What is it?

Construction schedule tracking system is a way to track your construction schedules through a centralized scheduling database. It allows a company to maintain construction production information such as when work is scheduled and completed, why a job is delayed, which contractor is responsible for work to be performed etc.

The scheduling system used is Primavera Project Planner, a top of the line scheduling software available today that is perfectly suited for any construction projects including residential construction. It is a common sense approach to managing a volume construction business, yet revolutionary since there are so few companies that use it today.

What are the benefits of having a Construction Schedule Tracking System?

With a construction schedule tracking system, you can –

· Report construction time for any phase of construction or overall construction per community, vendor, superintendent or the whole company

· Track all delays in construction at a central location

· Track which contractors cause the most delays

· Track which superintendents have the most problems with adhering to the schedule

· Have the ability to authorize payments to jobs based on project progress by linking your scheduling system to your accounting and purchase order system

· Reduce your construction time and therefore deliver your homes faster to customers

· Increase your return on investment easily by more than 25% due to better communication and information

How does it work?

A centralized scheduling database setup using Primavera Project Planner will schedule all your construction work each day based on the construction logic setup in the system initially. After scheduling all work, the system will then issue schedules to each of your superintendents as well as vendors/suppliers. Contractors will report to your jobsite based on the construction schedule issued and complete the work. Superintendents will then update construction schedules at the end of the day and report the updates back to the office. These updates are fed into Primavera Project Planner, which then recalculates all schedules for the next workday and the cycle continues.

If the process described here sounds too idealistic and simple and you feel that it will not work, please talk to one of TPG’s clients who have been using it successfully for a few years now. Moreover, TPG’s experts can guide you through potential problems you might face such as resistance to change, lack of understanding etc. It is the simple problems such as someone not reporting construction progress back to the office, contractors not following schedules etc. which can derail the whole company’s management process. TPG experts have implemented these kinds of processes in several building companies across the nation and can help your company as well in avoiding many of the potential obstacles you might face in switching to a new process. TPG can even help you get in touch with one of their clients so you can get a better understanding of the whole process from their perspective.

How do we set you up?

TPG goes through a rigid and a thorough process of setting up your construction scheduling database. TPG realizes that it is not the technology that makes the company successful, but a well thought out process with quality built into it. Quality cannot be assured after the fact, but during the process. The process described below has been developed after years of experience working with several builders and realizing that shortcuts taken upfront will jeopardize the success of the whole program.

Map out a construction process

TPG representatives will first get your superintendents together and map out your current construction process. During this time, any inconsistencies found in the construction process from one community to another or from one superintendent to another will be ironed out so a consistent schedule can be mapped out which is followed by the company. Note that the process allows for complete flexibility for community specific inspections and options. This process gets your production staff operating on the same page. Moreover, a consistent process will generate consistent problems if any, which are easier to tackle and solve than an inconsistent process generating a multitude of problems.

Set up the Centralized Scheduling Database

TPG will then setup your construction database utilizing the construction process that has been mapped. Your system will then be ready to go live. This process can take anywhere from one to four weeks depending on the complexity of the construction process.

Provide system training to your Data Manager and Process Manager

TPG will then educate your staff to operate the system on a day-to-day basis as well as some advanced training for future development/modification of the construction process.

Provide Management Training

TPG will provide your management with advanced management training among various topics such as schedule non-compliance effects, identification of schedule non-compliance from reports, effects of uncontrolled construction cycle time, philosophy of even flow production, centralized scheduling theories etc.

Who really needs this? Do I really need it? What are the bottom line benefits for me?

A company that can satisfy any of the following can use this system and reap huge benefits:

· Volume production or custom builder with an annual volume of 50-1000+ homes

· A midsize builder with 30 employees or more with 5 or more as production staff (superintendents)

· A company that wants to aggressively expand and build more units a year, but doesn’t know how to go about it

There are several builders who think they do not need a system like this because of various reasons. Some of the reasons are quoted below with our explanations of why those reasons are misguided:

“We pay our supervisors to monitor job progress, I don’t need another system to do what they are supposed to do.”

The supervisors are paid for monitoring job progress and quality of construction. In reality, when they are scheduling jobs in the field, a superintendent who has a workload of 10 to 20 or more jobs has to sit in the trailer and use a desk calendar to plan out the construction of each of the homes for that week. The superintendent then has to call each of the contractors to confirm this schedule. Any contractor, who cannot make it for a particular day, changes the whole schedule again. All of this takes up 2 or more hours of a superintendent’s time per day. A system like this will not only free up their time because it automatically schedules and notifies contractors. Superintendents only update job progress, which can take less than 20 minutes a day for all their jobs under construction. Superintendent now calls only for the exceptions and not every single contractor. All of this allows your superintendents to perform their job better. Result: A more productive superintendent who can monitor quality of construction at the jobsite rather than sit in the trailer, scheduling contractors.

“It creates more work for us!”

This kind of a system does not generate more work for you. It changes your work to make it better and more streamlined. Sure, you now have to have a person in the office monitoring job progress, identify delay trends, call delinquent contractors etc. However, that is the beauty of the system. You have now established a central command center rather than 10 different superintendents calling the same contractor possibly trying to solve the same issue in different communities. By having a centralized control center, your superintendents can rely on office support to solve the more difficult issues for which management needs to get involved. All they need to do is report it to the office and the process manager identifies all critical issues and are handled in a much more professional manner at a meeting with the subcontractor. It does not create more work for you, but forces you to work smarter. This kind of a system enforces discipline whether you like it or not.

“I have to hire additional people (Process Manager and Data Manager) which increases my overhead cost”

Establishing a centralized scheduling control system needs one process manager and one administrative person for handling the system and the day-to-day tasks. Adding these people is critical to operating this program. The benefits you reap from the system far outweigh the additional cost incurred in hiring these people full time. Typically, you can reduce your construction time on an average by a minimum of 5-10 days, which translate to excess production capacity for the company for the year. This allows the company to build additional homes in a year thus increasing a company’s bottom line profits. If you would like to, we will set up an appointment with one of our clients for you to either talk to or visit their location so you can see this for yourself. You can also use TPG’s savings calculator to estimate your approximate increased earnings due to implementing this program. Please contact TPG or visit our website www.totallyproductivegroup.com for more details.

How can we get it?

Please contact Totally Productive Group, Inc. by email at info@totallyproductivegroup.com or by telephone at . TPG representatives will meet you and provide you with an overview of the implementation process. You will be on your way to centralized scheduling before you know it!