The Power Duo: Productivity and Profitability

Elon Musk reflects on Kitchen and Bath Industry

Okay, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch but he did mention “time” being our biggest asset during an interview on CNBC with David Faber which led ME to reflect on how we can get better at understanding productivity and all its potential.

Just one look at the processes, trials, and tribulations that take place during a start-to-finish project between a Kitchen and Bath Designer and their client, would probably make Elon Musk rocket ship into space and we’d all hear about it on Twitter. The fact of the matter is that when you look at a typical Kitchen and Bath Dealer model, it is wrought with inefficiencies.

So, let’s talk about the cure. What’s the first step? It is deciding what you’re going to measure. From there, you should process map it out so that you know where it starts, where it finishes and all the steps in between. The next thing is to determine where you are currently and where you want it to be. (Start and Target state)

Let’s just take this sample process and list it out. We don’t need to get into too much detail and keeping it to about 10 items makes it manageable.

·??????Meeting with a customer/qualifying.

·??????Design and Selection

·??????Quoting including material and labor

·??????Measuring/Verify measurements.

·??????Contract

·??????Ordering

·??????Delivery

·??????Scheduling/Installation

·??????Job Management

·??????Job completion/walk through etc.

Each of these items deserves its own process map. I feel sometimes when people are deciding what type of software/systems to use, they may be missing a key point. What are the deliverables? Systems are supposed to help streamline your business and make it more efficient. When you take on a new system, it’s not just to make you feel good that things are more organized and easier to do, but what reporting is telling you about how well you are doing in key areas. Ask yourself these questions before taking on a system:

1.??????How much is it going to help us improve productivity? I.e., Is it going to take your Gross Margin Per Person (GMPP) from $150K to $200K?

2.??????Is this system going to be able to identify mistakes, how they happened and how much they cost? i.e. Did your margin erosion go from being 4.5 in your business down to 2.5?

I’m sure I could list several other Key Performance Indicators but honestly, just between those two, you could double or triple your profitability! And that’s no joke.?Serious beans my friend. So, is the system that you choose going to be able to provide results like that? I’m just saying…before you go out and pick a system, you need to define what you want it to do for you. Choosing a system that’s built for the Industry rather than a generic system can be a huge benefit for many reasons. The main one being that it’s designed with your processes in mind and future development is geared towards making them even better. Not biased, just a fact ??

As a reminder, book a KABS demo by midnight on the 19th?and you can lock in our Spring Promotion price of $99 per user (regularly $120).?Click to Schedule a Demo