ASA Provides Members With Productivity Tools
Date Posted: February 29, 2016
Posted In: News, Organizations,
by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum STL
The carpenter’s old maxim of, “measure twice, cut once,” was never truer than today — particularly when it comes to contractors who are trying to balance jammed schedules with labor shortages.
Planning and communication are the carpenters’ rule that will keep contractors from winding up with the short end of the stick, FMI consultant Gregg Schoppmann told owners of firms and their field personnel last Tuesday (Feb. 23).
The two-day productivity workshop was provided to the members and their superintendents and foremen for the cost of their meals. It was the brainchild of ASA President Kevin Douglas of Freeman Contracting.
“Coming up through the chairs it’s always been my goal to give something back to the members. I heard Gregg Schoppmann speak in Seattle.” He presented the idea to his program chairs and others, such as Walter Bazan of Bazan Painting, a former ASA national president.
The consensus was that the program was a good idea. ASA Midwest Council members said that they would like a program on productivity. “There are billions and billions of dollars coming into this area. Our members have trouble getting people. They need to be more productive with the people they have.”
Just under 90 ASA members and their employees participated in the program. “It couldn’t have been more well received,” Douglas said.
The workshop was divided into sessions for field personnel and for office staff. Schoppmann stressed the importance of communication and planning between the two disciplines. Douglas said that he and his superintendent learned from Schoppmann that they had, “not been doing the right amount of job planning.”
Cameron Wies, estimator for TJ Wies Contracting Inc., has studied world class project organization methods close up. Before working for his family’s firm he was a project engineer for a similar contractor in Germany. That firm brought its crews in for a pre-job breakfast every day. Project managers and crews checked their supplies out for the day using bar coded items.
Wies said that TJ Wies had used Schoppmann’s productivity group at FMI in house at their firm previously. “He is a really great consultant for them who preaches and researches the benefits of pre-job planning and the project schedule and cost savings benefits of having and taking the time to properly plan for a project before it begins,” Wies said. 
“He touched on the point (in the ASA presentation) that in today’s construction industry, too often the owners are waiting until the last second to award the project to a GC, which in turn cannot award the projects to their trades partners. The end result is massive amounts of wasted time and effort when the job starts the next week, and all you have is bodies onsite with no clue what to do.”
Schoppmann said that executive leadership of contracting firms needs to be, “more proactive before they go out in the field. They need to have the right planning tools and right processes.”
He likened a contractor who has their processes and procedures down cold and clearly communicated to their team to buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks. “It’s a branded way of doing things,” he said. “The owner knows why the contractor is doing things,” Schoppmann said, “and what to expect.”
“It’s not left to chance.”