The most common excuse for missed paperwork, missed information, poor communication, or forgotten planning is that ‘we were too busy’. Foreman in the field don’t have the luxury of sticky notes on their desk, or a laptop that keeps reminding them of important times, but we can’t let ‘too busy’ slow production. Before long, we’re ‘too busy’ making up for mistakes because we were too busy to do things right the first time.
Planning – and scheduling time to plan is essential for maximum productivity. Working 110% of the time does not equate to improved productivity. It can work in short bursts, but in the long run it leads to poor planning, poor communication and inevitably poor morale. Since we all know that our foremen require “head time” to organize and plan their jobs, we asked our foremen to help craft the ‘perfect day’.
| 6:00 am | Arrive at shop, inspect and prep trucks + trailers |
| 6:15 – 6:30 am | Depart from yard. |
| 7:00 – 7:15 am | Arrive at site. Morning meeting. Outline goals for the day. What do we need (labor, equipment, materials, information?)? What’s getting in our way (what’s slowing us down?) |
| 7:15 – 7:30 am | Machine inspections, organize tools by task |
| 7:30 am | Work |
| 10:00 – 10:15 am | AM Break |
| 10:15 am | Work |
| 12:30 pm | Lunch Break |
| 1:00 – 1:05 pm | 5-10 minute meeting – Review end-of-day goals. What do we need (labor, equipment, material deliveries, information?) to get to our next set of goals? |
| 3:00- 3:15 pm | Afternoon Break |
| 3:15 pm | Work |
| 4:30 pm | Begin daily cleanup (assigned crew members only) |
| 5:10 pm | Final cleanup (all crew). Load all remaining tools, materials and waste. Leave site clean + safe. |
| 5:20 pm | Final meeting (10 min). Did we achieve goals? What do we need (labor, equipment, materials, information?) to proceed to next phases. |
| 5:30 pm | Leave site |
The “perfect day” ensures that the foremen have time for planning, that there’s plenty of communication between the foremen and the crews, and that employees leave at a decent time to get home and rested for the next day. It also ensures that we’re continuously reviewing the work and the upcoming requirements for the next phase of work no less than 3 times a day. Results include:
- Less forgotten materials and equipment
- Better communication (+ less mistakes) between foremen and sales/design team
- Faster surfacing of missing/incorrect information
- Better decision making
- Improved accountability and responsibility for all employees on the crew
- Improved work/life balance
The extra few minutes a day spent planning and communicating the plan saves hours in mistakes/rework and lost productivity due to missing or incorrect information. See if it doesn’t make a difference for your crews.
Landscape Management Network is estimating and business management software built for landscape and green industry contractors. For more information about LMN, check out the website at www.landscapemanagementetwork.com.
