🚧IN-DEPTH⚠️ Equipment Maintenance Meeting @ 20+ Person Lawn Care Company 👷

How's it going? My name is Lee. I'm with Augusta Lawn Care here in Bellingham, Whatcom County. And this morning, we had our second meeting for tracking equipment and maintenance. So basically, we found out growing rapidly. It was really hard to track our equipment, our materials, where mowers were going, when mowers were broken, where trimmers were disappearing to. So basically, myself and three gentlemen who wanted to step up and lead, as well as Liz, our operations manager, decided we'd have weekly meetings tracking equipment. So hope this helps you guys out. We just brainstorm and hash out issues that happen throughout the week and talk about better systems to better set each other up for success.

After Carl sent the email the other day that I posted on our chat about what we had there, I told him that we had created the chat and that I was timestamping his email into the chat for you guys. And they said they'd try to put together a better system starting that day, too, so. But I told him we were not expecting them to own where our stuff was, that we were doing a timestamp every time we drive in and drive out. So when Kent went yesterday, I told before he left, please, as soon as you drive away, text me what you took, and I'll put it on there for the guys. So if you guys send somebody to get you something, just make sure you tell them to tell you. And then put on here so that we should never lose anything again. And Tim is in Mount Vernon, is aware, too. And ours are marked differently.

Cool.

So we. We thought we should meet today before we have a team meeting this morning. So you guys can say what you want done to the team. So how are we going to label? I can get different colors if you guys prefer to.

Yeah. So did we want to do that idea? I didn't know if you were going to look into it this weekend, Ben, on getting different color duct tape, that would obviously entail. I think we decided nine colors of duct tape.

When I went to Home Depot, I think I got something like six different rolls. Okay. So I still need to go to, like, Rite Aid or something, get some more colors. But we do have some duct tapes. And then I'll stop.

And could we. What might.

I don't know. What might be easiest is just labeling the trailer list because the trailers are a little bit more controlled. They're a little bit easier, I guess, to track, in a sense, where the trailer lift stuff pops off and on. And it is more interchangeable. Maybe. I don't know. I just. I feel like I Love the duct tape idea. But the more I thought about it this week, I was like, well, if we have 15 mowing setups next year, like that's not really gonna work. Right. We kind of need to think like long term. Like, I really like the idea and I think it would work.

You know, we're possibly adding three, four, five more trailerless setups.

When you guys come back in the evening and people are back, can you take. If you see it with me, can you help me remember to take names off?

Okay.

Because what happened yesterday morning is somebody needed to back up. But we still had Lion's name on this one and Nick's name on this one. And we actually did have them, but they, their names are still on from the day before. Good morning. Come on in.

Austin. Do you have anything for this, this week that went well or not well with our new system?

Not from what I was seeing, other than I just need to figure out color coding because I'm struggling on what I could use with the color.

Right. Well, we were just talking right before you got here that I don't know if that's the route we want to go. Just cuz next year if we have. We have nine milling setups next year if we have 20, 12, 15. Yeah, I mean, probably not 20, but like 12. Probably at least 12. Right. We'll probably have at least 12. So I think there's. There. We have to figure out a better system. Whether it's just tagging them with like big like colored numbers, like kind of like the trucks. Like that was an idea I had like P1, P3. Like there's those big numbers. Maybe if we get those and just stick them like right on top of like the flywheel on the mowers. So then, I mean, obviously then we're working in the double digits, so that might be a little tricky too. But I don't know. I'm up for ideas. I think the steel one is probably for quick identification. Probably the worst for that. You know, just like in the morning, right. If we're scrambling, like, where's this piece of equipment? Let me get my phone out. It's not connected to the Bluetooth. You know, instead of being like that's a three, I know it goes with this, this setup. Right. So I think that's the main thing we need to figure out is how we want to label stuff and if we can make stuff like somewhat interchangeable. The original idea with the trailer list is that every piece of equipment could be taken off and moved. But it doesn't really work that way because one, we bought the. The rack systems were like version two and version 2.5. So a couple of them were like the older version and a coup than the newer version. So they're not the exact same. And then the truck bed lengths are just different enough to where sometimes the mounting hardware doesn't match the same. See, the idea, obviously, blowers, sprayers, hand tools, those can all be interchanged. But the idea was that all the trimmers could be interchanged too. But it's not going to work because if a forward mounting point is slightly farther back than a Chevy, well, that means the trimmer has to sit slightly forward. Right. It pushes it. Yeah. Because we don't just. There's not one rail where we can adjust it custom the whole way down. We have to fit into those slots.

