Demo

The Beacon of the Stone Industry www.slipperyrockgazette.net
BYthe time this story goes to press, the Rockheads Group will be 113 members strong, and no wonder. It’s been a growth machine since 2014, offering its members huge assets that include deep dis- counts with top-tier vendors, best practices and networking between members, and a very cool feature called Benchmarking. A general overview of these features was presented in the October 2023 issue of the Slippery Rock Gazette. However, it’s the Benchmarking process that’s the gist of this story, as explained by Rockheads
Executive Director, Rich Katzmann.
“We survey our membership all the time to align what we’re offering with what they feel is valuable. What we do, once a year, is reach out to our members and request very confidential financial and operational information, so we can compile an analy- sis of the group as a whole, as well as how they individually compare to the rest of the Rockheads. It’s sent out as a fill-in-the- blanks spreadsheet that matches and mim- ics their financial statements. A small shop owner can easily do it themselves or a big- ger shop can send it to their finance person, who can go into their profits and losses and in their balance sheet. In most cases, within a couple of hours, a member can fill out the 60 to 70 pieces of information that we are asking for.”
The Nuts and Bolts of Compiling
Once the data is obtained, its elements are divided into usable parts, with gross reve- nues being the key ingredient. For exam- ple: shops are divided into categories such as from $3 to $5 million, $5 to $10 mil- lion, and $10 to $20 million per year and so on, continued Katzmann. “It doesn’t do any good to compare the metrics of a 3 mil- lion dollar shop to a 10 million dollar shop, or a rural shop to a suburban or big city shop. That would be like comparing apples to oranges. We want to make sure that each shop is looking at a comparable shop, and how they compare against them. We’ll take and calculate everything you can think of
by Peter J. Marcucci
PhotosCourtesy Rockheads Group
such as SG&A (sales, general and admin- istrative costs) and what you are selling your products for, and to whom. Is it to a walk-in, a dealer or an architect? How about a commercial customer or a big box? What are they paying for your product? So we’re compiling these things at the high- est level, and keep peeling away the onion, so to speak, asking what are you paying for your materials or your direct labor for templating, programming, fabrication and installations per square foot. How much for advertising, direct and non-direct pay- roll, benefits and healthcare. So it’s total costs from beginning to end, so our mem- ber shops can look at what they’re paying versus the industry or comparable shops. This is not just about dollars and cents. It’s also about improving efficiency at every level and helping everyone to see the big picture.”
Please turn to page 2
Rockheads Executive Director Rich Katzmann Demystifies the Benchmarking Process
An In-Depth Look at Benchmarking
November 2023 Vol. 29-11
Department of Labor Announces New Silica Enforcement and Compliance Initiative
INLate September, the U.S. them is a 27-year-old worker in California
OSHA Supplements Current Efforts to Address Serious Workplace Danger in Engineered Stone Fabrication and Installation
Department of Labor announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) launched a new initiative focused on enhancing enforce- ment and providing compliance assistance to protect workers in the engineered stone fabrication and installation industries.
“Many workers in the engineered stone industry are experiencing illnesses so severe that they’re unable to breathe — much less work a full shift — because of their exposure to silica dust,” explained Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker. “Among
who went to an emergency room with shortness of breath in 2022 and whose lung biopsy later revealed he had silicosis. Since then, he has been on an oxygen tank and unable to support his wife and three young children financially.”
Supplementing OSHA’s current National Emphasis Program for Respirable Crystalline Silica, this initiative will focus enforcement efforts on industry employers to make sure they’re following required safety standards and providing workers with the protections required to keep them healthy.
Please turn to page 4