Landscape Management, April 2018

Photo Martin allred nationwidePhotograPhers coM EfficiEncy hackEr no 1 artistree landscape Maintenance design Venice Fla Evaluating equipment Sometimes an efficient solution to a problem can be as simple as a smart equipment upgrade The operations department at ArtisTree went this route about two years ago when it acquired two Hustler Super 104s after being introduced to these 104 inch wide area zero turn mowers by its equipment dealer The company which did about 188 million in revenue in 2017 always has owned mowers in a variety of sizes 52 inch 61 inch and 72 inch Plus its operated several 11 foot wide bat wing mowers although those werent suitable for the homeowner association clients that make up much of ArtisTrees portfolio A bat wing is not really a finish cut mower its more of an open field mower and thats what we always used it for Walters says To decide if the 104 inch mower would be a good fit the ArtisTree operations team first demoed one to evaluate the labor savings Inevitably just in pure man hours we were saving about eight hours a day Walters says The company sees additional savings from reduced labor needs such as workers comp costs and decreased transportation costs The company initially purchased two of these machines and is now up to four between two locations So four guys are doing the work of eight he says Because the 104s are a finish cut mower with a mulch kit capability like a typical zero turn theyre a good fit for ArtisTrees properties many of which are residential communities common areas backyards and around community retention lakes If you run it next to a 61 inch mower theres virtually no difference in the cut quality Walters says We used to do the lakes with the bat wing and people didnt like the cut Now the company uses its wide area mower arsenal in the bidding process touting the highquality cut and according for its efficiency Walters says Our thought process now is Where can we use the 104s ArtisTree typically runs six man mowing crews with three standard mowers The 104 inch mowers are operated as independent one man crews moving ahead of the six man crews throughout a property The 104 inch mower costs north of 20000 more than double the price of a typical 52 inch mower ArtisTree would purchase But theyre cheaper than a batwing mower which Walters estimates to be around 60000 Because ArtisTree already had team members trained to mow around lakes with the bat wing mowers the transition to the 104s was easy Walters says The companys existing trailers also could be used because the sides of the 104s fold up to an 80 inchwide transportation size For the time saved and the other costs associated with not hiring another person the savings far outweigh the costs he says EfficiEncy hackEr no 2 ameriscape services thonotosassa Fla Tracking assets When Tony Canorro joined Ameriscape as fleet manager late last year he knew he wanted to apply an aggressive operational minded approach to the role He oversees all of the companys equipment and vehicles with the support of two full time mechanics and a part time helper For Canorro it all comes down to the question How are we going to make the most efficient use of our mechanics time and our guys time he says which leads to another set of questions he wanted to answer What equipment do we have and where is it The company which did about 12 million in 2017 revenue had been using a standalone GPS system to track vehicles and a spreadsheet to log equipment repairs but he wanted a system that served as a patient chart for every piece of equipment April 2018 LanDScaPEManaGEMEnT nET 27 Bill Walters WEB EXTra Watch Bill Walters discuss ArtisTrees 104 inch mowers GPS units and how to evaluate equipment upgrades in the Web Extras section at LandscapeManagement net Tony Canorro