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Posted By: scameron81 When jobs go south - 02/04/06 03:27 PM
I was wondering what different companies do when jobs go over budget. Currently its mostly a lot of finger pointing between the estimator and the lead electrician, about why the job went over, and then management says "oh well I guess you can't make money on every job." To me this seems totally unproductive and not a very business minded attitude to have on the subject.
I have recently been moved into the office and I would like to start some kind of post job review process so that we can try to mitigate the problems in the future. I was thinking that the key people involved could sit down and discuss the problems that they had on the job without placing blame, and feeling like they need to defend everything that they did. I was just wondering if anyone else does anything like this and if it works at all?
Posted By: ShockMe77 Re: When jobs go south - 02/04/06 04:09 PM
I wish we had business meetings like this. We could all benefit from jobs going more smoothly.
Posted By: Radar Re: When jobs go south - 02/05/06 04:40 AM
That really is a good idea Scameron, although ya gotta realize that the overwhelming tendancy of people is to defend their actions, which necessarily implies blame elsewhere. Very dificult to keep everyone neutral and the meeting positive and productive.

Let me ask - Does your company have Project Manager(s)? That being another middle person between the estimator and the job foreman, who's job it is to coordinate and manage the job. Maybe that's your new position? I remember being in a similar situation with a small company that had no PM's, the jobs were administered and coordinated between the estimator and the job foremen - neither of which really had time for the managing task.

Nevertheless, I think a post job review for each job is a great idea, not only to go over problem areas but to also mention what went right. Team building, you know?

Good luck in your new position,
Radar
Posted By: briselec Re: When jobs go south - 02/05/06 11:00 AM
Shouldn't that be done as on-going thing while the job is in progress? It's a bit late to try to fix things once the job is finished.
Posted By: georgestolz Re: When jobs go south - 02/05/06 06:53 PM
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I was wondering what different companies do when jobs go over budget.
Implement draconian policies that automatically punish the wicked, reward the expedient and bring the entire company's quality standards down to a low common denominator.

(Otherwise known as piecework.) [Linked Image]

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I have recently been moved into the office and I would like to start some kind of post job review process so that we can try to mitigate the problems in the future.
Computerize and document productivity. A good idea (IMO) would be to have a record of everyone's productivity before they are aware of your weekly monitoring, and then start your engines.

This gives you a means by which to gauge the opinions and input you're receiving from the foremen. If you hear many excuses from low-producing foremen, then watch them closer.

If a normally well-producing crew turns in a lackluster performance, you would have more cause to believe their 'excuses' for the bad week. Or more cause to simply overlook it.

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I was thinking that the key people involved could sit down and discuss the problems that they had on the job without placing blame, and feeling like they need to defend everything that they did.
If you have the charisma to make people feel at ease and honest about events that they would normally be sensitive about, then you have a rare gift. I've not seen it often. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and people can get pretty dishonest and cutthroat if they feel their livlihood threatened.

Just my opinon. [Linked Image]
Posted By: scameron81 Re: When jobs go south - 02/05/06 07:44 PM
Thanks for all your replys. My new position is residential estimator/ project manager. The guy who was doing it before had some personal problems and let everything go by the wayside. They are also looking to me to bring the residential esitmating into the 21st century. Currently the estimator just charges between $50-$200 an outlet depending on the location and the customness of the home so there aren't even established man hours for each job. My main goal is to have the department run a lot more professionaly which will hopefully aleviate a lot of the problems that plague the department right now. I hope I am not biting off more than I can chew.
Posted By: BobH Re: When jobs go south - 02/06/06 04:27 AM
Good luck! I tried the management thing and found I would rather deal with technical problems than people problems! Keepin a crew and office staff happy and productive and profitable is not easy. I commend anyone who does this sucessfully.
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