6 Key Stages to Efficient Landscape Project Installations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
2CrossPointsGroup.com Connect with us:
About the Author……………………………………..…3
Getting Started…………………………………………..4
Overview of the Six Stages…………………..……..7
Stage #1 Pre Sales……………………………………..8
Stage #2 Sold Contract……………………………….9
Stage #3 Pre-Con……………………………………..10
Stage #4 Pre-Production…………………………...11
Stage #5 Field Production………………………….13
Stage #6 After Care…………………………………..14
Production Models……………………………………..15
Change Orders…………………………….……..…….19
Setting Expectations………………….……………….21
Summary…………………………………………………..23
Published by:
Cross Points Consulting Group
Indianapolis, IN 46123
800/820-2590
Copyright © 2013 All Rights
Reserved

ABOUT
Sean is a proactive leader who has been in the green industry for
over 30 years, most as either a business owner or in Senior
Management roles at some of the largest companies in
the industry, including the only Fortune 500 company in the Green
Industry.
Cross Points Consulting Group is a Green Industry consulting firm
focused on helping businesses solve the complex challenges and
decisions facing their company today. With over 30 years of
leadership experience in the Green Industry, the consultants at
Cross Points Consulting Group are prepared to help our clients to
maintain and achieve successful businesses with financially and
operationally sound practices. We offer advice and support for
every process and structure within your company – from short-
term solutions to long-term goals.

PRODUCTION PROCESS
GETTING STARTED
Review Process Flow
Put it in writing
Get all team members onboard
Identify problem areas early
Assign Responsibilities
Be clear and concise
Rely on your team members
Clarify Objectives
Quality Work, Happy Customers & Profitable!
Set Expectations
Everyone needs to knows the process
Work Together

CLARIFY OBJECTIVES
1. Produce Quality Work
2. Make Clients Happy
3. Meet Production Budgets & Profit Goals
DO NOT SACRIFICE ONE
GOAL FOR THE OTHER
TWO, AND DO THEM
EFFICIENTLY THROUGHOUT
YOUR ORGANIZATION.

PROCESS REVOLVES AROUND THE
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
Sales Gives
Complete
Info to
‘Production’
‘Production’ Starts
to
Prepare Project
For Field Staff
Field Staff
Completes
Project, Meets
3 Primary
Objectives
After Care Insures
Project Survives
Acclimation Period
& Converts to
Maintenance
Customer
Maintenance
Continues
Long Term Care,
Increase Customer
Satisfaction
Adds More Sales
1. Quality Work
2. Happy
Customer
3. On Budget &
Profitable

6 STAGES OF THE PRODUCTION
PROCESS
1. Pre Sales (Before Signed
Contract)
2. Sold (Signed Contract)
3. Pre-Con & Final Selections
4. Pre-Production
5. Field Production
6. After Care, Maintenance,
Warranty, Service

STAGE 1. PRE-SALES
Owned by: Sales
• Follow defined sales
process
• Start to set expectations
for how the ‘Production
Process’ will work
• Be specific on how a project is bid & sold -
Mobilizations, change orders, OT, exclusions,
allowances, etc

STAGE 2. SOLD (Signed Contract)
Owned by: Sales
• After contract is signed, before being
sent to Pre-Con
• Site details updated: grades, plants,
geometry/layout, Permit requirements,
sub contractor proposals, work out
allowances, irrigation & lighting plans,
etc
• Final material selections made &
approved by customer
• Custom items will take longer: tagged
plants, granite counter tops, grills, non-
standard stone, specialized subs, etc
Make sure the customer
understands when they
need to make all of their
pending product or design
decisions. If they aren’t
made aware of the delays
that will occur without their
final decisions, they will end
up being upset with time
delays.
The starting (and finishing)
timeframe of a project
depends on knowing
availability of all materials
and sub-contractors!

STAGE 3. PRE-CON
Owned by: Sales
• Turn in initial Job Pack (Single Copies) w/ Pre Con forms
• Job Pack reviewed by production team leader
• Pre-Con meeting will be scheduled with project
sales/design/production members within 1 week of turning in Job
Pack. Project details review and site questions addressed
• Details, final plans & specs updated after Pre-Con meeting (Job Pack
back to Sales) if needed
• Materials updated, all RFQ’s & production reports come from
updates made in the ‘system’
• All plan copies & details generated and inserted back into final Job
Pack along with any required updates
• Updated/Revised Job Pack turned back into production leader

STAGE 4. PRE PRODUCTION
Owned by: Production Leader
• DIRECT COSTS START HERE!
(Plant Buyer, Subs, Pre-Purchases)
• Customer contacted by production leader
• Schedule controlled by production leader, if all design
work completed and finalized.
• RFQ’s sent out (generated from ‘system’)
• Sub contractor & special order agreements/PO’s sent
out, signed up. Authorized company purchasers only!

