I'm hoping to gain some insight from others who manage multiple crews/draftsmen/projects both in strictly survey companies and survey departments within multi-disciplinary firms.
Over the last couple years we have grown from 3-4 crews to 6-7 crews with another 4-5 'draftsmen' (including myself as a part owner). As the primary scheduler/project manager it is getting to be too much for me to effectively manage and do any production work. At this point my crews are generally flexible in that all crews can be called on to do almost any job (ie. not specialized).
What is your management structure? Does it work for you? Recommendations?
Thanks,
Managing multiple crews is an exercise in futility. There are a few men I have met in my life that could perform the function at an acceptable level. Garren Dodson was one that comes to mind. Most, like me, fight and toil through it...
The biggest problem I always ran into was trying to pigeon-hole crews and calendar days together. I never could get that to work. Weather, job conditions and personnel can shred a calendar schedule to pieces.
The last fifteen years or so I have worked mainly on a "job schedule" and not a "calendar schedule". The dry erase board has no days listed, merely crews and jobs. When one crew finishes a job, they move on to the next. This can wreak havoc with office personnel that have the bad habit of answering the phone and attempting to guess when the crew will be on a certain site. When asked, I look up at the board and tell them the crew will be there when they finish the job they're on now..the quicker you forget the names of the days of the week the better off you'll be.
Another problem I run into a lot is crews with variable levels of confidence. Some jobs it is just better to send one crew than another...for a multitude of reasons. It really has nothing to do with ability, just some people do better on certain kinds of jobs and worse on others. Know your crews.
Make sure the crews leave the office with ALL the info you can give them. Whether you, someone else in the office or a crew member is responsible for research doesn't matter...make sure they have everything before you attempt to send them into battle. Not doing so is like pulling the trigger, then trying to point the barrel. You will always be disappointed in the results. Same with equipment and supplies. A whole day can be lost simply because a crew doesn't have $25 worth of supplies.
And last but not least, out of six or seven crews I'm sure there are some PCs that are far more experienced and talented than others. Make sure the advanced PCs are available to the other crews for help. If one crew gets in a tight spot he should have another PC that is willing to pull off what he's doing and help out (if they're close enough to each other). This not only fosters a learning atmosphere among the crews, but can keep you from spending the entire day fielding phone calls.
With that many employees, rules should be tight with no exceptions. If you have one employee that is constantly 10 minutes late; before long you'll have the whole lot wandering in when they feel like it. Run a tight ship. If someone calls you an asshole, merely reply with a "thank you" and take it as a compliment.
Good luck...and keep a jug of Mylanta around...Tums never worked for me. :bored:
With 6-7 crews & 4-5 draftspersons, I don't see how you can be expected produce product on top of personnel management. I couldn't, but then I'm an old dummy....
paden cash, post: 370589, member: 20 wrote: Managing multiple crews is an exercise in futility. There are a few men I have met in my life that could perform the function at an acceptable level. Garren Dodson was one that comes to mind. Most, like me, fight and toil through it...
The biggest problem I always ran into was trying to pigeon-hole crews and calendar days together. I never could get that to work. Weather, job conditions and personnel can shred a calendar schedule to pieces.
The last fifteen years or so I have worked mainly on a "job schedule" and not a "calendar schedule". The dry erase board has no days listed, merely crews and jobs. When one crew finishes a job, they move on to the next. This can wreak havoc with office personnel that have the bad habit of answering the phone and attempting to guess when the crew will be on a certain site. When asked, I look up at the board and tell them the crew will be there when they finish the job they're on now..the quicker you forget the names of the days of the week the better off you'll be.
Another problem I run into a lot is crews with variable levels of confidence. Some jobs it is just better to send one crew than another...for a multitude of reasons. It really has nothing to do with ability, just some people do better on certain kinds of jobs and worse on others. Know your crews.
Make sure the crews leave the office with ALL the info you can give them. Whether you, someone else in the office or a crew member is responsible for research doesn't matter...make sure they have everything before you attempt to send them into battle. Not doing so is like pulling the trigger, then trying to point the barrel. You will always be disappointed in the results. Same with equipment and supplies. A whole day can be lost simply because a crew doesn't have $25 worth of supplies.
