Managers of multiple resorts regularly compare the performance of each location. This is common place for profit margins in retail, rental and food service, although methods that fairly compare snowmaking performance (profits) seldom exist. The reason is because of variables with temperatures and equipment.
The good news is that our analytics use accounting methods which standardize all operational variables and report performance (profit) margins. These bottom-up KPI’s allow managers to compare snowmaking performance at multiple resorts, even when there is a difference with temperatures, snow guns, run times and labor.
The chart below is an example from one day of snowmaking at four ski resorts. (Note that with these metrics, a high margin percent is bad and a low margin is good.)You can see that even though Resort #3 has the lowest Energy Index and Cost/Acre-Ft of snow, their performance (profit) margins are the worst, while performance margins at Resort #4 are the best.
Simply stated, these analytics measure and compare best practices. By using quantitative tools, the entire company benefits as each business location identifies best practices and then shares them with members of the team. This tangible knowledge empowers managers to reduce operating costs, increase asset utilization and boost operating efficiency – with measured results that improve profits.
An example report with these performance margins is shown by clicking the link for Daily Snowmaking Report. On page two, the margins are shown hourly; while the daily margins on page five are easily populated into the above chart for each resort.
Starting Point Just like the margins used to manage in retail, rental and food service; raw data needs to be collected, computed and reported for each resort location. This is accomplished with manual logs and spreadsheets or automatically with software. Our company provides training and software to help your team benefit from these best practices. Contact us to receive a plan for your resort.
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