Challenge
 

The company was growing fast but lacked a unified way to understand labor availability versus labor demand.

Project Managers, superintendents, and accounting each held pieces of the data, but no one had a complete view.
 

This created several issues:
 

• Jobs were sold without confirming manpower availability

• Leadership couldn’t predict when they would be overstaffed or understaffed

• Arkansas and Texas teams operated under different licensing and capacity constraints

• Resource decisions were reactive instead of strategic

• No visibility into monthly labor demand across all contracted projects
   

The President and the CEO needed a scalable, data-driven Master Schedule and Labor Capacity Model to reveal when labor shortages or surpluses would occur, both in Texas and Arkansas.
 

Approach
 

To solve this, I led a multi-department effort to align data, assumptions, and forecasting logic.
 

Data Collection & Validation

• Consolidated all active contract jobs into a standardized backlog

• Validated planned crew sizes and mobilization assumptions directly with PMs and superintendents

• Removed all projects 85%+ complete to prevent inflated demand

• Added state segmentation to evaluate Arkansas vs. Texas separately
   

Model Design

• Calculated job duration based on labor hours ÷ planned crew size

• Created formulas to project monthly labor burn

• Built a capacity view comparing available internal crews + subcontractors

• Incorporated business constraints for Arkansas (licensed labor limitations)
   

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Conducted interviews with PMs, field managers, and accounting

• Integrated subcontractor capacity after meeting with local teams

• Reviewed model accuracy and credibility directly with the CEO
   

Visualization & Insights

• Designed dashboards showing labor requirement curves by month

• Highlighted surplus/shortage risk

• Created filters to break results down by state, division, or job
   

Results

The final model became the company’s first enterprise-wide labor capacity forecast and is now used for:

• Strategic hiring decisions

• Subcontractor planning

• Scheduling and pulling jobs forward

• Evaluating field workload

• Preparing board-level reports and executive updates
   

Key Outcomes

• Identified upcoming labor spikes in Texas and Arkansas

• Confirmed months where the company has excess labor capacity

• Revealed that Arkansas would require two additional crews to meet contract demand

• Increased accountability and communication between PMs, superintendents, and leadership
   

This project turned labor planning from guesswork into a data-driven, proactive process.
 

Want to Improve Operational Visibility & Planning?
 

If your organization is struggling with disconnected tracking systems, unclear operational visibility, or reactive planning, I can help design structured operational systems that improve clarity, accountability, and decision-making.
 

Book a free 30-minute consultation to discuss your operational challenges and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, visibility, and execution.