Slippage and Grippage

One might say slippage could be combated by adding variance to future contracts to make up for whatever average slippage we have experienced. In this competitive marketplace, that isn’t an option. With the information garnered from our job analyses, we were able to make strategic decisions about many things, including subcontracting certain scopes of work we had been self-performing, making employee changes and adjustments, and reducing and increasing job budgets for certain tasks. Our goal was to create efficiencies and minimize mistakes rather than add costs.

Making a profit in residential construction is challenging. My firm is thriving by focusing on quality and service and keeping a keen eye on costs. Analyzing the job-cost data has allowed us to identify and correct issues within our production department, implement sensible best practices and limit our slippage.

Christopher K. Landis is a licensed architect in three states and partner in Landis Construction Corp., Washington, D.C.