The Way We Were
First of all, let's talk about how remodeling production was handled in the past, that is, almost a carbon copy of the home building industry.
Every remodeling company of any size was divided into three departments: sales, production and administration. Up to about $500,000 annual volume, the company owner handled both sales and production management, with the assistance of an office manager/ secretary/bookkeeper. As volume reached $500,000 sales and production were divided and either a salesperson or a production manager was hired.
There were carpenters on payroll or carpenter subcontractors. There were trim carpenters and framing carpenters. The usual carpentry crew was one or two lead carpenters and one or two helpers.
The production manager took a project from initial sale to final completion, and was responsible for 5 to 15 jobs depending on size, usually visiting every job site once every day or two. The production manager/field superintendent ordered all materials, coordinated subcontractors, and scheduled carpentry crews. Often the carpenters would come to the company office every morning for the day's assignment, or the production manager would call every carpenter every night or early in the morning to tell them where to go. Most field carpenters knew no more about a job than their own particular work for the time they were on that job.
On a typical room addition, the production manager supervised the layout, footings and foundation work. Then a framing crew would be scheduled to frame out the shell. Then subbing out the roofing and siding would be done about the same time the electrical, plumbing and HVAC subcontractors were completing their rough-in and getting necessary inspections. Then insulation and drywall subs came in, and finally the trim carpentry crew was brought back to finish the job ready for painting. Flooring and painting were coordinated during this process, then the setting of fixtures and final trim-out by the electrician, the plumber and the HVAC people was completed.
Scheduling was often a nightmare and there were many times when no work went on for days or weeks because of scheduling complications. Subcontractors often worked with minimal supervision except for the brief visit by the field superintendent/production manager. All this was normal for most remodeling contractors, and some actually achieved timely completion and customer satisfaction -- sometimes at great cost to the company.
A remodeling production manager could handle at most $750,000 in annual sales volume, and typically was paid 6% of the total gross. Each carpenter on payroll generated a maximum of $80,000-$100,000 total volume a year; when you include helpers, the total production per person was closer to $60,000-$80,000 a year. Each carpenter almost always had a helper on the job, so a two-man crew might produce $120,000-$140,000 volume per year.
Most remodeling companies over $400,000-$500,000 volume had a full time truck driver ("gofer") who picked up materials from the lumberyard and delivered them to the job to stay ahead of the crews for materials. Companies had accounts with 15-20 lumberyards or other suppliers.
Most remodeling companies used helpers to do clean-up, which usually meant cleaning up after all the subs as well as the lead carpenter.
In summary, production managers were running many jobs on which they were responsible for all the complexities, without being on the job enough to have any real control. For years we have said that the most difficult person to hire in the industry is a good production manager/field superintendent. Actually, the problem wasn't being unable to find good production managers, it was top-down management where supervision and control is almost impossible and is likely to result in poor job cost control, poor customers satisfaction, and poor production.
The New Concept
Studies of remodeling have shown that the one-person crew is the most efficient: that first person is 80%-100% efficient, the second is 25% efficient, and the third is minus 5%.
This leads naturally to using the lead carpenter concept. The lead carpenter takes over the job at the pre-construction conference and runs the job from that point on. The lead carpenter comes to the job every morning and stays all day long, getting carpentry help only as needed, keeping the material flow going, scheduling subcontractors, and dealing with the customer.
Here's how the typical room addition goes now. Once the layout, footing and foundation is put in -- supervised by the lead carpenter -- then there may be two or three people including the lead carpenter to do the rough framing. The lead carpenter stays on alone and tidies up the framing, then moves outside to run the roofing, siding, cornice and trim while the electrical, mechanical and HVAC contractors come in -- under the lead's supervision -- to rough in the job and get their inspections done. Then the lead carpenter moves back inside and stays there, coordinating subcontractors as necessary, and doing most of the work himself until the job is completed. That one person is on the job every day all day, managing the project and doing the bulk of the carpentry work.
Source: HomeTechOnline.com