STAGE 4. PRE PRODUCTION
• Final job production reports created
from the ‘system’
• Project ‘Ghant Chart’ created
• Project is entered into production
schedule BASED ON PROJECT
DETAILS! Not just a name on a
piece of paper!
• Large bulk orders will be set up by
the job Foreman
• Final field Job Pack is assembled,
given to assigned foreman
• First job stages drafted by the
production leader
Smooth running jobs are
created from having a well
defined Pre-Production
process in place!

STAGE 5. FIELD PRODUCTION
Owned by: Crew Foreman
• This determines company P&L, steps
1-4 support this stage!!!!!
• Landscape admin generates ‘Hourly
Job Report’ daily & emails
• Weekly Production Planners and
Change Order Forms completed daily
by Foreman
• Foreman co-manages subs when
working on their site, production
leader manages subs at other times
• Foreman follows production process
SOP from OP’s Manual
• Foreman co-ordinate ship dates of
plants with Plant Buyer
• Foreman handles normal stock items
• Foreman communicates with customer
daily while on site
• Foreman communicates w/ sales for
layout walk thru’s, plant placement
site visits, design changes or CO work
requests
• Foreman Initiates Punch List walk
thru’s w/ customer & sales, completes
the final Punch List form and has it
signed by customer
• Foreman initiates after care hand off
w/ service
• Foreman completes the job completion
form, updates as built plans

STAGE 6. AFTER CARE
Owned by: Service Manager (or other)
• Process starts before full construction crews pull off site. Foreman and SM inspect site &
walk thru details. SM meets customer, introduces themselves as contact for all service
work or questions on project when it is completed (not sales).
• Service will tweak irrigation, adjust lights, monitor plant health in first 30 days after job
completion – ‘Basic’ After Care
• Production Leader will manage subs after in-house crews finish internal work and foreman
pulls on to next project.
• Construction crews will finish all of project, service crews will complete original contract
work only on small items, special orders still on backorder, last minute add on work, or
when a construction crew size becomes inefficient for remaining work.
• A 30 day and seasonal maintenance proposal will be presented to customer before job
completion by a Maintenance Sales rep or the Service Manager.
• Service Manager or Maintenance Sales rep will propose future enhancement sales if
project is under a maint. contract, large design projects will be pushed back to D/B Sales.
• SM will complete a ‘spring’ & 1-year site inspection for replacement work.

PRODUCTION MODEL – Wide Gap
Sub 1
Pre Work Sub 2
Demo Work Bed Prep
Grading Sub 3 Lights
Trenching Ret Walls Irr Sod Trees Sod
Footers Inspection Pavers Sub 4 Irr Plants Mulch Walk Thru Clean up
Sleeving Mainline Plants Front Edging Plants back
Sub 4 Back Fill
Front Walls
Start of Project
End of projects always have
fewer work options and are
least efficient part of a
project.

PRODUCTION MODEL – Wide Gap
• All product & material decisions
completed before starting. More efficient
for company resources, less sales time
needed on-site, doesn’t gum up
schedule.
• Project can be ‘completed’ once it is
started. Work is progressed toward the
final project completion, not intermediate
or stop-gap deadlines.
• Shorter overall time on site. Pull onto
job, complete all work, pull off.
Customers are happier with shorter work
durations vs fast starts and slow finishes.
• More project options are available when
work starts. Higher efficiency early on
will compensate for less efficient time at
the end of a project.
There are already enough risks for
project delays in exterior
construction work (rain, seasonal
material, short supplies, etc). Keep
projects at high efficiency early on
to have the ability to plan around
these natural factors.

PRODUCTION MODEL –
Forced Linear
Gradi
ng Sub 3
Foo
ters
Inspec
tion
Pave
rs
Pre Work
Sub
2
DECIS
ION
Trenc
hing
Ret
Walls
Irr
So
d
DECIS
ION
Slee
ving
Main
line
Plants
Front
DECIS
ION
Tre
es Sod
DECIS
ION
Demo
Work
Bed
Prep
PULL
OFF
Lig
hts
PULL
OFF
Sub
4
Back
Fill
Front
Walls
PULL
OFF
Su
b 4
Irr
Plant
s
PULL
OFF
Edg
ing
Plants
back
Mu
lch
Walk
Thru
Clea
n up
Start of a Project
End of projects always have
fewer work options and are
least efficient part of a
project.

