Oklahoma City Company Challenges Traditional Thinking About Labor With a Systems-Driven Approach to Physical Work
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
E. Pluribus Massey Jr.
Founder, StrongPoint
Phone: 405.823.1371
Email: ep@strongpointamerica.com
Website: strongpointamerica.com
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City Company Challenges Traditional Thinking About Labor With a Systems-Driven Approach to Physical Work
StrongPoint founder E. Pluribus Massey Jr. says companies can protect margins, reduce wasted manpower and improve project execution by bringing structure, specialization and accountability to work too often treated as “just labor.”
Oklahoma City Company Challenges Traditional Thinking About Labor With a Systems-Driven Approach to Physical Work
StrongPoint founder E. Pluribus Massey Jr. says companies can protect margins, reduce wasted manpower and improve project execution by bringing structure, specialization and accountability to work that is too often treated as “just labor.”
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Oklahoma City-based StrongPoint is taking aim at one of the most overlooked sources of wasted time and money in commercial projects: the way physical work is organized and executed.
Founder E. Pluribus Massey Jr. created StrongPoint around a straightforward idea:
Labor should be managed as a system—not simply as manpower.
“Most people think labor is a brainless activity,” Massey said. “If a project is moving too slowly, the traditional answer is to throw more people at it. I believe that’s backwards. Before adding people, you should ask whether the people already there are organized, whether materials are flowing correctly, whether things are being handled more than once, and whether skilled people are spending their time doing work somebody else should be doing.”
That philosophy has become the foundation of what StrongPoint calls The StrongPoint Execution Advantage™—a structured approach to commercial property transitions, site preparation, asset recovery, material movement, staging, loading and project support.
The Numbers Behind the Problem
Research suggests the opportunity for better execution is significant.
The Construction Industry Institute has reported that direct work typically represents only about 35% to 45% of a craft worker’s time on the job, noting that improvements in the availability of materials, information and tools can increase productivity.
A separate FMI/PlanGrid industry study found construction teams spent approximately 35% of their working hours on non-optimal activities, including looking for project information, resolving conflicts, and dealing with mistakes and rework.
The estimated financial impact was substantial: approximately $177.5 billion annually in U.S. labor costs associated with those non-optimal activities at the time of the study.
The same research estimated that poor communication and inaccurate or inaccessible project information contributed to approximately $31.3 billion in U.S. construction rework.
For Massey, those numbers point to a larger problem.
“Businesses put tremendous thought into estimating, purchasing, accounting, engineering, scheduling and technology,” he said. “But once we get down to physical execution, people often fall back on, ‘It’s just labor. How complicated can it be?’ That’s exactly where I believe money gets left on the table.”
StrongPoint’s Answer: The System Determines the Outcome
StrongPoint does not view efficiency as simply asking people to work harder or faster.
Instead, the company focuses on how the work itself is designed.
Its operating philosophy is summarized through The StrongPoint Seven Principles of Execution™:
- Better execution creates speed.
- Better execution reduces unnecessary labor burn.
- Better execution limits repeated handling.
- Better execution protects loading schedules and project budgets.
- Better execution improves pathways, staging and site safety.
- Better execution keeps specialized vendors focused on specialized work.
- Every completed project helps us refine the next one.
The goal is to create repeatability.
“I don’t want the outcome of a project to depend entirely on which individual happens to show up that morning,” Massey said. “The system should establish the standard. We plug trained people into defined roles, and those roles work together to create the outcome.”
Defined Roles Instead of Random Manpower
StrongPoint’s model assigns personnel specific responsibilities rather than treating every crew member as interchangeable manpower.
Each position has a defined purpose within the workflow. Personnel are trained to understand not only what they are responsible for, but how their role affects the people working before and after them.
That specialization creates repetition.
And repetition, Massey believes, creates proficiency.
“When somebody repeatedly performs a clearly defined responsibility, they should become more efficient at it,” Massey said. “They learn the movements. They recognize bottlenecks. They anticipate what comes next. Eventually you’re not just getting physical effort—you are developing execution skill.”
Protecting Skilled Trades From Non-Specialized Work
StrongPoint also sees an opportunity to help contractors protect the productivity of specialized workers.
Electricians, flooring installers, painters, millwork installers, equipment technicians and other skilled professionals create the greatest value when they remain focused on the work they were hired and trained to perform.
When those same workers must repeatedly stop to clear pathways, relocate materials, remove packaging, reorganize staging areas or move items that interfere with their work, productive trade time can disappear.
StrongPoint’s philosophy is simple:
Keep specialized vendors focused on specialized work.
“When you’re paying for expertise, you want that expertise producing,” Massey said. “You don’t want your highest-value people spending unnecessary time moving obstacles around before they can begin the work you’re actually paying them to do.”
Structure Creates Momentum™
Massey’s approach was influenced in part by the organizational discipline he learned while serving in the United States Air Force.
He says military operations taught him that seemingly ordinary physical tasks can become highly efficient when responsibilities, procedures, leadership and accountability are clearly defined.
StrongPoint brings that same emphasis on structure into its operations—from crew presentation and job-site organization to workflow, leadership and project closeout.
“Professionalism isn’t something you add after the work is organized,” Massey said. “It’s part of the system. How people dress, how they communicate, how the site is organized, how equipment is handled and how the project is left when we’re finished—it all falls under the same umbrella.”
The company also embraces a people-first training philosophy: hire the person, then train the skill.
StrongPoint looks for reliability, attitude, professionalism and willingness to learn, then develops the individual within its operating system.
Leadership Starts at the Top
Massey says the system cannot work without leadership.
That means supervisors and project leaders must demonstrate the same standards they expect from the people working under them.
“People take pride in work when leadership demonstrates that the work matters,” Massey said. “If management treats physical work like it’s disposable, workers eventually see it that way too. If leadership treats execution like a profession, trains people properly and gives them a system they can take pride in, you create a completely different culture.”
Lean Into the Work
StrongPoint’s larger mission is to change the perception that organized physical execution is simply an unavoidable expense.
Massey believes it can become a competitive advantage.
“We lean all the way into this work,” he said. “We don’t ride the fence. We don’t treat it like something beneath us. We study it. We organize it. We refine it. We take pride in it.”
That mindset, he says, continually pushes StrongPoint to find better ways to execute commercial projects with less wasted movement, less unnecessary handling and greater accountability.
“Every business talks about protecting profit,” Massey said. “One way to protect profit is to stop wasting the most expensive resource you have—time.”
StrongPoint’s premise is simple:
Don’t automatically add more people. Build a better process.
Structure Creates Momentum™.
About StrongPoint
StrongPoint is an Oklahoma City-based commercial transition and physical execution company built around one principle: Structure Creates Momentum™. The company helps contractors, property managers, commercial operators and other organizations prepare, clear, organize, stage and transition commercial spaces using defined roles, structured processes and accountable project execution.
StrongPoint’s mission is to help clients reduce wasted movement, prevent unnecessary bottlenecks, protect skilled trade time and keep projects moving.
Media Contact:
E. Pluribus Massey Jr.
Founder, StrongPoint
Phone: 405.823.1371
Email: ep@strongpointamerica.com
Website: strongpointamerica.com
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
###