84K Sq Ft Hospital Walls Laid Out in 44 Hours
FL Crane & Sons is a family-owned specialty contractor based in Mississippi. They operate across multiple states in the southeastern region of the United States, specializing in interior subcontracting services that include layout, drywall, flooring, specialty ceilings, metal panels and prefabricated interior and exterior walls. With a dedication to providing customers with the highest quality through innovation, FL Crane stays up to date with market technologies and frequently invests in new tools to improve their services.
When they saw the potential of robotics to improve the efficiency and accuracy of their products, they integrated robots into their interior layout processes. FL Crane was attracted to HP SitePrint due to its competitive and flexible cost model that allowed them to rent or buy robots as needed and deploy their fleet across various projects and locations.
One of their most notable projects with HP SitePrint was a Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In the project, workers used HP SitePrint to print interior walls across an area spanning 84,468 square feet. Using HP SitePrint, they completed the task within 44 hours of continuous robot operation—eight times faster than traditional manual methods—saving 304 hours and achieving a 61% cost reduction in operational expenses. View the FL Crane case study and other stories here.
FL Crane has always been aware of the value innovative tools and processes bring to the construction industry. As a busy company with teams often working on concurrent projects, they immediately recognized how the use of robots in the layout process could improve efficiency and enable them to take on more jobs.
While using multiple robots to handle parallel projects succeeded in improving efficiency, prior to HP SitePrint they were working with a robot supplier with high monthly fees that limited the company’s scalability options. The supplier’s rigid pricing structure imposed an expensive monthly flat fee regardless of how much the robots were being used. High fees even during months with minimal robot activity meant the company frequently experienced a poor return on their investment.
While FL Crane could see the benefits of using robots for efficient layout, they needed to reduce costs and increase flexibility in their layout process. Since they experience fluctuating workflows and varied project demands, teams couldn’t develop a reliable schedule that matched their supplier’s rigid payment plan. The company needed a flexible cost model that would give them the autonomy to use the robots as needed without stretching their budget.
The company immediately recognized a difference with HP SitePrint’s flexible business model, and they initially purchased two HP SitePrint units. They appreciated the pay-as-you-go approach with fees based on usage and no charges when no printing occurs in a month. HP also offers maximum monthly caps to avoid excessive charges. HP’s monthly cap was lower than the previous supplier’s monthly flat fee that was charged regardless of usage.
As FL Crane became accustomed to working with HP, they valued the option to purchase or rent HP SitePrint robots based on their fluctuating demand. In addition to the first two robots they purchased, they rented three more to efficiently manage peak demand. In total, they have used five robots across eight projects, spanning four states, encompassing nearly 500,000 square feet of printing. Their usage of the robots reached the maximum cap, indicating they effectively utilized the robots to their fullest capacity.
“We had previously partnered with another automated layout solution provider, but the costs made it prohibitive to deploy more than one unit at a time. The pricing structure was the deciding factor. Being able to purchase the system instead of leasing made a difference for us. With HP SitePrint we only had to pay as we used the system instead of a lease where we were paying even if the system sat inactive,” explained Jeremy Alvis, CM-BIM division president.
Innovation has always been a priority for FL Crane. As a forward-thinking company, they’re accustomed to calculating the ROI of new tools. Using HP SitePrint enabled the company to meet its goals of cutting costs while allowing teams to maintain the flexibility they needed for their workflows.
This article was written in collaboration with FL Crane and HP.
HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) is a global technology leader and creator of solutions that enable people to bring their ideas to life and connect to the things that matter most. HP delivers a wide range of innovative and sustainable devices, services and subscriptions. For more information, please visit: HP.com/site-print.
