Housing Giants - January 1, 2009 - (Page 7) TeCH By Tom Gebes, BuilderMT Take Your Trade ParTners online CraftMaster Homes saved two FTEs by organizing subcontractor and vendor purchase orders, schedules and payments. CraftMaster Homes builds single-family and multi-family homes in the Richmond, Va., market. Final 2008 numbers aren’t in, but even in this so-called “down market,” CraftMaster Homes built 87 homes in 2007, up from 70 homes in 2006. They have excellent positions in land options (around 300 lots wrapped up), and CraftMaster expects to survive and thrive even through the downturn. Their systems had room for improvement, though. CraftMaster’s homes sell for an average price of $285,000 and run approximately 2,300 square feet. They offer 23 plans overall, with structural options limited to about 10 per home and decorative options running around 30 per homes. With that many starts (87 in 2007), 23 plans and up to 40 options per home, that represents a great deal of house-specific information that has to be communicated from CraftMaster’s back office to the trade partners on whom they rely heavily for every aspect of the home’s construction. Also, because CraftMaster doesn’t use a sales force or third-party sales tracking software, it depends entirely on local real-estate agents for its sales and contracts, further complicating the option’s data collection system. All of this activity keeps Tim Aloi, the vice president of operations, fairly busy, as he manages a staff of 10, along with 48 core trade partners. Of the 10 people on staff, four are project managers; three of them are always on-site, while one roves from site to site to tie up loose ends. Beyond Paper-Based Communication Until somewhat recently, CraftMaster was stuck in a paper-based world when communicating with their trade partners. CraftMaster is dependent on trade partner loyalty, and it has gone to great lengths to establish long-lasting relationships and treat them fairly. In exchange for that loyalty, CraftMaster reports it is always prompt to pay and offers as much warning as possible for upcoming work. But CraftMaster’s commitment to stay lean, nimble and customer-focused creates huge amounts of information that need to be communicated to the trade partners, sometimes with just minutes notice. Before some recent software implementations, CraftMaster’s back office was spending a great deal of time on the phone with the project managers and trade partners to adjust schedules and make changes that naturally occur on each job. These adjustments and changes ran the gamut, from purchasing details to changes in costs and payments. Though CraftMaster could easily track these changes in its back office, it was still dependent on a paper-based communication system to send faxes or mail on a weekly basis to their subs in the form PrESS PlAy TO HEAr A of purchase orders. rECOrdING OF THIS COlUMN. CraftMaster’s purchase order is really a “super PO” because it serves multiple purposes. It’s a combination work order, purchase order, and parts list. All the information a subcontractor needed is 07 1.1.09 HOUSING GIANTS www.HousingGiants.com http://www.buildermt.com/ http://www.HousingGiants.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 Contents Viewpoint News & Moves Tech People to Know Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 (Page Cover1) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Contents (Page 2) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Viewpoint (Page 3) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Viewpoint (Page 4) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - News & Moves (Page 5) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - News & Moves (Page 6) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Tech (Page 7) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Tech (Page 8) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Tech (Page 9) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 10) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 11) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 12) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 13) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 14)
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