HOW WE DO IT Thinking Outside teh Box at Southwest Landscape Management

There is a clause in our contract in which we promise to perform a miracle. We say we’re going to complete a specific series of difficult tasks, in unpredictable weather, using mostly inexperienced help, half of whom don’t speak English and we’re going to get it done sometime between the last snow push and the first mowing. No problem, we do it every year, it’s called spring cleanup.

Spring and fall cleanup are always a challenge, especially for the chosen few in the maintenance business. In Southwest Landscape Management’s never-ending quest to find the perfect system for every job, we held a brainstorming session to determine what we could do to streamline the cleanup process.

We identified a pair of reoccurring problems which, if solved, would greatly improve our efficiency.

First, even though we had checklists and procedures in place, our crews still tended to forget or failed to load every tool, or enough tools and supplies to do the job. Second, loading, off-loading and keeping track of equipment and tools took way too much time.
 
To solve problem one and two we made a list of every hand tool, power tool and supply (including things like trimmer line, trash bags, fuel, etc.) it takes to do cleanup. We then set to work on a way to make sure that crews had everything they needed, could load and off-load in a minimum amount of time and could easily keep track of their equipment.
 
At the time our procedure was to load everything into a pickup truck and off-load it at the job site. At the end of the day we would reload, often on top of a pile of leaves, and off we’d go, looking like “Sanford and Son” with the occasional rake, shovel and who knows what else disappearing somewhere between the job site and the shop. So, we put our research and development staff – also known as maintenance foremen – to the task of finding a better way.
 
The solution was so simple we couldn’t believe we hadn’t thought of it before. We have open trailers, why not use them? They’re already equipped with trimmer and blower racks and a utility box for supplies. But what about those hand tools that would be bouncing all over the place?
 
After careful calculations, our R&D staff discovered that if properly arranged, the hand tools fit precisely into a 4-foot by 8-foot space. Armed with this information and the knowledge that plywood comes in that same exact size, they built a 4-foot by 8-foot box (about 10-inches deep) using two sheets of ½ inch plywood and three 8-foot 2-inch by 10-inch boards (one cut in half for the ends). They hinged the top, attached two hinged 40-inch two-by-fours to the top that would fall into place and hold the top up when it’s open, and also attached a couple of light chains to keep the top from flipping backward in the wind.
 
The crews even installed a handle on top to make it easy to open. To hold everything down, they used two 40-inch rubber bungee cords. The bungees are attached by removing the hook out of one end and attaching it to the back of two-by-tens with a bolt head screw and washer and an eyelet that was installed in the front two-by-tens to hook it to. The bungees are about 32 inches in from the sides and bolted an inch or so from the bottom.
 
Lay the box in the front of the trailer, load it with everything a three- to six-man crew needs for cleanup and you’re ready for the season. We keep a list of tools in the box, but a good foreman can tell at a glance if anything is missing. And if you really want to get picky, you can mark each crew’s tools with different colored tape. At the end of the day, we back the trailer into the shop, and in the morning it’s just a matter of hooking up and we’re good to go. Problems one and two are solved.
 
At the end of the cleanup season, we empty the boxes and use them as a 4-foot high room divider at the back of our shop, but they also can be stored flat against a wall.
 
We built our boxes using the trial and error method so we really don’t know how long it took or how much it cost, but you can get the materials at the local lumber for about a $100 per box. – Steve Rak Sr.

The author is president of Southwest Landscape Management, Columbia Station, Ohio. Reach him at 440/748-6000 or southwestlandscapemanagement@yahoo.com.