urbanEye AI
January 23, 2024
What truly defines the productivity of your landscaping crew, and how can you enhance it in today's commercial landscaping context? Before delving into the nuances of crew productivity, let's grasp the contemporary significance and methods of measurement.
It might sound too elementary for professionals, but here lies the crux of the topic and its importance. There are two productivity ratios that a contractor must manage: Labor Productivity within the property and the rest of the other works performed to promote the brand, marketing, promotions etc.. Productivity is calculated as the dollar value of RESULTS produced by the dollar cost of the ACTIVITY required to produce that result.
As a crew leader, the day unfolds on the shop floor gathering briefs and special instructions, loading the trailer with relevant equipment, picking up the required crew (typically 2 or 3 members), and managing breakfast on the shop floor or during the drive, or at the job site. Conducting a weather check, hitting the road, and approaching the first property—whether new or existing— going through site instructions, conducting a rough survey, and mentally preparing. Assigning tasks, initiating actions like cutting, trimming, edging, and blowing, mitigating or enabling the crew to perform their tasks, resulting in the coveted Queen Bee Role.
All it takes is a minimum of 8 minutes to a maximum of a complete day to finish one property and perform the Queen Bee Role. Moving to the next one, by day's end, return to the shop floor, clean equipment, shelve on or reload the trailer for the next operation, and update the crew supervisor on any critical matters. Updating the system with relevant information for billing concludes the routine.
In the dynamic world of landscaping, the pursuit of seamless operations is a shared objective among professionals. Yet, in the quest for assured success, critical questions often linger unanswered, potentially hindering efficiency. The questions are obvious, uncovering the intricacies that can impact a landscaping company's performance.
The Challenges:
Mower Capability: you could answer it easily if we’re to ask you the actual land coverage achievable per hour with a 40” ride-on mower? But does the speed of operation impact overall efficiency?
Diverse Environments: Does efficiency remain consistent when transitioning from residential areas to vast acres or hectares of parkland?
Crew Consistency: Can different crew members achieve comparable efficiency levels when equipped with the same tools and machinery?
Equipment Longevity: Will the performance of landscaping equipment, especially the 40” ride-on mower, stay reliable over the years?
External Factors Impact: How do external conditions, including property variations, weather fluctuations, individual health factors, and crew leader instructions, influence overall crew performance?
Compensation for Extra Work: Is the compensation aligned with the efforts put into tasks beyond the property boundaries?
If your responses to these questions tend towards uncertainty, doubt, or variability ('no,' 'doubtful,' 'might be,' or 'may be'), then this blog content is tailored precisely for you.
Recognizing the need for change is the first step towards transforming challenges into opportunities. But remember, the clock starts ticking the moment your crew steps onto the shop floor in the early morning – each moment counts in achieving the coveted Queen Bee Role.
Trust us in this transformative journey. As we explore these challenges, we'll provide insights, practical solutions, and a roadmap for optimizing your landscaping operations.
It's hard to digest that no two individuals are the same in terms of operational output or efficiency. Even though you provide the best equipment and planning, what happens within the property plays a vital role in achieving operational efficiency. Effectively governing your crew within the property is where true productivity comes into play. When you make the most of your crew's potential within the property, you can achieve a high degree of profits and operational peace of mind.
From an operator's perspective, even if you're happy to pay as per agreed rates and or enjoy some profits, and despite introducing numerous employee engagement activities to improve crew productivity—be it incentive schemes, listening sessions, constant training and workshops, yoga, exercises, or warm-ups, consistent breaks, providing a better work-life balance, reasonable and timely wages, celebrations, periodic meetings, and setting clear goals—these efforts achieve far too little considering what your crew members can produce to increase operational efficiency and perform the Queen Bee Role within the property!
The big question is, how do you determine if the crew's productivity is lacking or can be improved? What's the proof? You may say that we use much software to increase the productivity, we have more clarity on the crew members and what they do
Yes, here is the answer— Needless to state that the existing set of software & service providers can increase the productivity levels, best routes, track vehicle movements, assigning jobs, easy communication, transparency, even track devices too - kudos!
But what kind of expertise they provide within a property, where to start, what could be the flow of your crew, does it show individual crew members progress & live tracking?, or service type efficiency of the crew members? Benchmark those for better pricing? If you have all this data, then the crew engagement activities make sense.
All that we emphasize is that the actual work of landscape maintenance or the Queen Bee Role is done within the property, whereas the existing software helps you optimize operation outside the property!
The million-dollar question is - In this case how do you achieve the true productivity of the crew? Are you enjoying true profits? or Are we productivity blind?
Here is the answer, the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technology when seamlessly blended with work life takes you to the next level from the age-old practices of guesswork and gut feeling. Please note that we are not underestimating the power of humans and their experience in the field. But when the same human power (expertise in the field of operation) combined with the power of technology, seamlessly integrated and AIML to top it all, results in unbelievable productivity levels & operational efficiency.
Yes, the solution is urbanEye AI! The smartly integrated Vest (with the motion sensors) on the ground and its proprietary software on the backend powered by AIML is turning heads in the industry is the answer. Hear us on what we have done for Kohen Outdoor, Jacksonville (case study) that paved the way to start many pilots across the US