A new digital wireless application gives contractors instant job costing to prevent profits from shrinking.
The estimated production rate was 50 linear feet per man-day and in the end, the men only produced at a rate of 40 linear feet per man-day, resulting in the 25-percent cost overrun. This means that a labor activity that should have taken 36 man-days actually took 45 man-days to complete. That's a profit loss of nine full man-days multiplied by the workers' daily wage of $193-which equals a loss of $1,737. If the project manager had known that the men were not producing at the estimated production rates on the first day, steps could have been taken to correct the production problem before it ate into the job profits.