If you've been a reader of my articles for a while, or invested a little time hunting through The Contractor's Business Coach website, you will be familiar with the six critical systems for running a construction business (heck, really any business).

The six WERE:

1. Marketing (lead generation)
2. Sales (avoiding price competition)
3. Staffing (building a winning team)
4. Planning (solving tomorrow's problems today)
5. Tracking (managing by the numbers)
6. Financial Control (managing your cash and profits)

I narrowed down the vast array of candidates to those six many months ago. Since then, due to dozens of conversations with dozens of contractors, I decided it was time to adjust the six.

My partner, Guy Gruenberg and I holed up in my office for several hours the other night and tweaked the list. The NEW and IMPROVED list:

1. Sales & Marketing (generating leads and closing sales)
2. Production Management (controlling cost and quality)
3. Staffing (building a winning team)
4. Business Planning (solving tomorrow's problems today)
5. Tracking - Monitoring (managing by the numbers)
6. Financial Management (managing your cash and profits)

The original six systems were presented several months ago. This week I am going to present the newest of the systems: Production Management.

Guy and I have chosen to group all of the production management subsystems into four categories: Estimating, Productivity, Quality Control, and Job Costing.