Published June 2007

A System for Every Job

By George Hedley (page 20)

Build efficiency and more consistent service with step-by-step operation standards

During the first seven years starting and building my construction company, I tried to do it all myself. I did all the estimates and presented the bids; I signed all the contracts, subcontracts, and change orders; I made the big field decisions; I purchased all materials and equipment; I went to all the job meetings; I supervised concrete slab pours; and made every personnel decision. This made me crazy, raised my weight, and caused most of my hair to fall out!

One evening for dinner I took my family to McDonald’s. I noticed the boss wasn’t there, the employees were 16 years old, the customers were happy and the food was consistent and relatively edible. I thought: “How do they do it without the owner supervising and making every decision?” I asked a server to show me their secret. He took me behind the counter where they have pictures clearly displaying how to build different hamburgers and menu items.

Wow! A huge company runs smoothly using pictures of the finished product. This guarantees consistent quality. Plus, the owner doesn’t have to be onsite all the time making every decision for every customer’s order. If I could do this in my business, I could also build an organized company.

A systemized business produces consistent performance and the same results every time. How much money are you losing relying on your people to do their best and not following company installation and operational standards? The results of owning a systemized business include on-time projects, quality workmanship, on-budget performance, safe working conditions, repeat customers and consistent profits.

Good systems are simple

Excellent companies have simple systems. Outline each system on one piece of paper, written or drawn, detailing a picture of the end result desired to meet your company, customer, or project specification. The best systems are designed by the people who actually do the work and know how to do it best.

For example, at hotels, all rooms always look the same when ready to occupy. How do they do this? Simple. A picture of a ready room is shown to the housekeepers, and the supervisors explain what is expected. They don’t care how the result is accomplished, just that the room is perfect when completed. This simple approach can be applied to every part of your business.

Create a “DO” manual

To organize and systemize your company requires time and money to produce consistent results. Create a “DO” manual of pictures, checklists, and guidelines as your company minimum standards. Build a three-ring binder of standard systems for every aspect of your company and field operations. Focus on the important things first that will make a difference in your bottom line. Make a goal to create one system a week and you will be organized in a year.

7 steps to create systems

• Identify areas to systemize: Start a “fix-it” list identifying everything you need to fix in your company. Keep this list handy and add to it when things go wrong. At your manager meetings, pick the top one or two items to systemize every week.

• Assign a system team: After choosing a system to create, pick three or four people to work on the company standard. Let them pick a convenient time and location to work together for a few hours. Involve those who work in the area being systemized. For example, your team might include a manager, supervisor and driver when systemizing a standard for septic system pumping.

• Draft minimum standards: Create checklists with pictures of the desired end result for each system. An example might be the image of a thoroughly cleaned portable restroom or a well-maintained vacuum truck. Draft it on a standard paper for punching and including in your binder of job standards.

• Formalize it: Assign a staff person to be in charge of formalizing and distributing the systems.

• Try it: Let the team of workers who created the system try it and work out all the bugs for a few weeks before implementing it companywide.

• Implement it: At regular monthly meetings, have the team members who created the system present it to the entire company. Insist everyone follow the system per the company standard — no exceptions, including yourself. If someone protests, let them put the item back up on the “fix-it” list for further revision.

• Follow-up: After six months, revisit the new systems to ensure they are still being used and working well.

The beauty of systems is not having to worry about every job being done to the same standard. This will allow you to spend your time on important matters as little problems go away. To get started, create a “fix-it” list today and you will be organized sooner than you think.