How DILFO Broke Down Silos and Unified Sheet Metal and Plumbing Into One Workforce Platform
Currently our total headcount is 290. On the sheet metal side for field we're running at close to 80. And on our plumbing side we're close to 125.
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Looking at how siloed we were in terms of trying to plan out and forecast manpower. I wanted everything in one
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place so that we could really start to work together. working in in shared spreadsheets doesn't necessarily work all the time.
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We knew that we were having problems and we knew that we didn't have the visibility that we needed by looking at the process and who had to be involved
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to get the information. We saw that it was too complicated and so we were able to simplify that. We treat our ERP as a source of truth. It reduces the amount
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of double entry that we have to do. We have to set up the job in spectrum. We don't have to set it up in rivet. All the information pulls over. So, we're
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trying to be efficient and we're trying to be accurate. Not only is it less disruptive, I would think for Mike because his phone isn't going off all
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the time and he can deal with it at a certain cadence.
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You're communicating once when you send out that information. The worker gets it, the foremans get it, and whoever's
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part of the team will get that text or email.
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But I like being able to see kind of where the forecast is.
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That's a big piece for us. every month I can kind of see how the the job is trending just from that one page. I don't have to go into three or four
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different spots, which has been really helpful. Having tools that visually demonstrate the impact and how the labor
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curve should have been versus how it truly is, that really brings it forefront. We do see
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margin fade in the last 20% of projects quite often. If we can't close out the suite and we have to go back, it's going
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to impact our bottom line. It breaks down the uh the silos, it breaks down the barriers. Labor is the most volatile
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cost and it impacts all of us. So, just giving them that view is really going to help us. So, we're we're excited to be
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partnered and and continue working on this
THE CHALLENGE
When you're running 200-plus mechanical workers across two different trades, the margin for error is razor-thin. DILFO knew this firsthand. Their sheet metal crews and plumbing teams operated in silos—different spreadsheets, different communication channels, different ways of tracking who was going where. The information existed, but it was scattered across so many places that nobody had a complete picture.
"Looking at how siloed we were in terms of trying to plan out and forecast manpower, I wanted everything in one place so that we could really start to work together," Brandon explained. The problem wasn't a lack of effort. It was a lack of visibility. Superintendents would allocate manpower to a project, and when five people didn't show up, the day was already shot. "It's a huge loss, right? It's hard to recoup all that time back."
The communication problem compounded everything. Mike, who handles day-to-day scheduling, was fielding texts, phone calls, and random office pop-ins from foremen needing workers. There was no single channel, no system of record. Just constant interruptions and the hope that nothing fell through the cracks. Add in the industry-wide absenteeism challenge—particularly with younger workers coming into the trades—and DILFO found themselves reacting to problems instead of preventing them. The projects that suffered most were the ones nearing completion. "We do see margin fade in the last 20% of projects quite often," Brandon admitted. When closeout requires multiple trips back to finish suites because of coordination failures, every return visit eats directly into profit.
It breaks down the silos, it breaks down the barriers. Having that one platform where we can have our superintendents in it, we can look at potential jobs, and eventually getting our foremen to start communicating through it—it just seemed like the right thing to do. And it has been."
OUR SOLUTION
DILFO didn't need another tool. They needed a system that could pull everything together—their sheet metal crews, their plumbing teams, their ERP data, and their communication—into one place that actually worked.
Breaking Down the Silos
RIVET gave DILFO what spreadsheets never could: a unified view across both trades. Instead of separate tracking systems for sheet metal and plumbing, superintendents now see their entire mechanical workforce in one platform. Labor requests, availability, forecasts, and assignments all live in the same place. No more hunting through multiple spreadsheets to figure out who's available.
Integration That Actually Works
DILFO had tried integrating other software solutions before. Some worked. Most didn't. RIVET's integration with their Spectrum ERP was different. "I would say that RIVET was probably the easiest one to integrate. It went completely flawless," Brandon said. The team customized the integration to focus specifically on field labor, filtering out shop and admin hours by cost code. Jobs created in Spectrum flow into RIVET. Workers sync automatically. Hours come back. No double entry, no version control nightmares.
