Why SEI? Maximizing snow production while minimizing expenses is critical to a ski resorts bottom line. More than any other department, snowmaking spends the most money in the shortest time period. Optimization of the snow production process is essential for accountability of the process. To effectively accomplish this requires information management tools. They are obtained from an operational metric called SEI. What is SEI? The Snowmaking Energy Index is a performance measurement metric for the entire snowmaking process. The variables of energy use and water flow (snow) are compared to wet bulb temperature. This calculation results in an … [Read more...]

This time of year many resorts are reducing the size of snowmaking staff. Most Managers believe this is smart business because less labor cost means less operating expense and more profit. Reality is that decisions to reduce labor can actually cost the company more money, not less. The reason is because wages are only part of the equation for making snow. Energy, time and temperature must also be calculated into the cost to produce an Acre-foot of Snow. Case Study KPI’s from a mid-sized ski resort are shown in the chart. Costs for labor, energy and water are correlated to temperature to show the Cost/Acre-foot of Snow. The curve for Phase … [Read more...]

Automation and water storage are the obvious future, but until a ski resort can invest millions of dollars, the near-future is about utilizing existing assets. And this is accomplished with business analytics that identify, measure and improve operational performance. Business Analytics for Snowmaking Every aspect of business is scrutinized with analytics that identify profit (productivity) margins. Reality is that maximum snow production remains unidentified and unmeasured, thus assets and technology are underutilized. The main reason is because of poor accounting methods. Snowmaking is typically managed from the top-down with allocated … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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