Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. It is a time to be grateful for what we have, a perfect opportunity to spend time with family, and the best meal of the year. It should be a peaceful and relaxing holiday, right?
Unfortunately, many families around the nation are suffering from inefficient Thanksgiving dinner preparation (gasp). Why does dinner take so long to prepare? The inefficiency of the meal preparation can get in the way of all things good at Thanksgiving.
You don’t want a poorly scheduled meal to interrupt the football games, nap time, or early black Friday deals on turkey day, so don’t let it!
Preparing Thanksgiving dinner isn’t much different than working in construction. Just as having a SMART jobsite and gathering data can maximize construction results, and it can also change Turkey day forever! We will show you the simple process to ensure that your Thanksgiving is efficient and gives you time to do the things you want.
STEP 1: DOWNLOAD AND SET UP THE BUSYBUSY APP
This all begins with having the right tools in your toolbox, and the first thing you will need is the busybusy app. Accurate, reliable data from the jobsite is not only a game changer in construction but is key to winning this Thanksgiving. Ensure every member of your crew (family) downloads the app to track individual contributions.
When you set up your team, make sure you remember to add cost codes, which in this case, represent different dishes. Create cost codes for each of the following: Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, veggies, cranberry sauce, and dessert. It is key that every team member clocks into each cost code when they are prepping that type of food for you to have the correct data at the end of this experiment. You can also set up pieces of equipment such as the oven, stove, mixer, and deep fryer to track your equipment usage.
Job costing data is gathered using the busybusy app
STEP 2: SCHEDULING
Managing available time will organize your team and set them up for success. As the foreman or supervisor on this project, you can assign your employees to different work times, cost codes, and pieces of equipment. They will know exactly when they need to be where and what they need to do to make this meal the way it was meant to be made. As soon as they arrive at the “kitchen site,” they can pull up their app and clock into the schedule that you provided for them.
STEP 3: PRODUCTION
Time for Turkey day! The time has arrived to begin production! Your prep this far will make sure that every member of the crew will follow their schedule and clock into the correct cost code on the correct piece of equipment.
Let’s take a look at some examples of how specific features of busybusy could make your meal prep better and more efficient.
GPS tracking. That pumpkin pie looks too good to be true. You know that Jason (your brother-in-law) was assigned to that cost code and project, but you didn’t expect it to look so good. You go back and look at his work log and notice that when he was clocked in and working on the pie, his GPS location was at the local pie shop… busted! The good news is, he arrived back at the “kitchen site” with enough pie to go around.
Change orders. When the pressure is on and there is a tight schedule to keep, unexpected issues often come along. This time, Jenny estimated the need for two bags of frozen corn.. When she sees the total amount of food being produced and the expected guests, it is clear to her that she will be three bags short! She has to call an audible and run to the store and buy some more. The time and money she spends to make this right can be tracked as a subproject, and everyone will clearly understand what happened and why.
Safety sign-off. As you know, there can be risks to prepping a grand meal with a large team in a short amount of time. Poor Susan found out in the worst way when she burned her hand on the deep fryer while cooking. Luckily the safety sign-off feature makes all crew members report injuries they received on the job when they clock out. You will know how serious her injury is and what you need to do to help her.
STEP 4: LET’S EAT
The team has finished preparing the feast, and it is time to eat! Everyone goes on their lunch break in the app and sits down to stuff themselves full of the best (or at the very least, most efficient) thanksgiving meal ever made.
STEP 5: EVALUATION
This step is optional, but only if you are not interested in continuing to improve your holiday feasts for next year. You sit down and look through the data that the app has been tracking throughout the day. You can find different cost codes that were running on all cylinders and did a great job. Compare this with the food prep that took longer than expected, and you can figure out what was lacking there. Was it the employee? Or did the job require more people? Whatever it was, you would know how to do an even better job next time. That is where the real value lies in this process. Duplicating your successes and finding your missteps to fix them next time.
STEP 6: ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY!
You did it! You produced the most efficient Thanksgiving dinner meal in history! Time to enjoy the rest of your holiday. Whether you want to play football or watch football, take a nap or go shopping, or simply spend time with your loved ones, you have the time to do it now.
Thanks for taking this journey with us. Now that we know that an app like busybusy can positively impact something like preparing a meal for the holidays, imagine the difference it could make for your construction company!
Download our free busybusy app to find out how it can make your jobsites more efficient and enjoy your profits the same way that you enjoy your Thanksgiving afternoon.