Would be too much for like each truck like later on to have like that little like tool that you can.

Use to adjust like the little clamps, the mounting brackets. Yeah, I'd be okay with that because like Eliza's fell off yesterday. And so it's a quick fix in the field, but if you don't know how to do it, then it's like it's one of ours. So Caleb went and fixed it last night when it's really like not even a two minute fix in the field. So I'm okay with that. But also we don't want have to have a bunch of backup hardware and screws for those because those will get left in trucks and lost. Right. Same as just general backup equipment as a whole. Like, we don't put a lot in the trucks because we don't want it to get lost. Like if you remember, like kind of when you first started, we just had the 4 million trailers. We didn't have trailer lists. And each one had like those tool bags with a ton of tools. And now if you went in there, there's like none. Right. We spent like 100 bucks on each tool bag. So I don't really want to do that, but we can explore ideas for that. So I don't know if anyone had anything el in that regard as far as tracking.

Yeah.

So in the morning, are we going to try to make sure everybody has what they need? It seems like there's a lot of scrambling around and they almost need us to be saying they need you guys to be saying, no, you're going to take that, you're going to take that. Make sure you go write that on the board, that kind of thing.

So yeah, I think what what might have to happen is you guys would have to. And I. And I do this too for projects. Like, I look at the board the night before and say, okay, what projects just kind of like, stand out there.

And just kind of like, watch whoever.

Like knowing who the project is.

Right.

You kind of, like, watch them and then you kind of see when they're about to head out and kind of connect with them before.

Yeah.

So, yeah, just ask them. You have everything you need.

So that's what I typically do on the projects. And then for you guys, it would just be like. Mainly like Ben and Austin. Like Ben, you would just look over there and say, okay, I could see that. Like P11, P12. And you know, okay, those are the only trailerless setups going out today. Oh, P is going out. But it's on a project. So then, you know, Charlie probably doesn't need the mower. Right. Because P6 mower is the one at shop. But Charlie's doing a project, so you could just check with him or check with Liz and check, like Charlie's job knows.

Or at the, like, maintenance shop. Sorry, Carl's. Yeah. Yeah. So that would be something. I guess we would have to let people know up front or. And we can address it this morning at the team meeting that they need to come over here and look too, right? Yeah. Cause that was the main issue last couple weeks was the backup would get taken because people weren't really trying to find. People weren't.

People weren't really, like, looking hard for the equipment. And we, like Liz and I. Cause you guys just got brought in. It's like Liz and I didn't know where everything was.

What if we instilled, like, an extra step in the morning? Like, I don't know if we could do it in Surface Auto Tracker or another app similar to that, where, like, we have the assignments from the day before. And then we go in and assign all of the mowers according to that person. And whenever they grab onto, they need to go into the app and just press that button saying, I confirmed that I have on the six. And then we get a text message so that there's a recorded receipt electronically for the entire day so that we know. And then if something happens, they can go into that app, say, hey, I'm dropping it off. Bam, it's no longer on there. And we have a detailed receipt all the time for it.

I mean, I obviously love the idea. I really do. Like, in a perfect world, that would be great. We can't even get people to Write an initial on the whiteboard.

Yeah.

So I'm just trying to simplify that type.

I know I 100 come in here.

Write it down, and then go out. Whereas if they're just picking up whatever, they can just say, I have Honda 6.

Yeah.

Or whatever.

Yeah.

