Devon Crescent Handover Approaches

With the handover date fast approaching, the finishing touches are being put to what has been a very successful Design & Build project.

Funded by the Housing Cooperation, the Homes & Communities Agency along with our clients Mount Green Housing Association, Knapman & Sons (Builders) Ltd were awarded the contract for the Design & Build refurbishment back in April 2011.

Form an empty, dated and almost derelict building fifty weeks ago, Devon Crescent has been transformed into brand new state of the art building, comprising of self contained flats and shared accommodation for autistic children and their carers.

“The contract has run very successfully right until the end and we expect to hand over the project to the client within the contract period” said Steve Bell, Contract Manager for Knapman & Sons.

 

Know the Score to Win the Game

Set, track and monitor your targets and goals for your construction company. That was the advice set out by managing director Mr Terry Knapman Snr of Knapman & Sons (Builders) Ltd.

Imagine coaching a football or rugby team without keeping score. You would put in your best players, work on a strategy designed to outscore the opponent and hope to finish the game with more goals or tries. But without a scoreboard, you would not know if you should change your team set up, call in different ways of playing or put in different players. It would also be difficult to motivate your players.

Business is like sports in many ways. You cannot win in business if you do not track your progress. To win the game of business, you have to be under budget, ahead of the plan, make money and beat the competition. When your employees do not have goals to meet, they will not work as hard.

Have you established goals and specific targets for your construction business? For example, do you have written goals for your current annual sales and net profit? Less than half of all small business owners set and track annual sales and profit goals. This is like running a business without trying to make a profit.

Specific company targets might include: sales revenue, gross profit, overhead, net profit, profit growth, debt reduction, average project size, number of new customers, new market penetration, proposal-hit ratio, stockholder distributions and company value. 

Before you start a project, get the estimator, project manager, site agent and foreman together to set overall project goals. Hold a pre-contract team meeting to get everyone on the same page.

Plan the project, and develop goals, including estimated versus final profit, proposed versus final completion date, production site staff hours, equipment hours, general condition costs, Health and Safety costs, customer satisfaction etc. Afterward, follow up on these goals with weekly and monthly project team meetings. At the end of the project, hold a general review meeting to decide what areas need improvement, and refine your goals for the next project.

Mr Knapman went onto say.. “This is the way that Knapman & Sons Builders Ltd do things and it has proved to be very successful with us, trust me, keep an eye on the score and you’ll always be a winner”.

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