6 key stages to efficient landscape project installations

Six Key Stages to EfficientLandscape Project Installations

Sean StroubPresident & FounderCross Points Consulting Group

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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About the Author……………………………………..…3Getting Started…………………………………………..4Overview of the Six Stages…………………..……..7Stage #1 Pre Sales……………………………………..8Stage #2 Sold Contract……………………………….9Stage #3 Pre-Con……………………………………..10Stage #4 Pre-Production…………………………...11Stage #5 Field Production………………………….13Stage #6 After Care…………………………………..14Production Models……………………………………..15Change Orders…………………………….……..…….19Setting Expectations………………….……………….21Summary…………………………………………………..23

Published by:Cross Points Consulting GroupIndianapolis, IN 46123800/820-2590

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ABOUT


Sean is a proactive leader who has been in the green industry for over 30 years, most as either a business owner or in Senior Management roles at some of the largest companies in the industry, including the only Fortune 500 company in the Green Industry.

Cross Points Consulting Group is a Green Industry consulting firm focused on helping businesses solve the complex challenges and decisions facing their company today. With over 30 years of leadership experience in the Green Industry, the consultants at Cross Points Consulting Group are prepared to help our clients to maintain and achieve successful businesses with financially and operationally sound practices. We offer advice and support for every process and structure within your company – from short-term solutions to long-term goals.






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PRODUCTION PROCESSGETTING STARTED

Review Process FlowPut it in writingGet all team members onboardIdentify problem areas early

Assign ResponsibilitiesBe clear and conciseRely on your team members

Clarify ObjectivesQuality Work, Happy Customers & Profitable!

Set ExpectationsEveryone needs to knows the processWork Together







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CLARIFY OBJECTIVES

1. Produce Quality Work2. Make Clients Happy3. Meet Production Budgets & Profit Goals

DO NOT SACRIFICE ONEGOAL FOR THE OTHERTWO, AND DO THEM EFFICIENTLY THROUGHOUTYOUR ORGANIZATION.








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PROCESS REVOLVES AROUND THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVES

Sales Gives Complete

Info to ‘Production’

‘Production’ Starts toPrepare ProjectFor Field Staff

Field Staff CompletesProject, Meets

3 Primary Objectives

After Care InsuresProject Survives

Acclimation Period & Converts to

Maintenance Customer

Maintenance Continues

Long Term Care,Increase Customer

SatisfactionAdds More Sales

1. Quality Work

2. Happy Customer

3. On Budget &

Profitable







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6 STAGES OF THE PRODUCTION PROCESS

1. Pre Sales (Before Signed Contract)

2. Sold (Signed Contract)3. Pre-Con & Final Selections4. Pre-Production5. Field Production6. After Care, Maintenance,

Warranty, Service








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STAGE 1. PRE-SALES

Owned by: Sales• Follow defined sales

process• Start to set expectations

for how the ‘Production Process’ will work

• Be specific on how a project is bid & sold -Mobilizations, change orders, OT, exclusions, allowances, etc








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STAGE 2. SOLD (Signed Contract)

Owned by: Sales• After contract is signed, before being

sent to Pre-Con

• Site details updated: grades, plants, geometry/layout, Permit requirements, sub contractor proposals, work out allowances, irrigation & lighting plans, etc

• Final material selections made & approved by customer

• Custom items will take longer: tagged plants, granite counter tops, grills, non-standard stone, specialized subs, etc

Make sure the customer understands when they need to make all of their pending product or design decisions. If they aren’t made aware of the delays that will occur without their final decisions, they will end up being upset with time delays.

The starting (and finishing) timeframe of a project depends on knowing availability of all materials and sub-contractors!








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STAGE 3. PRE-CONOwned by: Sales

• Turn in initial Job Pack (Single Copies) w/ Pre Con forms

• Job Pack reviewed by production team leader

• Pre-Con meeting will be scheduled with project sales/design/production members within 1 week of turning in Job Pack. Project details review and site questions addressed

• Details, final plans & specs updated after Pre-Con meeting (Job Pack back to Sales) if needed

• Materials updated, all RFQ’s & production reports come from updates made in the ‘system’

• All plan copies & details generated and inserted back into final Job Pack along with any required updates

• Updated/Revised Job Pack turned back into production leader







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STAGE 4. PRE PRODUCTION

Owned by: Production Leader

• DIRECT COSTS START HERE! (Plant Buyer, Subs, Pre-Purchases)• Customer contacted by production leader• Schedule controlled by production leader, if all

design work completed and finalized. • RFQ’s sent out (generated from ‘system’)• Sub contractor & special order agreements/PO’s

sent out, signed up. Authorized company purchasers only!








