Time and Motion Studies

Are you in an industry that requires estimating man hours to set prices or create proposals? This can apply to many different industries such as construction or manufacturing. Have you considered conducting time and motion studies to help improve the accuracy of your pricing and estimates? You might think that you already know how long it takes to complete a certain task, but how accurate are you compared to reality. There is no real way to know unless you are conducting time and motion studies.

Every employee works at a different rate; therefore, every crew or group will complete the work within a different amount of time. To make your estimates and pricing as accurate as possible, you not only have to know which crew or group will be doing the work, but you also have to know how long that crew normally takes to complete those particular tasks as well. Makes sense doesn’t it?

Time and motion studies are easy to do, but will take some time to compile. First, you have to break down everything you do on a daily basis into different measurable tasks. For example, in the landscape industry you would time tasks such as mowing turf, trimming hedges, applying fertilizer, etc. Then you would need a measurable unit that you can break each task down into. Using the landscape example again, you can measure square footage. Pull out the stop watch and have the employee complete the work. Take the amount of time and divide by the square footage to get an accurate calculation of how long it actually takes. Do this with every employee and have them complete the tasks multiple times to get an average time.

Once you have times for every task and employee, then you can calculate how long it would take Crew ‘A’ to complete a job versus Crew ‘B’. With this data you not only get the most accurate pricing possible, but you’ve also created a structured, easy to follow process for setting prices.

Taking the time to conduct time and motion studies will help create the most accurate pricing possible. Many times we let outside influences such as others’ opinions affect our final price. I remember an estimating workshop I attended once, the instructor kept repeating over and over, “it is what it is”. In other words, once we put together an estimate, have covered all our materials and time, covered our overhead and allowed for a profit, then that’s all you can do. “It is what it is”. We need to be fair to the customer, but we also need to submit an estimate that will leave a fair profit in it for us. Time and motion studies allow us to do that with confidence.