Watch the video on Daily Work Schedules.
For production home builders the job of making sure that everyone makes it to the jobsite at the right time and ready to go can be difficult -- like juggling eggs in the dark. So many different trade contractors, suppliers, inspectors, and builder team members are involved in the construction process; not having an accurate, reliable system to manage and schedule all the players can leave the builder with egg on his face, or worse, out of business.
Trade contractors often work on various job sites simultaneously (sometimes for several builders), and it is the site supervisor's responsibility to communicate with them about the schedule, materials, and expectations of quality. The better and more frequent the communication between the site supervisor and the trade contractor, the less likely there will be delays or callbacks.
The best practice for managing trade contractors on the jobsite is to use a daily work scheduling tool. By managing the building process on a daily basis, the builder can plan specific activities much more accurately and help the trade contractors stay more organized and efficient.
In the past, job site management and scheduling tools generally looked at the building process on a week-by-week basis. On Monday, the site supervisor would call or fax the schedule to the trade contractor, and then on Friday review the week's activities and plan for the next week. Managing at that level left too much time between communications, and it invariably led to delays.
With the growth of new technologies and communication tools on the jobsite, builders today have a host of opportunities to choose from to help them track, manage, and communicate with their trade contractors. Investing in an "off-the-shelf" software application that can be easily incorporated into the builder's work process is a reality that more and more successful builders are taking advantage of today.
Many builders can gauge profit and loss by counting the number of days over, or under schedule. By managing the building process on a daily basis, the site supervisor can greatly affect the builder's ability to improve the bottom line over the course of a year, and make life for their trade partners a bit easier.
So, you want to go shopping?
The homebuilding industry is huge, and everyone knows it. Today there are literally thousands of software engineers out there designing the next "killer app" that may or may not fit your needs. When it comes to purchasing software for your business (or home) there are a few standard guidelines to follow that can help you make the right choice. Getting stuck with the wrong application can end up being more expensive and frustrating than sticking with the "old" ways. You want a tool that will be used consistently and comfortably by everyone who needs it.
Here are a few things to think about:
- Be sure that the application you buy has been used and recommended by other builders of your size.
- Chrome wheels on a car are flashy, but in the end it's the engine that gets you down the road. Beware of applications that offer all the "bells and whistles" but won't offer service and support on their back-end application.
- Take it for a test drive and make sure that the application will easily work with the existing tools you, and your trade contractors, use.
- Only get slightly more functionality than you need. The best software applications are really just time-saving tools that offer consistency and replace manual work.
- Demand training, re-training, and support for getting new hires up to speed on the application down the road.
- Never buy on impulse.
- Listen to the computer geek in your business and, even if it's painful, take their advice.
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