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STAGE 4. PRE PRODUCTION

• Final job production reports created from the ‘system’

• Project ‘Ghant Chart’ created

• Project is entered into production schedule BASED ON PROJECT DETAILS! Not just a name on a piece of paper!

• Large bulk orders will be set up by the job Foreman

• Final field Job Pack is assembled, given to assigned foreman

• First job stages drafted by the production leader

Smooth running jobs are created from having a well defined Pre-Production process in place!








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STAGE 5. FIELD PRODUCTION

Owned by: Crew Foreman• This determines company P&L,

steps 1-4 support this stage!!!!!

• Landscape admin generates ‘Hourly Job Report’ daily & emails

• Weekly Production Planners and Change Order Forms completed daily by Foreman

• Foreman co-manages subs when working on their site, production leader manages subs at other times

• Foreman follows production process SOP from OP’s Manual

• Foreman co-ordinate ship dates of plants with Plant Buyer

• Foreman handles normal stock items

• Foreman communicates with customer daily while on site

• Foreman communicates w/ sales for layout walk thru’s, plant placement site visits, design changes or CO work requests

• Foreman Initiates Punch List walk thru’s w/ customer & sales, completes the final Punch List form and has it signed by customer

• Foreman initiates after care hand off w/ service

• Foreman completes the job completion form, updates as built plans








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STAGE 6. AFTER CARE

Owned by: Service Manager (or other)• Process starts before full construction crews pull off site. Foreman and SM inspect site &

walk thru details. SM meets customer, introduces themselves as contact for all service work or questions on project when it is completed (not sales).

• Service will tweak irrigation, adjust lights, monitor plant health in first 30 days after job completion – ‘Basic’ After Care

• Production Leader will manage subs after in-house crews finish internal work and foreman pulls on to next project.

• Construction crews will finish all of project, service crews will complete original contract work only on small items, special orders still on backorder, last minute add on work, or when a construction crew size becomes inefficient for remaining work.

• A 30 day and seasonal maintenance proposal will be presented to customer before job completion by a Maintenance Sales rep or the Service Manager.

• Service Manager or Maintenance Sales rep will propose future enhancement sales if project is under a maint. contract, large design projects will be pushed back to D/B Sales.

• SM will complete a ‘spring’ & 1-year site inspection for replacement work.







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PRODUCTION MODEL – Wide Gap

Sub 1

Pre Work Sub 2

Demo Work Bed Prep

Grading Sub 3 Lights

Trenching Ret Walls Irr Sod Trees Sod

Footers Inspection Pavers Sub 4 Irr Plants Mulch Walk Thru Clean up

Sleeving Mainline Plants Front Edging Plants back

Sub 4 Back Fill

Front Walls

Start of Project

End of projects always have fewer work options and are least efficient part of a project.







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PRODUCTION MODEL – Wide Gap

• All product & material decisions completed before starting. More efficient for company resources, less sales time needed on-site, doesn’t gum up schedule.

• Project can be ‘completed’ once it is started. Work is progressed toward the final project completion, not intermediate or stop-gap deadlines.

• Shorter overall time on site. Pull onto job, complete all work, pull off. Customers are happier with shorter work durations vs fast starts and slow finishes.

• More project options are available when work starts. Higher efficiency early on will compensate for less efficient time at the end of a project.

There are already enough risks for project delays in exterior construction work (rain, seasonal material, short supplies, etc). Keep projects at high efficiency early on to have the ability to plan around these natural factors.








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PRODUCTION MODEL –Forced Linear

Grading Sub 3

Footers

Inspection

Pavers

Pre Work Sub 2DECISION

Trenching

Ret Walls

Irr Sod

DECISION

Sleeving

Mainline

Plants Front

DECISION

Trees Sod

DECISION

Demo Work

Bed Prep

PULL OFF

Lights

PULL OFF

Sub 4

Back Fill

Front Walls

PULL OFF

Sub 4

Irr Plants

PULL OFF

Edging

Plants back

Mulch

Walk Thru

Clean up

Start of a Project

End of projects always have fewer work options and are least efficient part of a project.







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PRODUCTION MODEL- Forced Linear

• Project started without all product, material or design decisions made. Site also not ready to finish project when it is started.

• Narrow window of work options, difficult to gain high efficiency potential on projects. Weather delays last longer without having some wet-weather work available to complete.

• Prone to: pull offs, redo’s, crew stops, longer project duration, crew changes, over hours, low margins, more sales time required during production process.

• Customers will also lose confidence in your company and start to suffer ‘project fatigue’. They will become harder to please and second guess the work. Projects become most difficult to collect payment on.