And last but not least, out of six or seven crews I'm sure there are some PCs that are far more experienced and talented than others. Make sure the advanced PCs are available to the other crews for help. If one crew gets in a tight spot he should have another PC that is willing to pull off what he's doing and help out (if they're close enough to each other). This not only fosters a learning atmosphere among the crews, but can keep you from spending the entire day fielding phone calls.
With that many employees, rules should be tight with no exceptions. If you have one employee that is constantly 10 minutes late; before long you'll have the whole lot wandering in when they feel like it. Run a tight ship. If someone calls you an *******, merely reply with a "thank you" and take it as a compliment.
Good luck...and keep a jug of Mylanta around...Tums never worked for me. :bored:
"the quicker you forget the names of the days of the week the better off you'll be."
That is one of the best pieces of scheduling advice I've ever heard! 110% true...
We have scheduling meetings every Thursday A.M. I find them to be very useful - it lets me see what the engineering manager is planning, and I attempt to schedule jobs accordingly. I constantly remind engineering that the survey schedule is subject to violent fluctuations due to contractors, demanding clients, demanding staff, weather, illness, and even me forgetting to put something on it, and that there will be changes prior to the time the new schedule is printed and distributed.
As Mr. Cash states, providing each crew with ALL the backup data you can is crucial to both their efficiency and yours.
I have a good friend who was working for a large firm during the really busy days. He once told me he was managing 14 crews. I said "What! 14 crews?! How do you do that?" He smiled and said, "I have several really great crew chiefs."
The best approach that has worked for me is to create Teams to service different market sectors or particular clients. The key is to have a good Team Leader for each team. PMs, office techs and field crews are primarily assigned to each team. Load sharing is a must to take care of the peaks and valleys for each team. Each Team Leader is responsible for their Sector or Clients. Most people will become a bottle neck if they have more than 4 direct reports. The organization that works best for you will depend on your projects, clients and the talent in your organization. Frankly, I am having a hard time finding a Team Leader at the moment. Talent is in great demand in this area.
I manage anywhere from 2-4 crews depending on the season and workload. Our large staff of engineers runs everything and anything to do through me from RFP, Scope, schedule and everything in between. They do not direct survey crews in ANY manner and they do not schedule my crews, run it through me or it's not getting done. It took a while to establish this communication chain(it was much different before I arrived). The overall increased efficiency gains was the proof they needed to understand where I was coming from.
When the field work is light the field staff comes into the office for training and over the years this has worked great as it alleviates the constant need to spend the entire day preparing data for the crews. With experienced field and office techs I can line them out and let them do their thing with much less day to day preparations.
In a perfect world I would love to not worry about days of the week and just work on Jobs, but in the construction staking world that just doesn't work. This is a constant struggle. The calendar can look much different at the end of the week when compared to the beginning of the week.
WA-ID Surveyor, post: 370621, member: 6294 wrote: ..but in the construction staking world that just doesn't work....
..so, so true. Managing multiple crews with site staking work is some of the most frustrating work I've been around. I finally realized I was as much of the problem as the "cry baby" construction supers. I call them "crisis hoes" because they NEVER call until they need you...THAT day. I usually tell them they're not paying me enough if their entire project hinges on me...but I digress..
What I started doing was monitoring the projects, both on site and over the phone. One guy calls and says "we need final paving stakes NOW!" Then when I ask him if that big pile of busted concrete was still sitting in the middle of the parking...he starts to back-peddle a bit. I tell them we'll be out there when you get it all cleaned up. I'm pretty sure they just like to yell and scream just to build a fire under their subs. It takes a lot for me to scramble a crew at their beckon call. In fact I hardly ever do simply because if it happens ONCE, they will expect it to happen the entire length of the project.
If you watch the progress and keep in touch with them they are a lot easier to get along with. Let them know if they get all the piles knocked down you will send a crew of there "early next week". Most of them quit growling and snapping when they realize you're paying as much attention to the job as they are.
....crisis hoes....
You are part owner? You should be carving out time to train/groom your replacement. At some point you must ask yourself out loud "am I directly responsible for everyone that I supervise". If you cannot answer that positively, then you are at the risk of possibly loosing your license, business, or mind.
