Crew Planning for Specialty Contractors
Crew planning across multiple projects is difficult when you need to reach milestones or revenue goals while managing multiple projects and durations with varying crew sizes. It’s difficult to implement a standardized process without a single source of project information. You’ve got to get your project completed– on time, on budget, the first time.
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CONSTRUCTION PLANNING CHALLENGES
Crew planning across multiple projects is difficult which can present some of the following challenges.
Poor Visibility for Crew Size Planning
- Managing work across the different customers, projects, crew sizes, and time requirements is hard
- No way of forecasting labor amount
- Cannot confidently bid on jobs and communicate with clients when their needs change
Challenging to Adjust the Plan on the Fly
- Can’t identify the bottleneck in real time
- No single source of truth for today’s project and crew staffing
- Cannot adjust quickly to move crews between projects and maximize available manpower
Hard to Manage Daily Scope and Crew Size
- You don’t have enough workers for the next day– forecasting the labor needs per project let alone per day or week remains a challenge
Difficulty Communicating Internally
- Your plan hasn’t been consistently updated
- Nothing’s ready and no one has the answer
ALTERNATIVES
Spend Hours Creating and Managing (Visually Unappealing) Spreadsheets
- Hours are wasted manipulating data and moving headcounts
100+ Phone Calls by Lunch
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You make dozens of phone calls & texts to coordinate changes between and across multiple projects and GCs
Multiple Revisions Within the Day
- Despite finalizing and emailing a spreadsheet, changes are inevitable and the process begins again
5 REASONS TO CONSIDER
BEST SOFTWARE FOR CREW SIZE PLANNING
There are five main reasons to consider Touchplan:
EASY to…
- Plan and Manage Crew Size
- Plan and Tweak on the Fly
- Manage Daily Scope and Workforce
- Collaborate and Communicate in Real Time
- Access Best Customer Service
Let’s consider each of these reasons in detail.
1. EASY to Plan and Manage Crew Size
Easily visualize your staffing plan across projects in one view so you can stay on schedule and confidently bid with certainty.
Clear Day-to-Day Plan
- Easily see the durations for your plan and activities to reduce the learning curve
Swimlane Visualization
- Visualize crews or milestones all in one project space to track jobs
- Understand how it lines up with the overall project goals
Look-Ahead Planning
- Accurately sequence tasks, keep members aligned, be accountable, and deliver on time
Actionable Insights
- Review precise, real-time project metrics down to the field level
- See problems in advance and proactively avoid future delays
Reliable Promising
- Calculate a reliable promise date for milestone/project completion
- Projects can stay on or ahead of schedule with accurate forecasting
2. EASY to Plan and Tweak on the Fly
Rely on a standardized tool with real-time updates and detailed variance reasons to identify bottlenecks, manage expectations, and keep projects on schedule.
Digital Planning
- Simultaneously plan multiple projects in one platform and transform spreadsheets into a collaborative plan that updates instantly on any device
- Clear view of the project makes it easy to plan and tweak
Material Tracking
- Easily see what the demand for materials will be and proactively plan what’s needed
- Team will instantly see changes so orders can be adjusted accordingly
Real-Time Updates
- Easily view tasks, updates, and the overall plan to stay on track in the field
- Insight into where crew members are so foremen can plan and tweak as needed
Variance Reasons and PPC Tracking
- Track reasons for how or when a job can be completed based on the GCs schedule
- Track commitments that are compiled through the PPC Dashboard to help improve on the fly to better manage expectations
3. EASY to Manage Daily Scope and Workforce
Access actionable insights to analyze and adjust where teams are ahead or behind on planning versus what is really happening on site.
Live Crew Size View
- View daily crew sizes across multiple projects
- Monitor current staffing utilization and availability
Staffing Profile
- Understand labor needs across all active projects
- Proactively reallocate crews according to your needs
Gantt Chart Report
- Holistic view of the project or plan
- View metrics across the duration of a specific task, crew size, planned dates, actual finish dates, and specific roles by day, week, or month
Dashboard Views
- Visualize multiple projects and jobsite locations for the daily plan
- Download additional reports such as weekly work planning to see who’s on site, crew sizes, and more
- View all of your data in a simple visual dashboard to understand where your project is and where it needs help
Quantity Tracking Dashboard
- Track material and view a dashboard displaying the actual vs. planned quantity for how much material the team predicted vs. used
Budget and Time Overrun
- Track where and how much a project is going over time and budget to identify areas that need attention
4. EASY to Collaborate and Communicate in Real Time
Digital collaboration tools enable teams to stay up to date, adjust the game plan as a team, and build better together.
Collaboration Tools
- Collaboratively edit, view, and develop daily, weekly, and Look-Ahead plans
Unlimited Users
- One license includes all users
- Everyone can adopt and use, from the office all the way to the field level
Mobile Access Anywhere
- Users can access Touchplan from anywhere on any device
- Teams can modify, change, and view project details remotely from the field
Cloud-based
- Touchplan stores historical data and enables team members access projects from anywhere via the internet
5. EASY to Access Best Customer Service
Before Using Touchplan
- No efficient process to help schedule projects
- Difficult to manage the data and appropriately execute
- Hours spent manipulating data
- Hard to track materials and adjust when issues arise
A lot of hours had been wasted in simply manipulating the plan data, and eventually the plan data gets so out of date you simply end up in a reactionary state.
After Using Touchplan
- Ability to see duration of a project from the start to end date
- Can manage multiple areas of a project from one digital interface
- Substantial time saved updating the plan throughout the project
- Can diagnose problems in real-time and adjust timely and accordingly
With Touchplan, I can group our people by crews with a foreman at the lead and point and click. Its visual appeal and ease of use made it an easy decision to go with Touchplan.
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