on’t you just hate it when taunts you and haunts you. Your
good jobs turn bad? labor costs skyrocket, blowing
right through your budget.
You get the job at a good price.
You keep an eye on your weekly Wouldn’t you like to have an
job costs. Everything seems to be early warning system that tells
on course for a profitable you when to take corrective
conclusion...and then it all action now, before it’s too late?
falls apart at the end. With a little effort you can
build yourself just such a
Jobs rarely turn bad at the end. system.
They start going south much
earlier than that. You just don’t Severe storm warning systems rely
notice they’ve gone south until on doppler radar. Your system is
your budget runs out. going to rely on man-hours and
construction materials. Instead
Most projects deteriorate so of seeing blips and clouds on a
slowly, nothing grabs your screen, you are going to see
attention. Nothing screams "We’ve tables and graphs.
got a problem here!"
Here’s how to build your very own
As you’ve discovered, once the early warning system.
end is in sight, it is too late
to save a job from impending Step 1
doom.
Identify the one to three primary
As substantial completion nears, materials that best reflect the
your crews begin falling all over nature of your work. For example:
themselves to finish on time. square feet of concrete slabs for
Errors mount. Your punch list concrete flat work contractors.
each day to collect the needed
Step 2 data.
Determine the average amount of Step 5
work per man-hour (material
quantity per man-hour) that the Each week, print a graph that
job was budgeted for. shows the budgeted quantity per
man-hour for the job, each week’s
Step 3 performance, and the running
average to date. (Send me an
Create a table that shows: email if you would like to see an
example.)
» Man-hours used-to-date,
» Material quantity Keep a close eye on this labor
installed-to-date, productivity graph. If the weekly
» Average material quantity per performance stays below the
man-hour used to-date, budgeted average, the job is
» Total material quantity going to come in considerably
budgeted, over budget. It’s that simple.
» Percent of material installed,
» Projected man-hours needed to If your project is heading for a
complete the job at current pace, disastrous result, this type of
» Man-hours budgeted, and graph will reveal that impending
» Variance from budgeted and doom before the job is 20% done.
projected man-hours. No more waiting until 90%
completion before discovering
Step 4 your labor costs are going to
blow your budget.
Modify your time sheets to track
the amount of material installed You and your foreman will have
plenty of time to create blown the bid or agreed to work
solutions to save the project. If for the wrong client.
you can’t, somebody must have
About the Author:
Ron Roberts, The Contractor's Business Coach, teaches contractors how to turn their businesses into a profit spewing machines. To receive Ron's FREE Contractor Best Practices Newsletter visit http://www.FilthyRichContractor.com.
Read more articles by:
Ron Roberts
Article Source: www.iSnare.com 
