Construction Company Collects Timely, Accurate Field Data— And Saves One Percent Of Annual Labor Costs In the Process

Also eliminates 200 hours per month in wasted ‘processing time’ split evenly between field and office staffs

SEATTLE, February 28, 2011: With 600-plus field employees assigned to jobs in 38 states, Gaylor, Inc. (www.gaylor.com) of Carmel IN faced a situation familiar to many construction companies: collecting timely, accurate data from the field. The electrical contracting company has met the challenge, and in the process saves approximately one percent ($270,000) in annual labor costs. It also has eliminated 200 hours per month in wasted “processing time” split evenly between the field and office staffs.

Since late 2009, Gaylor, Inc. has employed the Spectrum Mobile capability of Dexter + Chaney’s (www.dexterchaney.com) Spectrum® Construction Software. Nearly 170 Gaylor, Inc. job-site supervisors use Spectrum Mobile to submit their time reporting data quickly, easily and accurately on a daily basis. They operate the product on rugged mobile smart phones equipped with Windows Mobile software.

Labor Savings
Jim Savage, Gaylor, Inc.’s long-time chief information officer, estimates—“very conservatively”—that the company has eliminated about 200 hours per month in processing time previously spent on paperwork collection, data entry and related tasks. The field and office staffs each save approximately 100 hours monthly that are now devoted to more productive tasks.

“That equals about $10,000 per month in labor savings for the company,” Savage explained. “Spectrum Mobile helps us keep the same size back-office staff and spend less time on the fire drill of getting all the paper processed every week. It also has clearly benefited the operations side of the business. That’s the key: if you want to sell a streamlined process that helps both operations and accounting, you have to make the effort to convince the operations people that they’re going to benefit.”

Gaylor, Inc. tracks the time of more than 90 percent of its field employees with Spectrum Mobile, and is closing in on 100 percent. Job-site supervisors employ Spectrum Mobile to replace paper time sheets; they collect job number, phase code, cost type, pay type, overtime and other variables. Information flows from Spectrum Mobile to the Payroll module in Spectrum at the office for processing. (Gaylor, Inc. has 10 branches located in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Arizona and the Carolinas.)

Labor reporting is performed on a daily basis with Spectrum Mobile, rather than the weekly schedule that Gaylor, Inc. used when it gathered field data with a hodge-podge manual system. Labor hours are available for use within Spectrum for tracking up-to-date labor, job cost and productivity reporting. That provides “advance notification” of the costs that are accruing during the week, even though payroll isn’t processed until the end of the week.

At most job sites, supervisors enter check-in/check-out information at the end of the day. At larger job sites—with more than 50 employees on a single crew, for example—each employee is assigned a bar code that goes on their employee ID card. Handheld units scan the employees in and out and calculate the duration of their time at the site.

Bar-code scanning with Spectrum Mobile ensures that Gaylor, Inc.’s labor tracking at larger sites is completely accurate. If, for example, an employee arrives at a job site at 8:05 a.m. and leaves at 3:50 p.m., he’s paid for that time—not the hours that might otherwise be “rounded up” to an 8 a.m. arrival and 4 p.m. departure. The combination of bar-code scanning at larger job sites and supervisors entering employee check-in/check-out information on other jobs at the end of each day—rather than weekly—saves Gaylor, Inc. approximately one percent ($270,000) in annual labor costs.

“Our time reporting is much more accurate and timely with Spectrum Mobile,” Savage said. “Because they’re doing it on a daily basis—rather than weekly—our field supervisors have a lot less information to go back and piece together. They’ve learned that the data is more accurate and the time-reporting task is not nearly as difficult if you break it up into small pieces and perform the data entry much closer to when the work actually happens.”

Savage noted that Gaylor, Inc. has grown 56 percent—from approximately $90 million to $140 million in annual revenues—since installing Spectrum in 2004. During that time, the size of the administrative staff has only increased eight percent, from 75 to 81 employees.

Case study
Dexter + Chaney has developed a case study about Gaylor, Inc. and its use of Spectrum Mobile. To access the case study, visit http://www.dexterchaney.com/gaylor, e-mail info@dexterchaney.com or call 800-875-1400. 

About Dexter + Chaney
More than 1,000 construction companies throughout the United States use Dexter + Chaney’s Spectrum® Construction Software. Spectrum includes 28 integrated modules that work together to cover all aspects of construction business management, including job cost accounting, equipment management, human resources, project management, document imaging, service management, remote connectivity and much more. Spectrum is built using the latest technology, including a SQL Server database, and is developed with the most advanced tools available, including .NET technologies and the PRO-IV Rapid Application Development Framework.
 
Contractors who use Spectrum report they have improved profitability and cash flow, reduced overhead expenses and streamlined workflow across their organizations. For more information about Dexter + Chaney or Spectrum, contact Brad Mathews, Vice President of Marketing,
Dexter + Chaney, 9700 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98115-2347; phone: 800-875-1400 or 206-364-1400; fax: 206-367-9613; e-mail: info@dexterchaney.com; www.dexterchaney.com.