• Project is nearly impossible to schedule out (until the end) and ends up being ‘fire drill’ managed (purchasing, subs, company resources). Typical of a rushed start with no prep time.

• Reasons?? Customer panic or indifference, “Starting Phobia”, holes in schedule (usually from other disorganized projects), delayed site timing from a GC or builder, mid-project deadlines so other project trades can complete their work.

96% of unhappy customers don’t complain!







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CHANGE ORDERS- What is a ‘CO’?

Change Order – Basic– 6 red daylily for 6 yellow, or 8ft pine instead of 10ft– Still additional costs to make swaps or change vendors, 1 or 2 per

job, happens during work flowChange ‘Out’ – Scope Revision

– Change in design & construction details, change out of a portion (or all) of an order (plants, subs etc)

– Design or spec is not complete, project is not complete!– Significant cost increase, have incurred costs already for original

items Redo of something already installed will have more delivery costs, affects crew work flow, affects other projects!

– Many small change orders add up to a ‘Change Out’– Very difficult to control, prone to errors & mistakes

Add On– ‘Adds to’ original material order, scope increase– Good Sell! Add to original orders, may not incur additional soft

costs if added in early.







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CHANGE ORDERS - Process

DESIGN/SALES REPS

• All increases in scope of work need to signed off on by customer

• ‘No Charge’ CO’s need to be signed off by Sr Management

• Designs or specs need updating & then sent ‘To Production’

• Any updated material lists need to be turned into production

• Production sheets and RFQ’s updated by OP’s, then distributed to Crew Supervisors

FIELD STAFF

• If a design change is required, sales is contacted

• Field change order requests from customer need to be signed off in field by customer, turned into sales for invoicing

• Larger scope increases that need pricing help should have info sent to sales/estimator to price out.

• No additional work to be completed until CO’s are approved.








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SET EXPECTATIONS -Internal

• Step 5 is most critical- everything else in steps 1-4 supports efficient, high quality field production

• Turn in a final job pack with all details worked out. It also reduces the amount of additional Sales rep’s time in the field

• Sales needs to be on budget through the year to have a consistent supply of work that can be managed efficiently.

• Set proper external expectations up front, explain the benefits.

• Sell individual projects to be profitable

• Sell collectively as a team so project production is efficient and profitable

• Do Not drop piles of ‘Rush’ jobs into Production. Quality suffers.

• Profitable Design/Build and landscape installation work is run from a strong pipeline. Always need options ‘B’ & ‘C’ if ‘A’ falls through. Gives you strength in future sales and eliminates ‘fire drill’ time in everyone’s schedule

• The Company is stronger in the market working as a team.







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SET EXPECTATIONS-External• Quality work comes from working off set plans and having sufficient prep time to pull

together project details (before starting). Crew size is set to control quality, do not throw extra guys around on projects to speed things up.

• Pricing is based on being able to complete the project once it starts, or to the estimated # of mobilizations. On new construction sites, prefer all other exterior work from other trades to be completed before landscape work starts: gutters, painting, stucco, masonry, roofing, electric, carpentry, etc. We need all of the site to start.

• Call out and limit mobilizations, especially on builder projects. Bid properly! This is costly and if made aware upfront we won’t run into issues and can collect CO’s. Landscapers tend to get run over without setting site expectations on a project.

• Changes made during construction are going to be more costly, directly and indirectly; redo/scrap work already done, time already spent on sourcing original material, time multiplier, pull offs & re-mobilizations, more set up costs (heaters, tarping, weather control, etc) STARTS IN STAGE 4!!

• Work to complete projects to a target date, but cannot guarantee this (weather, materials, waiting on builders, quality control). Work to achieve the final project completion in the most efficient methods possible. OT (evening & weekends) and other costs incurred for meeting external timeframes are billable (tarping, heaters, hauling, working in bad weather conditions, etc).







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NEED MORE HELP?CONTACT US REGARDING MORE INFORMATION ON SETTING UP A DETAILED PRODUCTION PROCESS FOR YOUR COMPANY INCLUDING:

• Mapping your Production Work Flows• Schedule Boards• Production Forms• Job Pack Templates• Technology & System Integrations• Production Management Training

Office: 800/820-2590Email: [email protected]: www.CrossPointsGroup.com Skype: Sean.CrossPoints

Just give us a call, connect with us on Social or visit our web site at www.CrossPointsGroup.com to learn more about our company and see the other services we provide including: Data Analytics, Strategic Planning & Growth Management, Profitability Analysis, Estimating & Budgeting Systems, Social Media & Blogging Service, Technology Integrations, Sales/CRM Training, and Marketing Systems.

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6 key stages to efficient landscape project installations

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