ty (prō'dŭk-tĭv'ĭ-tē, prŏd'ək-) n.
The rate at which goods or services are produced especially output per unit cost of labor. Or if you prefer how much does it cost to install a unit.
For subcontractors this is a very critical item since the majority of our profit is dependent on the productivity rate. It is also much more difficult in construction since the units and the abilit...
Best and Final Offer, Are They Ethical?
by Craig Pierce
If you have been involved in bidding work you have probably at one point in time been apart of the Best and Final Offer (BAFO) routine. In private work it is typically called "scoping out" the sub numbers. It is a process where you are expected to give your best and final proposal for the work after you have turned in your actual bid number. It may be preceded with a list of questions or change...
Keys to being a Great Estimator
by Craig Pierce
So what does it take to be a good estimator? Being great with numbers? Having a desire to color on drawings all day? There are a few key traits I have found in my career that really separates the great estimators from the rest of them. Let's recall how I defined an estimator's job as: finding the lowest cost solution to the project as would be acceptable to the client while identifying the pot...
Will Anti-Immigration Law Affect You?
by Craig Pierce
Arizona recently took an unprecedented step in passing a law that required the state to action on a federal issue. I am not going to get into the middle of the political ideals at battle here, but I do want to look at the ramifications it could have on the construction industry. People and companies will obviously be directly affected by this legislation. The impacts will come from two fronts: ...
This Bonus Sucks!
by Craig Pierce
Bonus programs can really suck. Whether you want to call them bonus or incentive programs almost every company has them, but if they are not administered properly they can really rip at the fabric of a company. As subcontractors we are in the service business and that service requires great people. Poorly run bonus programs can have you paying bonuses to individuals who are not satisfied with t...
Increase Productivity in Your Construction Company
by Craig Pierce
It appears with 2010 behind us, the worst year of this economic calamity is behind us, that is good news. This upcoming year should show new projects being started which should allow for expansion in revenues and margin. This increase in construction work however will not be dramatic and increases will be slight over one of the worst years in a generation. So how are you going to handle the inc...
Construction Analytics: Conalytics
by Craig Pierce
The most successful companies in history have gathered, analyzed, and reacted to the data that is most critical to their survival and success. In retail, Walmart extended this to a whole new level by grabbing real time sales data and transmitting that to all of their managers. The success of the company was in part due to the fast analysis of data and the retailer's ability to change their curre...
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