[jwholden]

Congrats on finding ways to standardize your business. It will be much easier to manage your expanding business when you have clearly set expectations of your employees. Those sheet(s) will be priceless when you train a new hire on what you mean by 'wash the truck' and how long wash the truck should take.

If it takes too long to wash a truck you can ask your crew member to show you the process they used to see if there are any ways to streamline it as opposed to blowing your cork. Will the wall have a cheat sheet list of what an A, B, and C wash is and what color brushes to use?

I will attached two sheets I have been using this year. I borrowed this idea from a nursery who had an open house for our trade association. I would like to have a piece of paper to hand out to crew members in the morning of what they are expected to do in the morning and what tools are needed. I am still a one man operation so please adjust as neccesary. My goal with these two sheets is not to get caught up in the details, just the vital info.

[jwholden]

Tools list

[Lawn Lad]

Yes... we'll be posting a laminated version of our SOP by the wash shelf. I've attached a copy of it here. We also have a two page written description on how to perform the truck washing which I think will need to be revised more as we go through this. The times listed on the bottom of the page are 'place holders' at this piont until we actually measure the process. It will take us several occurrences of truck washing before we have enough data points to feel comfortable with stating actual times.

But in many cases "Best is the enemy of better', so by simply getting something up and working that is better than what we had before, we gain from the increased efficiency. I guess it will never be the best it can be, rather it will always be a work in progress since continual improvement by definition means you're never done revising/updating/improving.

[Lawn Lad]

Hmmm... for some reason the file didn't post. I'll try again.

[site]

One of the things I like about winter is that everyone has a bit of extra time for posts like this one. Thanks guys.

[Mac]

Doug, nice work. I hate to say I do not have these things yet. However, my own cristal ball report says they will be shortly.

You mention efficiency. The single largest improvement I made this year was to put my maintenance crew in an enclosed trailer. It saves so much time, it will easily recoup its cost during its lifetime.