Production Manager

  • Enjoy the Trip

    At Brothers Strong, we think of the term "takeoff" not as an estimate but rather as that point in time when a project is passed from sales to production and a job takes flight. On large-scale remodeling jobs -- whether large-scale to you is $20,000 or $200,000 -- the systems you develop are the...

     
  • Assigning management duties to lead staff to cut overhead costs

    Dale Nikula, president of Encore Construction Co., knew that he wanted to grow his $1.2 million company into something much larger.

     
  • Effective interviewing and hiring methods

    How many times have you hired someone because that person happened to be in the right place at the right time, only to find out later that he or she wasn't really qualified?

     
  • Weekly Job Control Report

    Greco Remodelers, Manassas, Va., did not have a production manager to check on the status of jobs, so they decided to create a weekly job control report. If we see a problem, we can be more proactive to rectify it and get the job back on track," Annette Greco says.

     
  • Q+A: Employees of the Year

    In the past eight years, the two best people I hired came in different ways. In the past, my best field employees have come from knowing somebody in the industry and getting referrals from that direction, or knowing somebody's work prior to them coming with us and being able to work them into our...

     
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    Knowing the future of your business as it relates to production

    Scott Mosby's company, Mosby Building Arts, St. Louis, generated $4 million in sales last year. "If the business is going to be $10 million," Mosby says, "the implied question is, What does your staff look like when it reaches that point?"

     
  • Dashboard Frogs

    Mark Scott's crew has found a humorous way to help face difficult tasks. Scott says his estimator, Kirk Van Camp, and his production manager, Andrew Hannan, took Tracy's advice to heart.

     
  • Weekly production meetings

    Bob Sturgeon was in the middle of an employee review when the idea came up: The employee wanted to know if it would be possible to hold a monthly or weekly meeting for everyone in the company. Two weeks later, Sturgeon set up a weekly production meeting.

     
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    Big50: Teamwork

    The husband and wife team of Darlene and George Gayler handle sales for their company. The crew and production manager have a say in the schedule and act as a team to diagnose and solve any problems, Darlene says.

     
  • Invoicing some expenses as direct costs for overhead

    How can they charge less and still make money?They can't, but they make up the difference by invoicing as direct costs some expenses that would be considered overhead on a fixed-price job. A complete list of reimbursable expenses for cost-plus work is included in AIA documents A111 & A114 ($8 each...