Who is Thoutt?
Established in 1961, Thoutt Bros has been in the industry for 5 decades, making them one of the oldest, family-owned construction companies in Colorado. With a long history of successful projects throughout the years, Thoutt Bros offers exceptional quality at a competitive price from large commercial concrete projects to small residential projects.
Thoutt believes in providing first-rate service to its customers. Their dedication to quality hiring, project excellence and investments in the latest equipment and technology help to ensure that clients’ projects are completed on time and within budget in any economic environment.
Inefficiencies cost thousands of dollars
Thoutt is a family-owned concrete subcontractor. At any given time, we might have as many as 160 projects across multiple divisions, including commercial, land development, multi-family, wall, and many more.
As Thoutt has evolved, we’ve taken a serious approach to reducing delays. We recognize that communicating and collecting data in real time is essential to that.
“Every point where we’re not efficient costs us thousands of dollars. It’s the nature of the industry.” – CJ Thoutt, VP/Operations Manager
To deliver quality and efficiency, we mapped out value-streaming in our operations. As we considered the best way to execute our strategy, we came across Assignar. One of our employees forwarded an email saying “I think this platform is exactly what we’re looking for.”
Being a large subcontractor, we were excited to explore software that is actually geared towards subcontractors, not just GCs.
Real-time data changes the game
Real-time information is vital. We can’t wait two weeks until payroll comes through to understand how we performed on a job.
“With a standard payroll system, you’re not getting the information until… what? A week later? That’s not good enough. I want that data as it’s happening.” – CJ Thoutt, VP/Operations Manager
Getting critical information helps us ensure we’re on the path to meet our goals for every project. If something isn’t quite on par, our teams are able to shift and realign immediately.
Mobilizations
We used to use a magnetic whiteboard and magnets to plan our mobilizations. With as many as 160 ongoing projects and nearly 300 field workers, this system was challenging. On top of that, circumstances in concrete change often.
Once we implemented Assignar, we continued to use both systems. In the beginning, we would start our planning on the whiteboard and then update Assignar to reflect the whiteboard. After a few weeks, our schedulers shifted to working in Assignar first and then updating the board, all on their own.
We work on and update our schedule every day to cater to any changes. By 2 pm, we’re able to release notifications and we immediately start receiving shift confirmations through the app — no texts, emails, or phone calls.
In the chaos that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, our office staff was equipped to work from home. Our schedulers didn’t need the whiteboard anymore.
Automating with forms
“Honestly, the way that Assignar forms work is incredible!” – CJ Thoutt, VP/Operations Manager
They are versatile and invaluable to our business. In fact, we love them so much that we use them to trigger administrative workflows within the office, not just in the field.
While each project is unique, we have standardized our processes to ensure quality and timeliness. This system works really well for us and forms make our repeatable processes even quicker.
Assignar forms allow us to streamline communication from the office and field. If someone requests a concrete form to a job site, the office staff responsible for supporting that receives an immediate notification when the form is submitted. On top of that, the logic jumps based on form answers simplify the paperwork and cut down on time.
This is just one example of how we have leveraged forms. At this time, we’re continuing to explore the many ways we can eliminate double administrative work with them.
Final thoughts
We are constantly striving to improve our business. Assignar has transformed the way we work internally and with other contractors in the industry. We can capitalize on our time and effort more than ever as we continue to collect and act on data.
Our clients are impressed with the degree to which we are capturing what goes on on the job site (which can sometimes be a double-edged sword for them).
At this time, we’re in the process of creating a “War Room.” It’s going to be a massive communication center that displays the information we have in Assignar. We’re using some of the templated reports from Assignar insights in addition to custom reports that reflect the information we care about it.
“We’re super happy and very excited. It has been unbelievable to see the transformation in our business: reduced inefficiencies and delays.” – CJ Thoutt, VP/Operations Manager
We have a vision at Thoutt:
We’re going to be the most efficient contractor the industry has worked with.
We are going to present the best, most accurate documentation and continue to scale in Colorado and beyond.
With our dedicated teams and Assignar on our side, we are going to get there.
