Risk is no game: Boost project success with a proactive approach to productivity

Anyone who has ever put on a hard hat will tell you — a construction project is a complicated system of interconnected tasks and resources, and any unforeseen issue that arises can create huge productivity losses across many sub-trades that put the schedule at risk and increase the amount of paperwork. When I was working as both a superintendent and PE for a large general contractor in California, I experienced hundreds of challenges like that all the time. To quickly get the project back on track, the solution was always the same: work more hours to get things done. It’s the reason why construction hours are so grueling, from 60 to 70 hours per week.

No matter how big a project is, putting an expensive band-aid on the problem still leaves the root issue of the problem unaddressed. But we all know how fast things move on the jobsite, so it’s tough to get ahead of things and be proactive when it comes to problem-solving. As a result, everyone is typically reactive, and issues are only addressed as they become alarmingly apparent. 

A proactive approach to managing productivity 

So, how do you get ahead of potential problems? And where do you invest your time and resources to most effectively bring order to the chaos? It lies in treating root causes, rather than symptoms. 

But I don’t need to preach to the choir: you know as well as I do, with things moving so fast, there’s just no time for that. Today, manual production tracking can take your field team as much as 10-15 hours per week, according to some of our customers. While production tracking can identify those root causes, a lot of that time is spent responding to, triaging, and tracking issues, rather than tackling the root causes head one. 

Fast Fact: Gaps in project performance are dramatic. In 2016, almost two thirds (61%) of typical projects finished behind schedule, and nearly half (49%) of typical projects completed over budget.

I am intimately aware of that fact from experiencing these challenges firsthand during my days working in the field. In fact, one of my responsibilities at one point was manually tracking the installation of ductwork and walls, with a highlighter and drawings in hand.

BUT...what if you could automate the manual time you spend tracking production? What if you were able to get that time back so you could focus more on making decisions that could stop risk in its tracks, allowing you to keep your project on schedule and budget?

StructionSite can help you with that. Because members of our team have spent time in the field, we understand the pain points of manual production tracking and have created a solution to help your team provide value that they can uniquely give to the project, rather than secretarial work. 

With SmartTrack®, our automated and image-based production tracking tool, we can help you identify risk quickly and boost productivity, so you can put your effort where it’s most effective. Our customer Josh DeStefano says it perfectly here:

“It’s not so much that we’re saving those hours manually tracking production, the point is that we’re putting our time and effort where it makes sense. And that's where the value comes; it’s actually getting the analysis and the comparison, not from just collecting the data. It shifts our effort to putting our time and energy where it’s going to have the most value.”

Josh DeStefano, Southwest VDC Leader | DPR

At StructionSite, we’re experts at helping contractors get a true read on production rates — and the issues that affect them — so you can make the right decisions for your project and bottom line. Contact our team today to learn more about our proven solutions.