theoretical question

[The Curious Porpoise]

if you were going to have the ultimate mowing crew, how many members would u have? i mean which crew would be most efficient. i am measuring efficiency by how many lawns get done in a day. take the total # of lawns done in a day and divide that by the number of workers in a crew. which number do u think would yield the highest lawns mowed per person?

 

[zim bob the landscaper]

id say three to fit in one truck and have two mowing one trimming and doing the areas that we cant get to.

 

[jtkplc]

From my experience, 2 is the fastest. Any more and there is too much wasted time, primarily towards the completion of a lawn.

 

[1grnlwn]

In your theoretical world 1 would be the most effecient. This would of course exclude truck and equipment costs. There is no synergy with two or more people in lawn care. So the moment one person has to wait for the other to do anything, efficiency is lost.

 

[mtdman]

2 is ideal. Any more than that, you get people standing around for sure. As important, if not more, than crew members is scheduling and area saturation. The more you get done at a stop, the less downtime/drivetime you have the more efficient you are.

 

[1grnlwn]

There is no way 2 people together can do as many yards in a fixed time-frame as two individuals can. Use a simple scenario to prove it to yourself. For simplicity's sake, let's say all the props take 30 min and there is 10 min in-between jobs. Crew 1 (1 prson) does 10 jobs 300 min work and 100 min travel= total 400 min. Crew 2 (2 people) does 300 min work (if no one had to wait for the other to finish) and has 200 min collectively travel time= 500 min. Now in the real world you need to figure what that 100 extra mins cost and if the truck/trailer/equip for the second crew is justified or not.

 

[ParadiseLawns]

1grnlwn, You are forgetting some important aspects in your theory. A crew of one person must unload the trailer, start the mower, put it back on the trailer, get the wipper snip, do the wipper snip, and put it away. If you are 2 people then each person has a responsibility and since wipper snip is usually faster just put an extra mower on the trailer. Now the productivity of 2 people is a lot more then 2bl the productivity of just one person(And you don't get as board in the truck )

 

[befnme]

i like the number 4 . 2 to mow and 2 to edge , trim , and blow .

 

[walker-talker]

In your theoretical world 1 would be the most effecient. This would of course exclude truck and equipment costs. There is no synergy with two or more people in lawn care. So the moment one person has to wait for the other to do anything, efficiency is lost.

Exactly, I don't see how anyone can even argue. The answer in one. If a property take one person, one hour to complete, to be more efficient it would take 2 people to complete the job in less than 30 minutes or 3 people less than 20 minutes and 4 people less than 15 minutes. I ran a lot of time studies last year with myself and other times with myself and a helper and NEVER did it cut the time in half with a helper (let alone more than half). Will all things being equal, one is the most efficient.

 

[oldturf]

I never run a one man crew since I have gone all commercial. It totally depends on the job. Most properties that I have are best done with 4 man crews, although some require larger crews or you would never get done.