Time is money: A cliché was uttered to me on one of my first days in the industry. I can remember already being frustrated and those words sounding like fingernails on a chalkboard. At the time, I was struggling to fish a wire through an aluminum frame on the front door of a small retail store in Philadelphia. I had no idea how important those three words actually were. Over time it started making more sense to me, and I worked to increase my efficiency on the job. I still remind my install team of this, stressing that quantity will follow quality – if you learn how to do something the right way, you will then find ways to do it quicker.

In this day and age, integrators from around the globe are looking for ways to maximize their installation time. With this in mind, I contacted my friends over at Labor Saving Devices, Inc. and they agreed to send over a few of their products that they thought integrators needed to examine more closely to increase their productivity in the field. I handed them out to my installation crew and instructed them to field test the devices and report back to me. Here is what we found:

The product that had the greatest feedback from my technicians was the new RoyRods Quick Connect Rod System. I believe feedback from integrators had a lot to do with this innovative design. It is frustrating to a technician, when dealing with the threading connector type rods, to continuously thread rods on and off numerous times a day. Usually, just finding a rod that will both thread into and accept another rod can be a challenge all in itself. This quick connect rod system will save you time and add convenience to every installation. Also available for the RoyRods Quick Connect Rod System is a lighted bull nose tip that snaps on to the end of the rod. It contains a single, long-life, ultra-bright LED that makes locating the rod end easy, even in extremely dark locations.

Another excellent product that we field tested was the ReBore-Zit Drill Bits. These drill bits are designed to enlarge a previously drilled hole that already contains a wire. It is available in three sizes. It can be used in a residential application where the hole that was drilled in the door frame, for recessed contacts, by another contractor is too small for the contact to be installed during finish out.

Finally, the product I recommend to all integrators is the Identify-Zit. A multi-function wire identifier, the unit can identify up to 32 different wires at the same time eliminating the need for a second technician. Simply attach a numbered cap on one end and connect the decoder on the other. The unit comes complete with a protective hard case and in one of five different base applications (wire, coax, BNC, telephone, or Cat5).

There is no limit on how much money an integrator can make in this industry, but time is a very limited resource.

Let’s make the most of it.