The following is a guest post from Anastasios Koutsogiannis, Content Marketing Manager at LetsBuild.
In construction, interruptions are events that break the continuity or progress of construction work. These interruptions bring down a construction project’s rate of efficiency and are the biggest contributors to disruptions and delays on the construction site.
For clarity, disruption is the loss of productivity due to an interruption in any of the project’s construction activities, while delay is the loss of time. Interruptions can cause disruptions that can result in:
Disrupted construction work progress
Losses resulting from disruptions
Additional costs associated with the disruptions
Legal outcomes if the interruption leads to a breach of contract
It is worth mentioning that 44% of delays in construction stem from interruptions in the way a construction project develops. In that sense, reducing setbacks during execution needs to be the main focus of any project team in order to keep the budget under control.
If we dig a little deeper, we will see that the four main factors behind this 44% could be summed up to the following::
Delays resulting from errors
Delays from late reply to RFIs (request for information)
Specification changes
Poor weather conditions and other factors
To avoid these issues that could generate expensive problems later on, we have gathered five useful tips on how you can avoid these interruptions in the entire duration of your construction project. Aside from cutting unnecessary costs, avoiding these interruptions makes you more efficient and productive, and helps you deliver your projects right on time.
1. Digitalize your reporting process
By now, it is completely okay to admit that the pen-and-paper construction reporting and communication have not been working or bringing value to the construction team and the construction project.
Project managers or directors spend many hours collating progress reports instead of focusing on productive work. By the time they have the reports ready, the information may already be out of date.
By digitalizing your reports, you are creating a data-driven reporting system with all your data centralized in one place that all project members can instantly update, add feedback in real time, and access live information anytime and anywhere, even while on their mobile devices.
2. Use digital tools that are sector-specific
WhatsApp, Zoom, and Slackall have uses in our lives, but only minimally in managing construction projects. These programs can work alongside existing construction tools but are not able to handle specific construction needs. However, industry-specific digital tools and solutions are designed and built with functions that provide solutions to your construction problems on and off site.
A sector-specific software or digital tool can offer everything that is construction site related in one app or program. Having a tool like this will greatly improve your construction efficiency and productivity as you will no longer need third-party add-ons or manual syncs with supplemental software. You can easily spot interruptions before they can even happen, or handle them quickly before they can cause any disruption or delay.
3. Invest in onboarding and training
A lot has been written about the benefits of a well-delivered onboarding. First, automating and streamlining your onboarding and training processes saves a huge amount of time spent on manual onboarding tasks. Time spent per newly hired employee is greatly reduced, leaving HR with more time and effort for other valuable tasks while contributing to the overall ROI.
Second, streamlined onboarding also reduces the time it takes for a new employee to become productive. The best example would be electronically handling form completions before their first day. This way, the new employee can focus on the actual job training at the construction site or office rather than having to fill out forms.
A well-executed onboarding process delivers a positive experience for the new project hire while engaging them and increasing worker retention. The overarching result is an uninterrupted onboarding process that produces a capable project team member equipped to make quick decisions and handle project-related interruptions.
4. Learn from the data you collect
Converting the traditional pen-and-paper methods of construction activities leads to digital forms, and the use of digital forms enables the collection of data straight into the cloud. Every construction activity involved can then generate a ton of useful data. Using this available data and developing a healthy data culture enables the application of data company wide.
When it comes to interruptions, companies can use relevant data to predict and avoid unnecessary interruptions based on previous information collected. Being able to retrieve usable data at the tip of their fingers, project teams are able to quickly make data-driven decisions when faced with any kind of interruption. This effective data culture then reduces the number of interruptions or reduces the time needed to manage or fix interruptions.
5. Standardize your processes
As you go about new digital processes, it is time to establish guidelines or parameters that should govern how those processes are supposed to be performed. Standardization can be applied to any relevant construction process, task or procedure. Standardization, in its fundamental essence, is all about putting established time-tested processes to routine use.
When implemented well, standardization reduces guesswork, ensures construction quality and safety, boosts productivity, and improves employee confidence and collaboration. Standardization also decreases the chances and opportunities for interruptions. Since standardized work processes set out a clear set of instructions to finish a construction task or procedure, project team members or subcontractors in charge no longer have to waste time figuring out what to do, but instead focus their time on actually performing the job at hand. Standardization decreases the likelihood of interruptions and shortens the time figuring out an interruption if it does occur.
