(Shameka Brackens, Jessica Cline, Steven Schindler, 2002)
The client that we worked with for our Senior Design Project, Talisman Structures, Inc., is a structural framing company based in Southlake, Texas. Over the past year, they have been collecting descriptive data on each house that they have framed. The collected data had never been analyzed other than from an accounting standpoint. Our task was to compile the data and produce a model that would analyze their historical data as well as giving them a tool for making better business decisions in the future. Our main focus was on houses under 6500 square feet. These houses tended to exhibit lower rates of return on revenue. We decided to use simple and multiple linear regressions to analyze the variables. After running these regressions, we found that there were several trends to take note of. One of our most striking findings was the effect of rafter subcontracting. Contrary to our client's belief, rafter subcontracting has consistently had a negative impact on return on revenue. We also discovered that houses that used less carpenter hours were more profitable. We believe that less carpenter hours should be compensated with apprentice and helper hours. However, our findings should be monitored due to our assumption that future conditions regarding the model will mirror the past.