Pennsylvania Developer/Homebuilder Has Things 'Under Control'

Written by Larry Trojak

Created on Saturday, 22 September 2012 18:13

A 587Kb PDF of this article as it appeared in the magazine—complete with images—is available by clicking HERE

Rob Shuster is, by nature, a patient man. He knows that his profession as a developer and homebuilder demands it, having to deal with customers who are facing one of the biggest decisions of their lives. In the past, however, that patience has been tested repeatedly, not as much by customers as by suppliers of products and services who've forced him to work around their schedules, often at the expense of his own timelines. Resolved to eliminate such delays, his company, RWS Development Co. Inc., took matters into their own hands, first by establishing their own ready mix company, then by adding a Topcon GPS and machine control capability which essentially rendered staking--and surveyors--a thing of the past. The result of both efforts has been a more streamlined workflow and a competitive edge that has kept business up, even in this challenging economic climate.

Time Waits for No One
Based out of North Huntingdon, PA, about 20 minutes east of Pittsburgh, RWS Custom Homes is one of the premier homebuilders in western Pennsylvania. The company and its construction division, RWS Development, have built a reputation by offering a high-quality product at an affordable cost and presenting it to the customer in a timely manner. Yet, meeting those time constraints has often been a challenge, according to co-owner Rob Shuster.

"We pride ourselves in our ability to meet our closing dates; pushing one back has never really been an option for us," he says. "Yet, we would frequently run into problems with the companies that supplied our ready-mix. Homebuilding often entails working long hours and we would frequently need concrete after normal business hours or on the weekends and they simply didn't want to do it. We looked at what options were available to us and decided to purchase a batch plant and some trucks and start a ready-mix company of our own. Bottom line: those companies lost a really nice piece of business because they were inflexible."

He says they faced a similar situation when dealing with survey companies. Though not an after-hours or weekends issue, an inability to get a surveyor on short notice would often halt production on new developments. A change was needed in that area as well, and it took the form of acquiring GPS-based products and doing the survey function themselves.

Base-ic GPS
The move in that direction started with a call to Productivity Products & Services (PPS), a Saxonburg, PA-based Topcon distributor with whom RWS had been dealing for their laser equipment. Working with Dave Krautz, PPS's sales engineer, Shuster purchased a Topcon HiPer Ga base station and handheld rover, as well as an FC-250 field controller running Pocket 3D software.

"We made that initial purchase to improve our situation, there's no denying that," says Shuster. "But we also knew it would be something of a stepping stone for us until we could get a machine control system for our dozer. That said, that first system dramatically changed our business from the moment we put it to work. In the past, I was at the mercy of our surveyors. If I needed them onsite on a Monday and they couldn't come until Thursday, I had to work around that area if possible. If not, I was literally stuck waiting for someone to come out and pound in a stake so I could dig. With the HiPer Ga, I can plug it in, take a reading, paint a mark on the ground and we are digging within minutes."

RWS currently has three developments in progress and has had as many as five going on at once. The largest and longest-in-progress of these is a 450home site called Lincoln Hills which, because it has been in development for nearly five years, has seen the full range of technologies brought to bear.

"When we started out here, all of our measurement was done with lasers and survey crews," says Shuster. "That gave way a couple years ago to the GPS which was a huge timesaver because with it, we only had to dig once."

To illustrate the advantage GPS provided, Shuster cites an early phase of the Lincoln Hills job in which they had to make a 35-foot cut on one side of the road and a 50-foot fill on the other. He says their excavator operator was cutting away in ten foot lifts, coming back, taking ten-foot more, and so on. By the time he got down to where he thought he was close, he was three feet too deep.

"Mind you we were checking periodically through the day," he adds. "but the stakes were constantly getting wiped out with six or seven haul trucks running, so eventually we had no way to check until survey came back out. That's all been eliminated now."

Answering Machine
As mentioned earlier, RWS knew machine control was the ultimate answer for its development operation. It's not surprising then, that after hearing Krautz sing that technology's praises for months, Shuster issued a challenge which the salesman gladly accepted.

"I told Dave to put his money where his mouth was and get us a machine to try; he had one out here for a demo the day after we spoke. They offloaded the dozer--a Cat D6R with Topcon's 3D-MC2--on a Friday morning and made ready to grade 1,100 feet of road. Even Dave thought we would easily be out there until 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening. I should mention that the road was a half a foot low, so we were also hauling truckloads of dirt in--and we still had it done by noon. That pretty much did it for us; we made the purchase that same day."

Shuster adds that, though they looked at other machine control systems besides Topcon's, they felt that PPS offered a level of service and expertise with the technology that couldn't be passed upon. "Dave is a former surveyor so his knowledge of the business and the equipment is just phenomenal," he says. "In addition, PPS has mechanics who are ex Cat guys, so they know both the machine and the system. For us, having that level of technology, coupled with support from PPS was a real no-brainer."

Measurable Results
With only two months' experience under their belts using the new machine control technology, RWS Development suddenly found itself in the enviable position of being able to cite an example of a clear-cut savings afforded by it. Getting ready to lay roads at their newest site, called Kingsbury, Shuster says they had an epiphany of sorts.

"We typically pay the paving contractor to install road base, which amounts to putting down four-inches of one type of stone, then two-inches of another--that is spec for North Huntingdon Township and it has to be very accurate. But, because we had Topcon's 3D-MC2 system, we were able to grade the road and put the stone down ourselves. Because of that, the paving company reduced their bill by $15,000--the cost to do those parts of the job. Any way you look at it, that's a truly measurable savings."

Shuster's father, Robert W. Shuster, who founded the company more than 22 years ago and serves as its president today, was initially reluctant about adding any GPS to the operation. A classic proponent of the "we made it all this time without this stuff, why do we need it now" way of thinking, the younger Shuster knew winning him over would be a challenge.

"Fortunately, Dad is also a numbers guy and he couldn't deny the savings, Lincoln Hills has been a long-running project and it's sizeable--better than 200 acres. I would guess that, between the HiPer Ga and the machine control, the Topcon gear has probably shaved months off our projects. Dad knows that time is money, so he's definitely on board with it now."

Time to Get Down
So where does a company that has transformed itself from strings and plum-bobs to GPS-based machine control go from here? To hear Schuster tell it, there's nowhere to go but down-- into the ground, that is.

"When we do a foundation now, we have a laser level which requires a man standing there with a grade stick with a receiver on it and he follows the excavator telling him whether to move up or down. If all goes well, we hope to have Topcon's X63 machine control on a pair of excavators for all our excavation work. Doing so will bring everything into the cab of the machine, making that excavation a one-man operation. Also, when we cut in roads, we do a lot of 2:1 slopes which the system will be able to handle simply and quickly--and without the need for a stake anywhere."

Until that time, there's no doubt that RWS will continue to make great strides with their newfound technology. Shuster feels he has two of the finest operators at work anywhere today and says that their endorsement of the 3D-MC2 system is all he needs.

"Both of these guys have gotten out of that dozer and said that there is not a man alive that can grade as fine as that system. So the operators are happy, we're happy, and some of the surveyors--seeing the writing on the wall--are beginning to do 3D modeling. I'd say the only ones hurting in this whole deal are the stake manufacturers."

Larry Trojak is owner and president of Trojak Communications, a Minnesota-based marketing communications company.

A 587Kb PDF of this article as it appeared in the magazine—complete with images—is available by clicking HERE