But that's why we have the timestamp of the WhatsApp app, too. So I did download the inventory tracker last week for stuff, and I played with it, I bought it. I worked with it all that day and the weekend, and then Mike and I were looking at it, and he's like, that. That is a whole nother step. He said, for people, when you can just look at the board, this is on there. This is on there. Now all of them have an app, and now their app's not working, and now it's not refreshing, and you're not getting it on there.

It's more of the fact of trying to get them to come in here.

Yeah. So I don't mind if you're out there helping them and you go, liz, Liza's taking whatever. That's what we did yesterday. And I just wrote it down.

Yeah. I think this is. This is our app. Right. It's real time. Because everything change just so fast that if we have an app, you know, there's loading issues. There's like. I literally love that idea. I really do. But I just think. But I think, like, someone's gonna open it and be like, I don't know where to put it. So they're just gonna randomly type somewhere that they take P6 or mower six. Right.

It's not gonna be.

So Whereas here, if Austin says, hey, I saw Eliza take this, whether she goes in and writes on the board or not, I'll let Liz know. So I think, unfortunately, it kind of falls on us to set everyone for success, because people just will forget. Right. And that's where, like, I was falling behind in the last couple weeks. Right. I just had no. I couldn't keep up with everything. And if people. And if we have systems that people aren't following one, it's on the people, but it's also on us, because we're not. We're not, like, harping on those systems. We're not forcing them to follow those systems.

Right.

So, like, I think it was probably a little bit of a. Of a blow to Ken to realize that he loses two hours of P4Pmoney when he takes a backup mower and doesn't put his initial on board and literally waste two hours of Nick's time or just text.

Liz took it off.

Can you put it on the board? So, like that. Like, it sounds harsh to be like, wow, we're taking off two hours worth of Kent's P4P. But Nick literally lost two hours of his P for P. So it's not fair to Nick. Right. When we were under the impression the backup was here. So moments like that will make people remember, because yesterday, Kent came in right away and put his name next to the backup. Right. So that's when the system works. Like, when people either feel the pain or the pleasure of it or they're like, wow, this is so. Like, when we. Like when we all walked in here and saw those were the only things that need to be repaired, we probably all felt, like, the pleasure of, like, wow, that was awesome. Like, it's already working. But then when people feel the pain, they'll kind of step up as well. For sure. Yeah.

So this morning at the meeting when we talked to them all, they'll just know that you are the people to connect with out there and just letting you know. And then you guys just shooting me a text. I get it. Nobody wants to jump out of their truck and run back in here. So if you guys just say, hey, so and so took whatever. Great. I'll put it on board.

Yep. So it's the same as really anything that goes here. The more we can communicate, the better.

If you just put that on our equipment chat, and we'd all know, you could say, oh, yeah, who did they say took whatever? We're missing that.

Yeah, because I'm gonna have a date and time stamp of that, too in the chat. So that way, if it were like, this one's broken. Who had it that day? If the board gets all crazy like it usually does, we at least in our chat have that.

Yeah, that's good.

So just do that. If you see someone doing it, we're still gonna harp on the fact that they need to come in here and put their initials down, but if one of us sees it with our own eyes, we might as well just do it. Like, for them. You.

As far as that goes, I think we're good there. There's something else I was gonna say. Caleb's doing repairs on the mower. So you got Honda four done or three done?

Four.

You got four. Okay, so that will go back in ET4 then?

Should. Okay. It only took 15 minutes.

Gotcha.

You went to Carl's last night and did you return the one thing, and then you picked up the other park? You Were trying to get to Carl's before they closed. Right?

Yeah, I got there and they were.

In parks for me.

Oh, I didn't realize that he boug.

The wrong part until I got back.

And walked in box two and then.

Realized.

Sorry, I'm just pulling up the stuff in our chat just seeing if there's anything else.

Cuz then he also bought a key and he bought the wrong.

Caleb did. Oh, okay. So we need to make sure that he knows that what you did, you can put it on the chat.

Thing.

Checking oil and mowers. Still doing that on Mondays.

Yeah.

