#98 How to increase productivity on the civil construction site.., Our methodology to increase work.

This is your mission, should you choose to accept it: complete a series of projects where there are six or more labor crafts involved, over 150 materials are shipped, five or more subcontractors work in the same area, every project is different, and…oh,yeah, you have to get them done on time regardless of the weather.

No big deal, right?

Or is it more like this?

Materials are being handled more than once. Half of the materials are stolen, the other half aren’t needed. You are waiting on instructions, waiting on a resource, waiting on an assignment…you’re doing a lot of waiting.  Then there are the accidents, the substance abuse, and the substandard work and punch lists that have to be redone.

The second scenario is made up of common productivity leeches in the construction industry. Why does this happen and how can you increase productivity on your jobsite?

Root causes of low productivity in construction

Lack of productivity can be tied a handful of issues.

One problem is the low investment in education. It includes safety, equipment, and material handling as well as onboarding new contractors to the jobsite. Another is that you are focusing on results instead of the process. A third: you are not measuring productivity or performing a defect analysis when things go wrong.

Finally, you have no way of knowing a project’s status. The records aren’t being kept.

Construction workers on a project can be unproductive up to 50% of the time on-site. Of that unproductive period, half is spent waiting (see above). One-third of the waiting is due to factors that are entirely under management control. Here is an example of a standard workday:

• Productive time                50%
• Non-productive time         35%
• Support time                    15%

The non-productive time is split into thirds. As mentioned before, one-third is management related. The other two-thirds are evenly split between industry related problems and labor or equipment problems.

To top it off, while construction has actually seen an annual increase of 0.8% on productivity benchmarks, all US industries put together have seen increases of 2% to 4%.

What are the benefits of getting construction’s act together and how can you do it?

Benefits of higher productivity

Obviously, if your team is more productive, projects will get completed more quickly. You can also lower your costs on each project. Over the long run, you will be able to submit more competitive bids, secure in the knowledge you can meet the deadline. Bonus: Each project may be more profitable.

Here is your how-to…

How to increase productivity on your construction site

Process analysis

The first step is to analyze your current construction process, end-to-end, and in detail.

You are looking at each phase of the process to find and eliminate barriers to productivity. This includes measuring some key factors and setting benchmarks and goals to reach as you put together your new processes.

Figure out what each phase or step is supposed to accomplish and whether it is necessary to complete the project. Do you have people filling out forms that have nothing to do with getting the job done? Find another way to get that information or strike that step from the process. Do your workers spend too much time looking for tools? Organize the work areas and train everyone to put things back where they belong.

Planning

You can always to do better planning; many of those “waiting” situations could be cleared up by creating a better schedule and procuring equipment and materials according to when they are needed.

Resources unavailability seems to be the biggest issue in construction. Equipment is not available, the materials you need are still in transit, or you simply don’t have enough skilled workers.

How accurate is the information your planners work from? Close communication with vendors and experienced schedulers can help you determine a realistic benchmark for deliveries, rentals, and hiring.

In between projects

During down times, prepare alternative jobsite layouts to see if there is a better way to place equipment and materials than your current layout. Include your workers in the appraisal; since they work at the site all the time they probably have some key insights into things that don’t work.

• Have a superintendent review the project plans and provide input for better estimates.
• Analyze the as-planned schedule to determine what resources will be needed and when.
• Review the contracts for unusual requirements.
• Implement a record keeping program.
• Visit the site to look for atypical conditions.
• Develop an organizational structure for clear accountability

Hire a dependable foreman

Your foreman makes between 60 and 100 decisions a day that impact the productivity, safety, and quality of the jobsite and project. This is the person who keeps everyone on track, helps out when needed, and reports how things are going to management.

Anyone you consider must have experience in skilled labor and management because this is who will train your supervisors and crew. This is not a position to plop just anybody into; the foreman can make or break a project.

Training

Make sure your supervisors have been trained to manage. Management skills are not necessarily learned along with the skills to use tools and equipment. The supervisors have the most impact on your workers; a bad supervisor could lose you some essential skills from your crew.

A supervisor knows the difference between challenging and policing, has a laser focus on quality and safety, and shows pride in work. To drive productivity, your supervisors should receive specific training in how to drive it on the jobsite.

They need to learn how to analyze and work with a process in discrete steps and determining what steps must be completed in a given period of time. An immediate benefit can be seen from training those who have direct management over the crews.

In fact, train everyone on productivity: what it is, how it benefits the project, how to look at processes. You must be especially vigilant about training when you change to new processes. Make sure everyone understands why you are making the change.

One important point to stress is that a productive workplace is a safe workplace. Productivity can produce higher quality work in less time with fewer accidents and less rework.

Adopt technology

You have access to a wide variety of software for planning and scheduling as well as new equipment that is more efficient.  Construction spends less money on research and development than any other industry. So far, only the largest construction companies have taken advantage of new technology.

Most of these solutions are appropriate for any size company and are extremely affordable. Adopt the construction technology that will have the most immediate and positive impact first to build momentum and buy-in from everyone involved. Take full advantage of training including how the new technology will benefit the work.

When to implement changes

The best time to put new processes into place is at transition times:

• As the days get longer in the spring
• When moving to a new jobsite
• At the start of a new phase
• When there are changes in team members

Make it clear that improving productivity is in everyone’s best interests and that you understand the best ideas can come from anywhere.

By - RCC (Rialto Core Civil Construction) , Pratapnagar, Udaipur

All Kind of Construction work in udaipur.