Cost tracking, productivity and profitability · Lesson 2 of 4

Cost tracking, productivity and profitability: cost drivers, units and standards

How AFS's estimating counts a flashing job, why strips per sheet fall in steps, how hems and piece length change yield and waste, and what makes a standard and a progress measure usable.

You will be able to: Name what drives the cost of a bent-metal flashing job, find the strips per sheet for a flat width, read waste from a cut plan, and state what a usable standard and a usable progress measure look like.

13 min · 12 slides · 9 questions

All lessons in this module

Slide 1 of 12

What drives a flashing job

AFS's estimating works from the sheet metal a job uses, the number of bends, the number of hems and any extras.

No prices appear in this module; it teaches what to count and how to compare it with what happened.

Each driver needs a unit you can count in the shop: sheets, strips, bends, hems and feet.

Sources

AFS estimating rule: a sheet is 10 ft by 4 ft, a strip's width comes out of the 48 in side, strips per sheet is the whole number of widths that fit, and a piece shorter than a strip is charged a whole strip because nesting is planned separately - Architectural Flashing Supply

Glossary

Flat width (girth): The width of a profile laid out flat before bending. The width FlashDraft shows includes the hem allowances, and AFS's largest flat width is 48 in, hems included.
Strips per sheet: In AFS's estimating, the whole number of profile widths that fit across the 48 in side of a 10 ft by 4 ft sheet; each strip is the full 10 ft long.
Hem allowance: FlashDraft's allowance for a hem: twice the fold length for a smashed hem, and twice the fold length plus the gap for an open hem. It adds to the flat width shown and is not the developed length.
Waste percent: In AFS quote cut plans, the waste length divided by the length needed, as a percent. A short offcut left from a stock length is waste.
Standard: An expected price and quantity a company establishes in advance, set at a level employees can reach with reasonable effort (OpenStax). Refreshing it as conditions change is advice from this module, not from OpenStax.
Physical measurement: An earned value method that credits progress in countable units related to the completed work, such as length of cable laid (GAO).