100% of Sierra Nevada Construction’s foremen report daily job production with HeavyJob Mobile, and it takes them 10-minutes or less to complete their diary and timecards for the day. A pattern of successful companies getting good data from the field is emerging as the role of foremen is being elevated to a position of trust. By keeping account of their own production and planning scenarios, the foremen or supervisors of today are able to act quickly when productivity is going north or south of the mark.

Katherine Miller has been Sierra Nevada’s Office Engineer for the past 7 years and is in charge of the day-to-day tasks to assist the field. She builds processes and implements change to fit the company and its users’ needs.

“HeavyJob Mobile has been our best biggest purchase to date,” says Katherine. “In the past, we had to give each foreman an hour to do timecards. With HeavyJob Mobile, the foremen can get it done in 10 minutes.”

At Sierra Nevada, the foremen report daily quantities (along with their time) as a matter of pride that helps them measure and perform their jobs better. She believes the key to their success is reinforcing the importance of their role to the overall well-being of the company and empowering them to communicate when they need something that will help them do their job better.

“The foremen, by nature, are proud of having good production,” says Katherine. “How did we do today? How many feet were we able to complete? Did we have an unmarked utility that got in the way? Can we plan production better for tomorrow? The things they report help us know the struggles that are out in the field. And, by using their diaries and cost code notes, the foremen can communicate back to the office how conditions affected productivity. They are proud to track their production to see if they can meet or beat the estimate for the day.”

Sierra Nevada Construction operates in California and Nevada in both public and private work. They offer services in roadway reconstruction, utility, and drainage construction, asphalt paving, and material production. The company believes that self-motivated individuals are the building block of their company, and putting trust in them will move the company into the future.

“We tell the foremen that for future jobs we are bidding, we need to know how close our estimating team is to getting it right,” says Katherine. “We need them to put in good information. From the foreman perspective, there is nothing more frustrating for them than to have numbers that do not mean anything. It goes hand-in-hand: you put in good production quantity, and we will dial the estimates in on the next job. It is a challenge to them to see if we are growing on the front side, and they are able to track things [in HeavyJob] to see how we come out on the backside. There is a satisfaction to be able to see if we are all balanced at the end, and where we need to improve.”

“After the project is complete, we take the data that we learned and do better on the next job. We can give feedback to the estimators about similar jobs we are bidding on tomorrow or next week. We can say that we fell short here or there, and we can communicate with them how to bid better,” says Katherine.

Tracking time alone is good for paying your people and measuring your labor cost on the job. But in order to understand how your crews are performing, productivity must be measured. By using the notes in the diary, tags, and notes on cost codes, we can give meaning to the production. That history of job experience can be used by the estimators to provide the project managers with truer-to-life budgets. If you need any help with expanding the use of your field systems or need help with HeavyBid or HeavyJob, call our support at 800-444-3196. We are available all the time.

We’ve compiled some Learning Resources to get you started. If you have any tips or tricks that have helped you track better production, please share them in the comments below.

• Academy Course: Timecard Entry
• Academy Course: Creating a Production Plan
• Academy Course: Comparing Production in the Field as it relates to the Daily Plan
• Support Article: How to see To-Date Quantity for a Cost Code
• Support Article: Creating a Production Plan to Get Your Job on Track
• Support Article: Enabling Production History In HeavyBid
• Support Article: How to Use the Production Quantity Adjustment Tool