The Issue: Managing Increasing Pressures on Schedules, Costs, and Subcontractors

Continued demands for new houses and rising material costs keep large home builders tasked with maintaining tight production schedules, containing supply costs, and working in the most efficient manner possible. In the past, Superintendents have relied on their skills - along with a cell phone, fax machine, and a notepad – to keep their projects on schedule and on budget. As Superintendents pursue margins and compress building cycles, however, more effective interaction with the back office and suppliers must be more frequent and more standardized. Without the right tools, Superintendents work longer hours and suffer increased risks of eroding margins or missing completion dates through miscommunication.

How It Works

Superintendents now have a solution available to better manage schedules, collaborate with suppliers, and work whenever or wherever necessary. Hyphen Solutions BuildPro is an on-demand scheduling, collaboration, and supply chain management tool designed by builders, for builders. BuildPro uses an Internet application to enable builders to manage each construction project with greater accuracy and efficiency and do so in less time and with less effort than ever before.

• BuildPro takes into account a start date and end date to create a cycle time on a project.
• The system then includes all lead times on labor and materials and duration times for the work to be performed. With all of this data, a real time manageable schedule is created.
• BuildPro is set up to match the way Superintendents build houses.
• Starting with takeoffs and the labor required for each project, builders can customize standardized phase and activity schedules.
• The BuildPro system calendar will help schedule start dates, phase durations, subcontractors, supplies required and budget parameters.
• The system will also provide the Superintendent with activity lists they can review in daily, weekly, or monthly increments.

Product Features

• Scheduling, Collaboration, and Supply Chain Management

o Field Managers have access to their schedules and can manage them in real time.
o Extends the system to the field through the use of various handheld devices and an Internet connection.
o Eliminates the need for matching purchase orders (PO) with invoices.
o Back office personnel can access the information at any time.
o Provides for a quick ROI.
o It’s easy to use and implement.

• Box scheduling

o Box Scheduling allows builders to organize jobs into groups, so they can view and update tasks from multiple jobs simultaneously.

• PDA

o Built to work with standard smart phones and hand held devices.

• ERP and Back Office Integration

o BuildPro currently works mainly with Peoplesoft/JD Edwards, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems (FAST/NewStar), Lloyds, but can also be used independently.

• Reporting

o 51 basic standardized reports
o Ad hoc and subscription services
o Ability to easily export to HTML
o Easy to read with shaded fields

The value of BuildPro

• Increased productivity
• Better automated controls
• Improved communications
• Sarbanes Oxley compliance
• Robust reporting capability
• Ability to work anytime - anywhere

Benefits

BuildPro helps Superintendents organize their work and stay on track through every project. The system helps keep builders on budget, reduce cycle time, manage more projects at one time, and improve management's ability to react to issues in the field on a daily basis with real time information. Superintendents can stay on top of their business no matter where they are, nationwide.

As an option, BuildPro can be used remotely as wireless connectivity provides for “real-time” updates. A Superintendent also has the option of using laptops or hand-held devices that work in a disconnected mode with the ability to synchronize information at scheduled intervals. Builders increase their supply chain and scheduling productivity by:

• Significantly reducing time handling PO’s – inputting, sorting, posting, researching
• Reducing vendor research calls
• Making available actual dates of notification and completion, and comments for contract negotiation
• Streamlining open PO’s on archived homes
• Reducing time and costs associated with copying, printing, and mailing POs
• Reducing early vendor payment
• Minimizing manual data entry for reporting
• Proactive “extra” PO approvals

BuildPro is an enterprise solution for America’s biggest home builders and provides value across the entire organization.

Superintendent Benefits:

• Two-way collaboration with suppliers
• Reduce time on phone with suppliers
• Tracks reasons for schedule changes
• Electronically send notifications to suppliers
• Confirmation of supplier receipt of notices
• Reduces new builder training time
• Consistent and streamlined building schedules
• Exception reporting
• Provides audit trail of communications with suppliers

Corporate Benefits:

• Provides an audit trail
• Improves reporting ability at all levels
• Delivers accurate, real-time data to make better, more proactive financial decisions
• Helps tighter cash-flow management
• Can Reduce cycle time and carrying costs
• Helps deliver better quality homes and greater customer satisfaction

Division Benefits:

• Increases the Construction Managers span of control
• Easier to rotate and train new associates because all information is documented in one place
• Provides increased accountability through consistent evaluation measures
• Delivers real-time construction activity for all communities without taking time from associates
• Can help minimize turnover

Greater Control, More Effective Communication, and Increased Productivity

Collectively, the capabilities provided by BuildPro allow superintendents to focus on value-added activities and reduce the burden on administrative staff. At the same time, management has access to accurate, timely construction information that enables proactive decisions. Additionally, the combined systems provide a better communications tool to use with suppliers and subcontractors. The results are clear – greater control, more effective communication, and increased productivity.

To find out more about our products For Builders please call us at 1-877-508-2547 or email us at buildprosales@hyphensolutions.com