Customer Profile: Ford Construction Company, Inc.

Ford Construction Company, Inc.
Founded:	1978
Location:	Lodi, CA
Number of Jobs Bid Annually:	150
Number of Jobs Run Annually:	30
Type of Work:	Freeways, Landfills, Dams, Subdivisions, Large Underground & Heavy Grading Operations

Ford Construction, located in Lodi, California, is a particularly innovative company that is using all four of the integrated HCSS software products to improve their $75 million a year operation.

Like many other HCSS customers, Ford’s introduction to HCSS began with HeavyBid.  In use since 1999, Ford uses HeavyBid to meet the unique demands of today’s highly competitive heavy/highway bid process, finding that its flexibility works well in a wide range of environments.  They are particularly adept at bid day closing, making adjustments to the bid up until literally the last minute.  “Our guys know almost as much about HeavyBid as HCSS does,” says Nick Jones, Operations Manager.

The Ford team knew that successful estimating without efficient field management would only take them so far, so they chose to implement HeavyJob to manage their projects.  Nick’s goal was to produce solid winning estimates and then effectively manage those jobs to maximize profits.   Ford currently has 32 foremen entering their time card information into HeavyJob.  “I especially like the diary notes which I read for every foreman to quickly catch up on what is happening on all of our projects,” said Nick.  “The format of these notes gives us an efficient way for everyone to review particular issues that have occurred, thus saving us time, money, and overhead.”

The Dispatcher is possibly the most welcomed product at Ford. Ford has gone from manually writing down moves in a book and using a whiteboard to tracking every move electronically with The Dispatcher.  They are now able to quickly search for resources, view which jobs equipment was on previously, as well as print out a complete history of resource movement.  Before using The Dispatcher, Ford suffered the cost of missing buckets, time wasted looking for equipment attachments and unnecessary rental expenses.  With total control over their equipment, these situations are all but eliminated.

“We’re trying to achieve maximum operational efficiency to give us a competitive advantage,” observed Nick.  “HCSS software and their top-notch support are really helping us get there.