Electical Contractor

Like many a novice, overworked contractor, I once found myself spread out on the dining room table making a takeoff when my teenage daughter asked if she could help. My first inclination was absolutely negative, but then I figured she could count symbols too.

Information technology (IT) is being used increasingly throughout business to improve productivity and has the potential to do the same for electrical contractors. IT can increase effectiveness by improving communications and streamlining work.

In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act to “provide for a pro-competitive, de-regulatory national policy framework designed to accelerate rapidly private sector deployment of advanced telecommunications and information technologies and services to all Americans ...” That’s all well and g

Why manage your cash now  Some contractors have said the construction market is slowing. Others report they are busier now than ever in the last 10 years. One contractor said this is the busiest construction downturn he has ever experienced.

The key to profitably pricing service work is knowing the true “street cost” of running your service department, which, simply put, is the cost incurred fulfilling your customers’ needs and expectations.

“California Adventure was 30-40 projects for us, and probably the most challenging project we’ve had at Morrow-Meadows due to the complexity, schedule and the logistics,” said Rob Meadows, executive vice-president, Morrow-Meadows Corporation, a Southern California-based company.

Six Sigma is a program for improving manufacturing quality developed by Motorola in the mid-1980s and adopted and expanded by General Electric (GE) in the 1990s. Today, Six Sigma is being used by a variety of other well-known manufacturing firms as well as all types and sizes of service firms.

Just a few years ago, knowledgeable electrical contractors believed that the trick was to virtually “give away” an initial VDV installation, and, by landing a service contract in that way, capitalize for years on the very lucrative moves, adds and changes (MACs) that followed.

Supply-chain management is proactive and involves the optimization of the flow of information, materials and payment between the supplier and the electrical contracting firm.