Masonry Magazine March 1971 Page. 38
Make Money Move
(Continued from page 8)
"The initiation of an 'MMM program' at the national level is not only desirable, it is imperative," Snow said. "When we are working on median profit margins of 1.23% as we did in 1970, and we are faced with the charge that we are pricing ourselves out of the marketplace, anything we can do to speed up the fiscal flow of money through the industry will most certainly affect our pricing structure and profit margins favorably."
Snow had praise for officials of the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County "who have empathy with our situation," for both governmental units have reduced the retained percentage requirement from 15% of the contract award to only 10% for the first half of the contract period, or a 5% retainage over the life of the contract.
"The City," Snow said, "in effect, 'bought' three more miles of sidewalks and the County one mile of highway by their action."
Snow said the MMM program committee is now attempting to develop a plan for eliminating retained percentages on contract awards, substituting more stringent requirements for the bonding of contractors.
In addition, he said the MMM was developing a financial profile of firms in the Milwaukee Construction industry.
"Until this is done, the actual impact of delayed payments and withheld retainers on the financial position of the contractor and on the economy of the state will remain indeterminant. We need this profile in order to take our case to the owner's court," he concluded.
Snow praised MCAA officials for taking "Make Money Move in '71" as the theme of the convention. "Hopefully, your obvious interest in making money move will catch fire with other strong segments of the construction industry. You have demonstrated your leadership, though, and no one can take that away."
Huge Kiln, Small Computer Team Up for Impressive Brick Production
North Carolina's second-largest brick producer depends on one of the world's largest kilns and one of IBM's smallest computers to help the company make and distribute more than 70 million bricks a year.
Founded in 1896, the Isenhour Brick and Tile Co. is a $3 million-a-year business that employs 140 people. The company produces nearly 300 varieties of bricks that are used in the construction of factories, churches, schools, office buildings and homes from Chicago to Washington, D.C., to Miami.
Five years ago, Isenhour installed a German-designed kiln the largest of its kind in the world-capable of handling 1,500 tons of brick. Bricks enter the kiln in 17-ton batches and undergo a five-day cycle of preheating, firing and cooling. Temperatures in the 830-foot-long kiln reach 2,000 degrees during the firing process.
Last June, Isenhour installed an IBM System/3 Model 10 to help the company keep track of its growing business. System/3, a computer designed for small businesses, uses a punched card one-third the size of traditional punched cards, but holds 20 percent more business information.
Ernest Safrit, who handles purchasing and personnel for the company and also doubles as the data processing manager, says he first used the computer to speed-up the handling of paperwork in the front office including payroll, billing, accounts payable and receivable, sales analysis, cost and general accounting.
But Safrit adds that he is planning new applications for the System/3 that will help the company in most phases of brick production. New applications include inventory control, production control and a preventive maintenance program that will help the company plan for the regular servicing of equipment including eight delivery trucks and more than a dozen fork-lifts.