The real benefits of a quick build time are a lot more than a boost
to cash flows or a marketing edge. While most builders start crunching schedules for these
reasons, they find that reducing hard costs and quality improvement are the big benefits.
Why does a typical home take 90 days to build? Ask people in your
company why you can't cut your standard cycle time to 45days. You'll get chuckles and a
list of problems that seem to make it impossible. Take a look at the list and you'll see
two things. First, none add value to the house. They're on the list because of things that
go wrong and create problems. Second, each item costs you time and money.
If you didn't have these problems and everything went right, what
would happen? If the trades are there when you need them, materials work right,
workmanship is impeccable, how long would it take then? Would quality be better? Would you
save money? Of course.
It may sound a little theoretical, but figure out how long your
schedule would be if everything went right and you'll have an idea of how much of your
build time is spent on things that go wrong. The difference between an "everything
going right" schedule and your standard schedule is the amount of time you usually
spend on problems. Because build cycle time is an indicator for the level of quality
problems, savvy builders measure cycle time to track progress toward preventing problems
and their associated costs.
You can figure out an "everything going right" cycle time
by crunching a schedule on paper. Estimate the actual working hours each trade needs. On
an hourly time line, sequence trades one right after another. Schedule more than one trade
in the house when it makes sense. We are examining the limits of physical possibility, so
be careful to remove the extra time scheduled in for trades because of their own problems.
Every builder with a 90-day schedule has expedited occasional homes
in 60 days or less. If you calculate a build time of more than 30 days you've made a
mistake. Remember, demonstration homes have been built in a couple of days.
Now that you know how much time you allocate to problems, simply
mandating a schedule to be shorter doesn't work. Quality and cost will suffer. Closing the
gap between your standard schedule time and the theoretical minimum takes a more
systematic approach to finding and preventing quality problems. Consider using one or more
of the following tools:
Come up with a new schedule. Ask trade contractors to come together
to work out a new schedule with you. Each trade gets a yellow sticky note for each of his
or her job activities. Put up a calendar and let them work out among themselves who should
be doing what when. Schedule in half-day time blocks instead of full days. Listen
carefully how each trade identifies obstacles when setting the amount of time needed or
why one trade can't work in the home at the same time as other trades. Removing these
obstacles are all potential improvement opportunities.
Plan your improvements. Involve the trades in setting priorities for
preventing problems that adversely impact build time. It can be as basic as removing
obstacles to having more than one trade in the house at a time or improving the quality
controls of a trade contractor. Keep in mind that the 80-20 rule applies here: 80 percent
of the time spent on problems is due to 20 percent of the problems. Picking the right
problems to work on is critical.
Measure the build time for each home. Plot it on a graph and measure
your progress. Examine trends in build time. Understand why changes occur so you can learn
from your own successes.
Crunching build time through quality improvement is a powerful tool.
Build in 45 days? No one said it would be easy. If you need some motivation, just imagine
moving the other 45 days of operating expenses costs to the bottom line. Everything is
possible.