One Channel Instead of Four
For Mike, the daily scheduling coordinator, RIVET replaced the chaos of texts, calls, and surprise office visits with a single system. Foremen who used to text random requests now submit them through the platform. "Not only is it less disruptive—his phone isn't going off all the time and he can deal with it on a certain cadence—it's one means of communication as opposed to 3 or 4."
ROADBLOCKS
No implementation is perfect, and DILFO doesn't pretend theirs was. The biggest ongoing challenge is field adoption. Getting foremen to use a new platform instead of texting takes time, training, and trust. "We are just starting to roll out the communication piece with the foremen. We're testing it right now," Brandon acknowledged.
The company is also still iterating on their internal processes. "We're still tweaking our processes and we're iterating, which is good." The process mapping exercise during implementation helped surface inefficiencies, but changing how a 290-person company operates doesn't happen overnight.
What made the difference was RIVET's willingness to work through the challenges rather than just hand over software and walk away. "The integration team was great. They took the time to understand what our needs were. We had to customize the integration a little bit for what we wanted."
"It breaks down the silos, it breaks down the barriers."
NEXT STEPS
DILFO isn't done building. They're expanding RIVET usage to include project managers more directly in labor planning—a move that several contractors at the Champion Summit validated as the right direction. "We had already started to look at involving our project managers a little bit more in labor. And talking with the other contractors, we see that we can do that. There's a lot of groups that are doing that, and there's a lot of benefits to doing it."
They're also watching RIVET's roadmap closely, particularly innovations around schedule tracking. "We're hoping that with this new innovation that's going to be coming out, it'll help us when we start missing those points and things start coming up—that we can head it off earlier than at the end."
Longer term, DILFO sees RIVET as a tool for client communication too. When a GC compresses the schedule or delays cause labor curve disruptions, having visual data to share changes the conversation. "Just giving them that view is really going to help us."
THE CLIENT
DILFO Mechanical is a large mechanical contracting firm based in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in HVAC, plumbing, piping, and sheet metal work for major commercial and institutional construction projects. The company has been operating for more than 40–45 years and is considered one of the larger mechanical contractors in Eastern Ontario.
Industry:
Construction / MEP trades (HVAC, plumbing, sheet metal)
Location:
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Size:
200+ field workers
Services:
HVAC, plumbing, and sheet-metal systems
FAQs
Find answers to common questions about RIVET’s workforce management solutions and features.
RIVET connects directly with Spectrum, Vista, Viewpoint, Foundation, Sage, COINs, CMIC, and other major construction ERPs through pre-built integrations. We automatically sync job budgets, schedules, and worker data, eliminating double data entry. Most integrations are completed within 1-2 weeks during implementation.
RIVET is designed for construction operations teams, not tech experts. We've helped many superintendents near retirement giving them hours in the day back. Hands-on white glove training with real people ensures your team will always get the support they need.
Most contractors see immediate task-based time savings in scheduling within the first few months. Labor planning impacts and reduction in margin fade from productivity killers takes longer to show up in the numbers, but you will feel the difference.
Most contractors using RIVET have more than 50 field employees performing construction work. We work with some of the largest contractors in the country, planning and scheduling thousands of field personnel. If you're currently managing workforce scheduling with spreadsheets, whiteboards, or phone calls, and have multiple projects running simultaneously, RIVET is for you.
Your data belongs to you. RIVET provides complete data export capabilities in standard formats, and we'll work with you to ensure a smooth transition if you decide to leave.
RIVET was purpose built for electrical and mechanical contractors, and is based on the workforce management best practices of the most successful MEP contractors. RIVET is an active partner with NECA, SMACNA, and construction research organizations like ELECTRI, supporting their standards, SOPs, and best practices in our platform and in our trainings. RIVET is focused exclusively on making labor operations efficient rather than trying to solve every construction problem. While we started by serving MEP, RIVET also has tremendous value for other contracting business' self-performing interior trades on vertical construction projects.
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