Most things in the modern world will either come with an efficiency rating or a way of reading efficiency, whether that is mpg in your car or energy usage on a smart meter. There are so many ways to measure efficiencies but how often do we take a step back and measure how efficient site activities or working practices are?
There are ways to measure efficiencies on site but depending on the message given these can very often be manipulated. For example, a recent project managed to half a duration of an activity that had been planned but they had used a little more than twice the planned resource. Was there a programme saving yes, but was it efficient?
Now planned or tendered outputs are not always correct, they are an educated estimate on how long an operation will take. Each site will have its own constraints such as access, working room or hours and as such the durations for the work should be amended accordingly.
Many contractors will undertake the same type of work across multiple sites. As each site will have its own constraints there may need to be some bespoke adjustments made to make the operation as efficient as possible. This can be physically measured to understand the difference the change has made. This is of course assuming conditions are the same.
A slight amendment to a haul route, the stacking of haulage, methodology can all affect the efficiency of an operation and increase output.
Another advantage of conducting in depth analysis of your methods are that you can do the same for an adverse affect. Good record keeping will show the conditions and an output achieved. If something changes to adversely affect the operation then its possible to measure the impact and use this as demonstration in the assessment of the change.
With focus often being on project delivery and in the heat of the project stepping back to conduct and in depth review of an operation rarely happens however the outcome of the review could improve efficiency.
Efficiency does not have to just be your operations on site. It can be your prelims, for instance when setting up a programme on a project we have set these up to seamlessly provide cost and value updates with each programme update. This cuts down the overlap and job repetition between planning and commercial disciplines to update information thus increasing prelim efficiency.
Also setting up a programme from the start to assist in demonstrating change increases the ability to demonstrate the impact of change. This increases the likelihood of getting entitlement and cuts down on the wasted time and effort trying to demonstrate change with information that is ambiguous.
We have conducted reviews on site and successfully adjusted operations to increase outputs. We have set up programmes to increase efficiency between prelim staff. We have set up plans from an early stage to demonstrate change. This increased the ability to justify the tendered methodologies and demonstrate the impact of change making it easier for both parties to reach agreement.
If you would like any programme management or project controls assistance then get in touch.
Planetal provides Tendering, Delivery Planning and Forensic Delay Expert Services to the construction industry. For more information on how we can help click one of the links below:
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