Impacted Productivity - Fighting Back

Nearly all construction projects will face impacted productivity to some degree.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
D. Brown Management
September 20, 2018 2 minute read
change management claims field productivity impacts
Share
Field Productivity: Impacts - Fighting Back.

 

Fighting back effectively against labor productivity impacts will significantly improve project outcomes including customer satisfaction if handled properly. There are four interrelated aspects to effectively fighting back.

  1. UNDERSTAND - Make learning part of your weekly habit and improve the power of observation on projects.  
  2. DOCUMENT - Use all tools available to you. Focus on a level which other people can understand and learn from who are not intimately knowledgeable about the project.  
  3. QUANTIFY - If you can’t quantify pre and post impact production, you won’t be able to communicate or resolve the impact effectively.
  4. COMMUNICATE - Learn to effectively make your case, to who, and when to escalate for the best negotiating results.

Remember that guaranteed way to not lose a fight is to never get into the fight to begin with. Deliberate practice of these skills over time will keep you out of the fight most of the time.  

 

Impacted Productivity - Fighting Back
Field labor is the often the biggest variable on a construction project - making it the biggest risk and opportunity....
Previous Next Go To Series
Related Insights Series
Related Training
Impacted Productivity - Fighting Back
Field labor is the often the biggest variable on a construction project - making it the biggest risk and opportunity....
Previous Next Go To Series
Related Insights Series
Impacted Productivity - Highly variable Labor Scheduling (Level Your Schedule)
The biggest risk for a specialty contractor is the performance of on-site labor. One of the biggest impacts to labor productivity is having a schedule that requires large variations in labor.
Related Article
Time-on-Tools and Minimum Required Installation
Labor productivity IS NOT the biggest problem with field productivity. Under similar conditions the variation in how fast two crafts people actually “turn wrenches” is about 2X but there are far bigger problems to tackle. Focus on these three areas.
Related Article
Lean Principle - People First (Then Process and Tools)
To optimize productivity, a contractor must focus on their people first, then processes and tools including technology as an integrated management system with a hierarchy. This is not a linear process: S.M.A.R.T. Experiments + Continuous Improvement.
Related Article