For What It’s Worth, Part II

I’ve worked with guys who sweat bullets to make all their overhangs consistent to within 1/16”. Others were decidedly more-nonchalant and didn’t really understand why there were short lines on the tape measure when nobody they knew actually used them. Two big ticks past the 2 should be good enough.

No matter your tolerance for accuracy, the process by which you measure tops should always be open for review. Investigating each of your templating procedures, and assigning a true cost to them, can give your company the confidence that it’s moving toward a more-efficient process when you make adjustments to those procedures.

If you’re considering moving to a digital template system, knowing the costs associated with your “hard” templates can give you a good idea if it makes economic sense to make an investment. The first thing to determine is if you’re really using a set of procedures for measuring jobs.

The template process for a small shop can be a one-man show. That person is responsible for all the job information, measurements and communication with the production team. All of the steps in the template process are subject to how fast that person can complete them; studying this is simply a matter of breaking down the methods and deciding if they can be done more-efficiently.

Compare this to a large full-service countertop company that can have several people involved in the measuring process for each job. In this model, it’s important to decide who’s responsible for each part of the process, and how efficient they are.

In a larger company, the sales staff members are normally the first line in the measuring process. Should they be responsible for gathering information above and beyond color, edge profile, sink type, and splash – the information they need to quote? If so, are they good at it and is it the best use of their time?

I’ve worked with companies who didn’t allow a sale to go into production until every detail was included in the job folder by the sales staff. On the flip side is the salesperson who simply moves on after the deal is signed, allowing the production staff to dig up the details.

Studying similar jobs within your company using these two approaches may help you determine which style is more efficient for your company. Is your sales staff good at detail work, or do they create mistakes and confusion? If the details are left to the production staff, do you often end up with a templater at a jobsite lacking enough information to finish the measurement? Examining your process with questions like these will help determine the most-effective use of your staff at the front end of a project.

After a job leaves the sales department, the questions about templating are less about business-flow theory and more about real-world situations. This is where a company can really take a look at the material and time costs associated with templating to determine if they’re using the right templating method for their company.

The first questions to ask: What kind of projects are my mainstays? What are my costs associated with making a template? What type of measuring staff do I have?

Are you working in the increasingly demanding custom market, or do you work mainly with builders doing L-shaped kitchen remodels? Or, are odd-shaped commercial projects your newest source of income? Look back at the jobs you’ve done over the past year and categorize them.

Does your current template method fit with the work you’re trying to complete? Could a different system bring more efficiency or allow you to compete for more of a certain job type?

In the current economic climate, the ability to be flexible could be critical to the survival of your company. If your template system is the only thing holding you back, that’s likely enough justification for making an investment.

This can become very apparent if you’re integrating more jobs with a CNC or waterjet. Creating stick templates first and then digitizing adds another layer of work and associated costs, as well as the risk of errors in transferring information from a hard template to a digital format.

On top of that, digital templating and computer-controlled cutting can be advertised as more-accurate than the stick templater/ hand-cutter working out of the back of his pickup and a storage area. Don’t be naïve enough to think that guy isn’t stealing work from you; if you use your superior technology as a selling point against his ridiculously low prices, you can create enough doubt about the other guy to end up with a sale.

Your direct template costs should be relatively easy to figure out. First, you have to get to the job.

Years ago, this was a non-issue; we’re stone guys, so we drive big pickup trucks and vans, right? Then, when gas goes over $5 a gallon, maybe we can do a little rethinking. Is there a way to get into a vehicle with more fuel-efficiency?

Carrying around large luan templates in the back of a Honda Civic probably isn’t going to work, but that car will easily handle any of the digital template systems. If you are looking to justify the cost of the digital system, this should be at the top of your list.

Trying to sell green countertops? Wouldn’t it look more authentic if you went to measure the job in a Prius as opposed to the V10 F-250? There’s not a lot of macho with a little hybrid – but if it pumps up your bottom line, who cares? Even a small pickup would increase your gas mileage, and still allow you to carry most stick templates with you back to the shop.

Here’s a simple exercise: Compute your average miles driven each year and compare the MPG on the full-sized truck versus the compact car or hybrid. Determine the difference in operating cost, including insurance and licensing. If you use a van or full-sized truck to template simply because you need the space to haul completed templates, that difference in operating costs could be money well spent on a digital system.

Your costs associated with template material are also straightforward, as in whatever you spend on Coroplast™ sheets or luan, plus the cost of the glue to hold them together. Compare this with the annual cost of the digital system, edge-marking stickers, and (depending on the vendor) a yearly software-maintenance fee.

If your shop has a busy year, the digital system can justify its costs against increased hard-template expenditures. And once your system is paid for, it adds even more value to your process.

When considering purchasing a digital template system, one of the main arguments against it I’ve heard is this: “The guy who does my measuring will never be able to learn it.”

While I’ve met people in the industry who aren’t computer-literate and have no interest in moving in that direction, the vast majority (including the younger generation moving into the trade) are quite comfortable with all sorts of technology.

Holding back on a technological advance for you company because of the limitations of your current staff can make limited sense today while putting you behind the curve tomorrow

The stone industry has embraced almost every technological advance presented to us … and the future looks even more-computer-driven.

One approach to entering the digital age is to do it in increments. The first thing to learn, regardless of your templating system, is computer-aided design (CAD). It’s is a great intro into the frame of mind to template digitally; it introduces the concept of the X, Y and Z axes. This allows the operator to get into that 3-D thought mode critical to understanding digital templates.

Week-long CAD classes are offered at many technical schools, and for most countertop applications that should be plenty. Once you have the basic ideas down, CAD is relatively easy to explore; you can teach yourself the rest of what you need to know.

Another incremental approach is to learn digital templating by using a system to digitize hard templates. This allows your templater to gain experience with your chosen system, while at the same time getting the confidence that a digital template really will hit the right numbers and correct angles.

There can be a huge amount of mistrust and doubt that a ‘virtual’ template is going to be correct. Erase this doubt, and your staff will embrace the technology much more quickly.

Once your templater is comfortable with digitizing hard templates, the next step could be the side-by-side method of creating both hard and digital templates for a series of jobs. Once again this works to verify that the virtual template done in the field is correct. After that, your templater’s mind should be at ease with the new technology, and digital templates can be produced at quicker rates than ever possible with a hard template.

Moving into new technology is never without anxiety, but by looking at your current process and costs and comparing it to that same scenario with a digital template system, you may find that the time is right to justify that investment.

Jason Nottestad, a 15-year veteran of the stone industry, is National Customer Service Manager for VT Stone Surfaces; he’s now on his third year of “The Installer” columns for Stone Business. He can be reached at JNottestad@vtindustries.com.

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