In the 80s I managed a three crew company, worked 14/7/300+, typed my descriptions, all drawings, HP41 that did not store points, inked every worksheet so they would last and be reproduced and there was a secretary that answered the phones and kept the books. jAfter 2yrs of that went on strike until the owner bought a TS and a computer with COGO program.
The 90s came and I went solo and have not looked back.
The owners need to specialize in setting prices and delegating duties among the employees.
More than one partner, they need to choose among themselves what each will be in charge of.
Probably each will have their on personal priority task.
Someone needs to manage the daily needs of the office, vehicles and assorted inventory of orders and deliveries, do the post office trip to mail out and gather mail and do the shopping.
Lead office tech to delegate on other techs.
One, two and three man parties depending upon the job or project and each hand has a list of what is required of them around the office and in the field.
This could turn into a never ending list of things to do..............
Are you the lone PLS?
What is your breakdown of solo versus multi-man crews?
Does every crew/vehicle carry every possible piece of equipment?
How many if at all LSITs?
Any certified crew chiefs?
Would you choose any odd crew to do a difficult boundary breakdown?
All the above questions are relevant in how to answer your crew management questions.
Paul in PA
Currently I run 2 crews but have had up to 5 in the past. For me construction projects are a love hate relationship. I love how they fill in the lulls of Design/ALTA work but hate the babysitting they require. I put 48 hours notice in my contracts which helps the scheduling fiasco's 50% of the time. Weather is really the enemy for my schedule though. 5 or 6 construction jobs going at the same time, then the weather hits halting them all at the same time; when it gets nice again they all need to catch up and it buries us.
I use a team management app called Asana that works pretty slick for our size firm (currently 12). It's free for organizations less than 15 so the price is right for sure. I can create projects and tasks within them with due dates and people responsible for completing them. It has a calendar view and when the schedule blows up it's easy to drag and drop tasks from one day to the next. It's super helpful when you get that cold call asking when you can have a survey done and can look at the calendar and see the next open day. It has a decent phone app too so the field guys can check things off as they finish them without having to come back to the office at all. It KINDA keeps me sane.
4-5 crews and trying to do production is a tough shake though. I would try to find a Chief of Crews to answer the GC calls and coordinate calc's and spend your time doing what you're best at; developing new business, reviewing and stamping surveys, managing personalities, writing contracts, ect.
First let me say that I am assuming the leadership role from the founder who wants to retire ... he's still here, but stays busy with proposals, A/R, etc. I do those things as well, though in less volume. Our mix of project includes a heavy dose of due-diligence, design survey work for engineers/developers along with on-call, odd jobs for large industrial clients and quite a bit of EOD site work on military bases. We'll also get the odd 500+ acre conservation boundary for some of our federal clients and the random stakeout job that evolves from one of our DD jobs. All that to say the range of stuff we work on is quite broad.
Paul in PA, post: 370652, member: 236 wrote:
Are you the lone PLS? No, there are 3 of us currently, though one is 'fresh' and doesn't sign anything yet.What is your breakdown of solo versus multi-man crews? All crews are two-man for safety purposes. 3 if heavy cutting is involved.
Does every crew/vehicle carry every possible piece of equipment? Yes, other than some of the utility locating equip, only 2 crews have that.
How many if at all LSITs? None, though one is eligible to test and currently in school.
Any certified crew chiefs? Nope, not a big emphasis on that around here.
Would you choose any odd crew to do a difficult boundary breakdown? No, I have a couple crews that I trust with that.
All the above questions are relevant in how to answer your crew management questions. I need, and can afford, competent drafting help, but can't find people that can accurately and efficiently produce the number of surfaces we produce that don't already own/run their own companies! This will be an even bigger problem as we move further into the point files produced with the drone we are purchasing.
Paul in PA
Daniel Ralph, post: 370634, member: 8817 wrote: You are part owner? You should be carving out time to train/groom your replacement. At some point you must ask yourself out loud "am I directly responsible for everyone that I supervise". If you cannot answer that positively, then you are at the risk of possibly loosing your license, business, or mind.
I am the replacement 🙂 And no, if I'm honest I cannot always answer that question positively, which is why I am trying to develop a different strategy and management structure to keep this thing going without me going under. I don't want to go solo ... not my personality. And I want the company to be big enough to keep getting these large, interesting and exciting jobs that we wouldn't be considered for otherwise.
