With the right marine management software you can identify metrics to grow your boatyard, shipyard, marine service facility or boat building company successfully.
Written by Stephen Bullard, Marine Consultant and Sales Director at PierVantage
Boatyards, shipyards, marine, boat building companies and other enterprises often struggle with what and how to identify the right metrics to grow their business. In fact, this is one of the problems I often encounter when I consult with many marine businesses.
Some struggle to understand where and why they are successful – and vice versa – some businesses that are barely surviving struggle to use the right metrics to “right the ship” in their line of business. Most don’t realize that marine management software will help.
How to measure success in a boatyard, shipyard, marine or boat building company with marine management software?
“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science.” – William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin – June 1824 – December 1907
I have spent thousands of hours in the last 14 years consulting with leadership in boat yards, ship yards and boat building companies about their marine businesses and how to improve their bottom line. Those conversations revealed to me that a startlingly large number of companies look at their business performance through a wide-angle lens instead of a magnifying glass.
Surprisingly, most of those boatyard owners didn’t know much about boatyard management software.
What is currently being measured in your boatyard, shipyard, marine or boatbuilding company?
With these boatyards, shipyards, boat builders and commercial marine, I usually start these conversations by discussing what is currently being measured and end up working with marine business owners to create additional business metrics that they can start regularly reviewing with a boatyard accounting solution.
A classic example of this is the extreme focus they put on reports. In my view, reports are a dumping ground for all the raw data that is available, whether it’s useful or not. Reports don’t contain the motivational metrics and measures that increase performance or drive meaningful conversations.
I often hear “But Steve, we wrote up 360 new work orders last month in our boatyard” to which I respond “Great! So, would you consider last month successful?” And then, I get nothing but a blank stare in return.
Most marine business owners assume that selling more of anything, equates to success. But, in my view, the puzzle piece that they’re missing is defining a clear and measurable goal. “Sell more stuff” is not a goal. However, an Effective Billing Rate of $XX.xx next month is a great example of a measurable goal that you can use to determine success in your shipyard, boatyard and boat building company. Marine management software helps with this.
Measurement is the key to success in your boatyards, shipyards, boatbuilding and other marine businesses
Always start with your goal. You can’t create a good plan until you know exactly what you’re trying to achieve. Then, measure, measure, measure. Some useful metrics for your marine business might be:
- Billable hours to total hours worked
- Gross margin analysis for labor, materials and charges
- Cost per billable hour
- Billable hours written off by department and/or project manager
In the end, just remember that setting goals and measuring progress is the best way to eliminate time and energy wasters in your marine business. PierVantage offers cloud-based business management solutions to help measure marine success–and enjoy smooth sailing.
Contact me for more information about marine management software.
About the Author:
Stephen Bullard, Senior Sales Director, PierVantage
Stephen Bullard is Senior Sales Director for CorVant, primarily responsible for PierVantage™ sales and marketing efforts. Stephen brings to bear his considerable marine industry experience to provide insights on new features and functionality to our development team. He is also actively engaged in providing advisory services to our boatyard customers.
Stephen has over thirty years of marine industry experience, with over twenty years directly related to the management of well-known marine service facilities in New England and the Pacific Northwest. Prior to joining CorVant, Stephen spent six years providing professional services and promoting marine operational software to boat yards, boat builders, dealerships and marinas throughout North America. These positions have led Stephen to a high level of understanding in the marine services arena in the following areas: project management, yard operations, business process & procedures, service management, customer account management, financial analysis, forensic accounting, inventory set up and inventory management.
Stephen completed a 12 month course in boat design at the Landing School in Maine and has spent his entire life on the water logging more than 15,000 miles sailing in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He also enjoys offshore fishing and is licensed to handle power and sailing vessels up to 100 tons.