PRODUCTION MODEL- Forced
Linear
• Project started without all product, material or design decisions
made. Site also not ready to finish project when it is started.
• Narrow window of work options, difficult to gain high efficiency
potential on projects. Weather delays last longer without having
some wet-weather work available to complete.
• Prone to: pull offs, redo’s, crew stops, longer project duration, crew
changes, over hours, low margins, more sales time required during
production process.
• Customers will also lose confidence in your company and start to
suffer ‘project fatigue’. They will become harder to please and
second guess the work. Projects become most difficult to collect
payment on.
• Project is nearly impossible to schedule out (until the end) and
ends up being ‘fire drill’ managed (purchasing, subs, company
resources). Typical of a rushed start with no prep time.
• Reasons?? Customer panic or indifference, “Starting Phobia”, holes
in schedule (usually from other disorganized projects), delayed site
timing from a GC or builder, mid-project deadlines so other project
trades can complete their work.
96% of unhappy
customers don’t
complain!

CHANGE ORDERS- What is a ‘CO’?
Change Order – Basic
– 6 red daylily for 6 yellow, or 8ft pine instead of 10ft
– Still additional costs to make swaps or change vendors, 1 or 2 per job,
happens during work flow
Change ‘Out’ – Scope Revision
– Change in design & construction details, change out of a portion (or all) of
an order (plants, subs etc)
– Design or spec is not complete, project is not complete!
– Significant cost increase, have incurred costs already for original items Redo
of something already installed will have more delivery costs, affects crew
work flow, affects other projects!
– Many small change orders add up to a ‘Change Out’
– Very difficult to control, prone to errors & mistakes
Add On
– ‘Adds to’ original material order, scope increase
– Good Sell! Add to original orders, may not incur additional soft costs if
added in early.

CHANGE ORDERS - Process
DESIGN/SALES REPS
• All increases in scope of work
need to signed off on by customer
• ‘No Charge’ CO’s need to be
signed off by Sr Management
• Designs or specs need updating &
then sent ‘To Production’
• Any updated material lists need
to be turned into production
• Production sheets and RFQ’s
updated by OP’s, then distributed
to Crew Supervisors
FIELD STAFF
• If a design change is required,
sales is contacted
• Field change order requests from
customer need to be signed off in
field by customer, turned into
sales for invoicing
• Larger scope increases that need
pricing help should have info sent
to sales/estimator to price out.
• No additional work to be
completed until CO’s are
approved.

SET EXPECTATIONS -Internal
• Step 5 is most critical- everything else in steps 1-4 supports efficient, high
quality field production
• Turn in a final job pack with all details worked out. It also reduces the
amount of additional Sales rep’s time in the field
• Sales needs to be on budget through the year to have a consistent supply
of work that can be managed efficiently.
• Set proper external expectations up front, explain the benefits.
• Sell individual projects to be profitable
• Sell collectively as a team so project production is efficient and profitable
• Do Not drop piles of ‘Rush’ jobs into Production. Quality suffers.
• Profitable Design/Build and landscape installation work is run from a strong
pipeline. Always need options ‘B’ & ‘C’ if ‘A’ falls through. Gives you strength
in future sales and eliminates ‘fire drill’ time in everyone’s schedule
• The Company is stronger in the market working as a team.

SET EXPECTATIONS-External
• Quality work comes from working off set plans and having sufficient prep time to pull
together project details (before starting). Crew size is set to control quality, do not throw
extra guys around on projects to speed things up.
• Pricing is based on being able to complete the project once it starts, or to the estimated #
of mobilizations. On new construction sites, prefer all other exterior work from other trades
to be completed before landscape work starts: gutters, painting, stucco, masonry, roofing,
electric, carpentry, etc. We need all of the site to start.
• Call out and limit mobilizations, especially on builder projects. Bid properly! This is costly
and if made aware upfront we won’t run into issues and can collect CO’s. Landscapers tend
to get run over without setting site expectations on a project.
• Changes made during construction are going to be more costly, directly and indirectly;
redo/scrap work already done, time already spent on sourcing original material, time
multiplier, pull offs & re-mobilizations, more set up costs (heaters, tarping, weather control,
etc) STARTS IN STAGE 4!!
• Work to complete projects to a target date, but cannot guarantee this (weather, materials,
waiting on builders, quality control). Work to achieve the final project completion in the
most efficient methods possible. OT (evening & weekends) and other costs incurred for
meeting external timeframes are billable (tarping, heaters, hauling, working in bad weather
conditions, etc).

NEED MORE HELP?
23
CONTACT US REGARDING MORE INFORMATION
ON SETTING UP A DETAILED PRODUCTION
PROCESS FOR YOUR COMPANY INCLUDING:
•Mapping your Production Work Flows
•Schedule Boards
•Production Forms
•Job Pack Templates
•Technology & System Integrations
•Production Management Training
Office: 800/820-2590
Email: Info@CrossPointsGroup.com
Web: www.CrossPointsGroup.com
Skype: Sean.CrossPoints
Just give us a call, connect with us on Social or visit our web site at www.CrossPointsGroup.com to learn
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Planning & Growth Management, Profitability Analysis, Estimating & Budgeting Systems, Social Media &
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6 Key Stages to Efficient Landscape Project Installations

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