In most areas of the country, January is seen as the time of year where construction companies regroup from the last year and prepare for the busy months ahead. While scheduled downtime may not be your most profitable time of year, it’s an important part of keeping your business up and running. Here are three ways you can make this off-season productive.
1. Reflect & React
To maximize uptime, you need to start with where your downtime was last season. Breakdowns in equipment and communication, lack of skilled crew members, etc. are all things that could have prevented you from getting ahead this year.
The new year is a perfect time to reflect on your 2018 season. How did your business perform? Were there areas where you fell short of customer expectations? Deals you missed out on because you didn’t have the crew or equipment you needed to get the job done?
Challenges in your operation also present opportunities to grow. Take the time now to react to the struggles you encountered in 2018 so you can put them behind you for the 2019 season.
2. Monitor & Maintain
We say it all the time, scheduled maintenance is key to the success and long-term performance of your equipment. The best way to ensure you get your money's worth out of your equipment while helping to keep it working properly for its full service life, is to be committed to preventive maintenance. That means having a check list every fall of the equipment in your fleet, monitoring the wear parts on them and making sure those pieces of equipment get in to the shop before heading back out in 2019.
When a piece of equipment is in bad condition, it’s not worth putting it on-site to work. To keep your machinery uptime ready, keep them well maintained this off-season. If you’re not confident that something is going to last the whole next season once you put it back to work, you should replace it now.
3. Invest in Improvements
During the off-season, many contractors attend tradeshows to get ideas of the new equipment and innovative technology that’s available to help their business improve. Companies that attend these shows have a leg up on their competition, especially if they were able to make an investment in some new iron.
When we say improvements though, we aren’t just talking about equipment. Are you satisfied with your performance in 2018? Did you actively engage your crew to help keep them motivated? It's the job of a construction leader to effectively and efficiently manage their team. Having a good relationship with your team is beneficial to your uptime. Employees who are unsatisfied with how their bosses treat them are more likely to slack-off at work. If your team isn’t giving 100% to their job, your uptime will not be as productive as you would hope.
Employees who aren’t properly trained are also likely to be less productive than those employees who are continually learning and developing new skills. The asphalt industry is full of opportunities.
If 2018 wasn’t so great for your company, don’t let 2019 be a repeat performance. Reflect. Adapt. Grow.
How do you hope 2019 is better for you company? Let me know at [email protected]
