How Efficient Is Our Current Site Construction Process?

If the past years have shown us anything, it’s just how far we can go and how we can advance with technology. When it comes to the construction industry it seems that there is new technology emerging every day and, just as in any industry, it’s hard to keep track of what’s coming out. This process isn’t simple and it can take time, energy, and money before it’s adopted into our current construction process. Construction site efficiency is something that’s always on a supervisor's mind and they’re constantly thinking of ways that the process could be smoother. After all, pre-construction planning before tackling a project is something that keeps many supervisors up at night.

To make sure that construction site efficiency is maintained supervisors need to think about site management, safety, risk migration, employee productivity, and a list of other things to make sure that things flow as smoothly as possible. As technology advances, there’s more stress put on construction crews to have the most recent and cutting-edge tools and resources to keep the construction sites effective.

When you take the time to evaluate the current standard construction process, it’s easy to see that there’s a lot that can be improved to make things more efficient. In this article, we’re going to take a look at operational efficiency in construction and what we can do to improve the process.

Focus On The Planning

Construction efficiency is usually lacking in the planning stage of the process. This is the part where the most focus needs to be and where it’s critical that supervisors are thinking about everything to ensure that the process will flow as smoothly as possible. With any project, the planning and effort that you’re willing to put in before will be reflected in the results of the project. If you haven’t done the research and made sure that you know exactly how much concrete you need for a project or the exact tools that are needed it’ll only be more difficult for you when you’re actually doing the project.

It can cause delays in the construction job and can end up costing you and making the process harder than before. The most important step is making sure that you devote time before the project even starts to think about the people that you’ll need, how the process will progress, the equipment needed, the information, and the materials that are required. It might seem tedious while you're doing it, but you’ll thank yourself later when there are no delays in the process and everything goes according to plan. You may still have small mishaps, but at least you’ll have the base planned to get things moving along correctly.

Listen To The Staff

Regardless of how good you are at your job, it’s important to remember that your staff is also qualified and exceptional at doing their job. While you might be good at what you do, remember that your staff is on the site for a reason and they see and hear things that you don’t. You can’t be everywhere at once and this is where you want to make sure that, to be fully informed of what’s happening and how things are progressing, you check in with your staff and listen to what they have to say. If something is happening on the site or about to go wrong, chances are that your crew is going to know before you do.

Listen to what they have to say and acknowledge that they might have thoughts and advice that could help you. It’s also important to think about the fact that you have experienced staff on your crew who could provide helpful advice. Instead of waiting for things to go wrong before you talk to them, instead, get them involved early in the process. By involving your crew early on and keeping in contact with them as things progress you’ll save time and money in the long run.

Focus On Training

Construction work can be dangerous and it’s important that you and your staff are trained to handle and run all equipment. Many construction crews just do the bare minimum when it comes to making sure that their team knows what they’re doing on the site, but this is really the part that should be getting the most attention. You should go above and beyond with what your crew learns and even put in the extra effort to know that they have the right skills to tackle every project that comes their way.

Helping your employees to master critical skills and to expound on what they already know and the skills that they already have, it’ll benefit every project in the long run. If they learn new techniques and skills, you never know what new and efficient ways of doing things they can bring to the table. When you give your team opportunities to learn and truly invest in training you’ll be surprised at how efficient projects can be.

If you and your team are trained properly you’ll be able to get work done faster, operate on the same level as a unit, and move on to the next phase in the project faster. Investing and focusing on training might seem useless at first, but you might be surprised at how much it’ll help you be more efficient.

Communication Is Key

You’ve probably heard it a thousand times before and there’s a good reason why; without good communication you’re just setting a project up for failure. When you’re not making communication a priority then you’re already losing efficiency, even before a project has started. Communication needs to be drilled into your team and you need to put in the work to make sure that they’re comfortable talking to you. You want to focus on being available to your team and make sure that they feel comfortable coming to you if there are issues or ideas.

Communication is the most important thing that you can focus on and it can be what saves you from some big project mistakes. Although it’s important that your team communicates, it’s critical that you remember that it starts with you. You want to be a good example to your crew and always appear open to thoughts and opinions. It’s also important that your crew is on the same page so make sure that you meet with you them before a project to talk about expectations and goals.

Listen to everyone’s thoughts about your plans, where they think you can improve, and get their feedback on the project plan. Doing this will open up pathways for communication and you’ll also get to hear your team’s thoughts on how things can be more efficient.

Create Motivation

Your crew needs the motivation to exceed work expectations and to consistently perform better than they did last time. It’s important that you’re constantly thinking of ways to improve your crew’s work and get better results on projects. The best way that you can do this is by using performance measurements and creating initiatives for achieving these measurements. Usually, financial bonuses are the best motivation but you can really use any initiative to encourage your crew.

When it comes to what performance measurements you’ll use it’s really up to you. Think about where your crew is lacking and what you can do to improve efficiency with them. If you notice that employees are coming into work late or not completing work that they’re supposed to, you can set these as a performance metric and then reward your crew when they do well. By doing this you’ll perform better as a team and overall improve efficiency in your construction process.

Manage Time Effectively

There are only so many hours in a day and when you’re working on a construction site every hour is important. You need to make sure that you’re using your team’s time effectively and that the construction plan is progressing with everything that you do. You simply don’t have time to waste and it’s important that you and your team recognize that right at the start. You want to focus on what’s costing you money and utilization rates with your team. Team members can be costing you money if they’re not doing their job efficiently. This is where it’s critical that you’re closely monitoring your team and making sure to manage time effectively.