Okay, cool. And then you can. Obviously you're kind of the point person on that but Ben's also so I don't know if you're on board with that. Mowers Monday morning. Just checking the oil. Austin's been doing them all by himself and I've been helping him sometimes so it's really Austin's thing. But if you want to come in a little early too because we have so many, I'm fine with that. I'm trying to think of what else did anyone else have just like any ideas or thoughts on the week or things that went well or things that didn't go well.

It's hard remember because we erased everything.

But when are we going to be switching to trails? Like next year, like startup next month.

So it'll probably be a pretty hard start. Next mowing season we'll the plan as of right now, get rid of ET1 and ET2 because they're the oldest and most damaged. So we'll clean them out, try to sell off all the equipment, sell the trailers as is, see if we can make a little bit of money off of them. And then we probably. We're still in talks about this probably keeping ET3 and 4 and the gravelies in them for overgrown mows and post thatchings. So we want to obviously simplify the services. Mike explained all that. Why we want to have 30xs so that way someone brand new can be profitable in a couple weeks. So then the gravelies, the zero turns would really then only be used by people who already know how to use them. And we'd essentially be eliminating them as a whole from mowing. They would just be used for overgrowns and detaching. So we'd be pretty much 100% 30xs. Okay. That'd be the plan. So we haven't set a number on how many trailer lists, but we're thinking about converting a couple trucks over and maybe getting one or two more. So probably three more trailer lists at least at a minimum three more. Possibly more. Right. Because we're eliminating two trailers. Well we obviously need to replace those two trailers. There's two trucks and then probably a third, maybe a fourth. So we're looking at. That would be nine trailer lists and then two trailers. So 11 setups maybe. But it could be more, it could be less. Like we're just trying to figure it out.

And all the estimates are being done as if it was a 30x and. And Austin received the benefit of that when he did that seven and a half hour mow this week.

Double range.

Oh yeah, yeah.

And I told him that that was priced for the 30x.

Yeah, I think you've done that one. The Double R ranch. Yeah. So that's price for the 30X. So for the 30X you get like six hours, something like that.

Yeah.

And that little strip by the upper.

Pond, that was all. So I spent.

Yeah.

Yeah. The first crew was supposed to take care of that. So you kind of caught that one. But yeah, he could if he give me the time with 30x and a zero turn accidentally gets put on that property. Like that's awesome.

It is August so it'll kind of spring.

Yeah. Also just like that property itself.

Got to be careful on that right hand side where like as you're going.

Down where the swamp's at, if you get somebody who doesn't know what they're.

Doing right, you can say goodbye to.

A zero turn in there 100%. So which is why 30x is because like worst happens in a 30x. You can't fell down ditch. Call someone, they help you pull it out. Like you can get two people to pull a 30x out of a ditch no problem. Most of us can pull out by ourselves. Right. So.

Yeah, that's kind of the tentative plan as of right now. So we bought another dump trailer so that way we can have more just mulch being moved around and like product installs. That's kind of what we want to sell next year. We want to sell like mowing and then like product installs. That's going to be trying to be like our bread and butter price scaling back a little bit on like big landscape projects. We'll still do like grading, we'll still do big installs, we'll still do like basic walls, patios, but we're going to scale back on some of the larger stuff we do.

So I think we're good.

That's not necessarily current related but just an idea. I'm going to remind everyone they have to do the initial thing because it's still an issue. But that'll be something we have to remind every week. Just let them know, like, if they see, like, any of us, like, out, we still want it to be on them. The system is, is they come in here and put their initials.

I'll let you talk about this. We kind of.

How we respond kind of at safety net. They don't need to know that we're in our safety net because they don't rely on us. Right. You know, when something gets taken out without someone riding on it, they know Liz and I will figure it out. That's not the system. The system isn't. Okay. I'm gonna leave with whatever and Lee and Liz will figure it out. The system is you take what you need, but you come in here and you tell us.

Right?

So we don't tell them. We're gonna, like, watch them in the morning warnings, but we will, right. To make sure we know where everything is. So Caleb will do the demonstration. I'll talk about the haunt, the engaging and disengaging the blades and then initials and I think that's all we need to touch on equipment.