Because we develop a Microsoft Project viewer, we are in a position to see how businesses small and large are using scheduling and project management as a competitive advantage and differentiator. Home Forge Remodeling, Inc. (http://www.homeforgeremodeling.com) is a great example of how innovation in project management actually becomes a deciding factor in winning new business.
Home Forge Remodeling is a full-service kitchen and bath residential remodeling company headquartered in Decatur, Georgia. Home Forge represents a dramatic innovation to the industry’s approach to residential remodeling by offering time-definite remodeling services that decrease the average time of on-site construction for the home owner.
Home Forge minimizes construction delays and improves construction team productivity by uniquely pre-staging projects in a company warehouse prior to construction start and transporting all components en-masse to the job site in a company trailer. On site, Home Forge utilizes a single, consistent on-site remodeling team, selected for their work quality and team approach, through the entire project. These actions constitute a synchronized logistics management process, controlling both materials and labor in a manner that may be unique in the industry. It allows Home Forge to significantly shorten normal construction periods for consumers and provide a time-definite completion date, assure an above average level of performance and quality in its contracts, and maintain higher margins then average.
Home Forge was founded by Bruce Meller to exploit an opportunity that he had identified in the remodeling industry for a national company with a proven brand recognized for honesty, efficiency, time-definite construction, and quality. One major complaint of consumers is that remodeling often takes longer than planned, due to poor planning or job changes that require construction delays while contractors order and receive new construction materials. Bruce believed that the Log Home construction industry offered a solution to this problem. Many companies in the Log Home Industry pre-construct log home “kits” at their manufacturing centers, and then disassemble the homes for final construction at a client’s site. The kits are packed with all required components, and the components are marked in a way that allows the construction team to quickly assemble the log home. Construction labor is highly efficient, since the construction team remains at work at the site rather than traveling to suppliers to purchase missing components. Bruce believed that this concept could be applied to home remodeling by pre-staging jobs in a company warehouse prior to moving materials to the client’s home.
Bruce also believed that best practices from other successful companies could be applied to the home remodeling industry to effectively change its economics, beginning with the current labor model. Instead of having a primary contractor hire independent subcontractors with specific skills (plumbing, carpentry, painting, electrical, tile) who are scheduled individually onto the jobsite, the company will assemble the appropriate tradesmen for each job into a cohesive team that remains onsite and works together from demolition through finished remodeling. The clearest analogy of the disparity between the current industry model and Home Forge is the difference between the approaches of different automobile manufacturers. With some manufacturers, the cars move down a production line, and each worker performs a particular task on them. There is greater precision in controlling the quality of each subcomponent of work, but poor precision in controlling the overall quality of the car. At other manufacturers, a team of workers builds each car from scratch. These small teams of 5-7 workers stay with the same car from beginning to end. The result is much higher quality. Car buyers, like most consumers who remodel, are primarily concerned with the overall quality of the product.
Bruce also applied best practices from the logistics industry to Home Forge. By developing an industrial engineering performance measurement system that closely measures operations and financial performance on an ongoing basis to allow rapid management intervention, Home Forge continues to optimize its process over time.
The company’s initial model has worked very effectively on its initial projects and delivered quality remodeling services within the time-definite construction timeframes promised. The company believes that these initial projects have proven the validity of the model. The company has made and continues to refine the model as it identifies potential improvements, and is now planning to expand the company in Atlanta as a base for future national expansion.
Could applying best practices from other industries help your business? Could scheduling actually become a differentiator for your business? We’d love to hear from you about success stories similar to Home Forge Remodeling.
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