When it comes to ensuring that your projects run as smoothly and as profitably as possible, there are few things that matter as much as the schedule. Going over your schedule means that you’re likely to have to not only pay for more resources and materials, but you have to recalculate the costs in man-hours, as well, not to mention any rented equipment. Here, we’re going to look at a few tips to help you better manage your schedule by looking at ways to reduce and save lost time in your worksite.
Know that going over schedule is likely to happen
It’s not something that clients want to hear, but the likelihood of any project going over-time to some degree is very high, indeed. This is for the simple reason that you don’t have the ability to see the future and prepare for every single hiccup that might come along your way. However, when you understand that things are likely to go over-schedule to some degree, it does mean that you can plan for it and account for it to some degree. For instance, you can ensure that there is money put aside in the estimate and the budget to account for expected over-time work.
Take the time to set up the site
Before your team starts to get to work, it’s important to make sure that the worksite has been prepared to the best of their ability. Over third of all time spent on a worksite typically involves moving from one part of the site to the other, cleaning up, setting up, and the like. This is not how things should optimally work, however. You should ensure that your team is taking the time to prepare the area as best as possible ahead of time.
If you’re using a site for the first time, or you are utilizing test rigs for research and development purposes, it will help you get a better understanding when analyzing and validating the work you’re doing
Clean out the site, make sure they have access to waste disposal areas, and make sure that different locations on-site are mapped out clearly so people know how to find what resources of parts of the project they need.
Positioning is key
As a major factor in the site set-up that is needed before the team gets to work, you should endeavor to take the time to figure out where different things should go on the site. By this, we mean where do you put the materials, where do you position equipment they might need, where do you put the waste areas. Construction site mapping software like Pix4d can help you visualize the entirety of the site during the setup, making sure that you’re putting everything in its right place. The correct placement of items will ensure that less time is spent going back and forth from one area to the next by making sure the proximity of important resources is reduced as much as possible.
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Ensure everyone has the tools on hand that they need
Another aspect of pre-planning that needs a lot more attention is not just the placement of tools, but their procurement as well. Once you have the different processes of the project mapped out, take a closer look, and ask yourself as to what tools might be necessary for every step along the way. Keep track of your tools and materials by putting an effective inventory management system in place, making sure that workers have to check them out when they’re using them. This way, you’re going to have a lot fewer instances of workers getting frustrated looking for the tools they need to complete their work.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain challenges impacted many industries, which made accessing products from unigloves and other safety-related equipment more challenging. Having proper planning and inventory of protective equipment and tools is critical to minimize the loss of time in your workplace.
Make scheduling much easier
Even if going over-schedule has to be accepted, to some degree, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be a lot more accurate about the kind of progress your team should be making at any part in the process. Tools like JobNimbus construction management software can help to a great degree by ensuring you don’t have to rely entirely on your own memory and working out to create a schedule that works to the advantage of the project. Digital tools can help you create a workflow and pipeline of all the different tasks, work out how much time they will take, and schedule them in a way that keeps productivity to the max, avoiding bottlenecks and scheduling conflicts ahead of time.
Improve communication throughout
Another one of the benefits of a good digital construction management system is that they typically include features that are designed primarily to help you communicate with your crews, contractors and other parties who are involved in your projects. Your ability to more quickly send out work orders can reduce their response time, helping to speed the project along. Finding the right means for communication is also essential for making sure that misunderstandings aren’t holding the project back or leading to mistakes that can end up costing you a lot of time. You should aim to check in with individual contractors and team leaders at least once a day to get a better idea of how progress is going and if there are any issues that you can help them clear up.
Create a safer workplace
Aside from the fact that it’s your responsibility to protect your workforce from the risk of harm as best as possible, there are plenty of practical reasons you want to keep your employees safer in the workplace. There are the costs of worker’s compensation and potential litigation, of course, but there is also the fact that an accident in the workplace can shut down production for an entire day, if not more. Should an injury or accident need to be further investigated, it can hold back the project even further. Invest in PPE, do a risk assessment, assign a worksite security officer if you have to. Take workplace safety seriously.
Be flexible to changes in scope
As mentioned, not all delays can be avoided. Some, like delays due to the unavailability of a certain material or due to changes in the weather, are entirely out of your hands. Changes in the scope, while not out of human hands, are equally out of your own reach. If the owner changes their scope or if you’re a contractor working for a consultant who changes the scope of the project, there is little you can do but be flexible and be ready to change plans. Be transparent with the client you’re working with, making sure that they understand that scope changes are going to add a delay to the schedule. Don’t make it sound like a possibility, ensure that they are aware of the fact.
Take good care of your equipment
Reducing downtime in the workplace is going to be crucial if you want to make sure that you don’t end up running over schedule. Should your equipment start to act up and show faults, it can take a lot of time to get things back up and running. As such, there are a lot of ways to reduce equipment downtime as shown by Sage. The most important is investing in proactive and predictive maintenance, getting to know your equipment, and what failures they are most likely to experience first. By knowing the steps to repair those most common faults and having any necessary replacement parts on hand, you can get them back up and running as soon as possible.
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Ensure you have backups on hand
Not all downtime is caused by the equipment itself, but by a lack of the essential resources that keep the workplace running. This might be the heating necessary to keep workers safe, or it might be the power necessary to keep your equipment running. Budgeting for these provisions is essential for any job, of course, but it’s also important to recognize that they can have problems of their own. Rather than having to halt work entirely, you can look at getting backup provisions such as heating equipment generators that can help you get the workplace back up and running again in no time. Make sure you’re choosing scalable generators that can work to shifting needs, too.
Know when you need additional manpower
By keeping a close eye on the schedule, you should hopefully get an idea in advance of when you are starting to fall behind. When you do, you need to ask if you have the manpower on hand to help you catch back up. Manpower isn’t just the number of workers you have, but also the expertise. For instance, one worker might be tied in one job that requires a specific skill, but have to hold back on another that requires the same skill. By using construction hire platforms as shown at Building Advisor, you can ensure you have both the labor and the skills you need to keep up.
As mentioned, some aspects of going over schedule should be expected and budgeted appropriately, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it no matter the extent. The tips above can hopefully help you get a better hand of your schedule and use your time much more wisely.