Keeping track of what's happening on construction sites is challenging if you don't have the right processes and tools to help you. The result?
- Information overload and excessive administrative workload.
- Increased waiting time between tasks.
- Nonconformities are discovered during deliveries.
- Endless disputes that put your project in danger.
It doesn't take much to understand why standardization has become such an important buzzword for the construction industry over the past few years. By investing in the element of repetition, project managers can regain control over their projects and mitigate risks.
Now you might think that each project is a completely different universe and that standardizing your processes is almost impossible. But this is actually incorrect.
Regardless of purpose or size, 80% of processes across all projects are nearly identical. Therefore, standardizing the way you design, collaborate, and eventually build is a valid option. On one condition: you use digital tools adapted to the construction industry and can seamlessly connect the site to the office.
It's the only way to ensure you see everything on the spot and give your teams the power to report critical issues to a single source of truth. This way, all project stakeholders will remain on the same page and project managers won't have to spend 40% of their time writing reports, making calls, or attending endless meetings.
This connection between the field and the boardroom will ultimately pave the way for improved and repeatable processes. With the help of the data collected, project and site managers will be able to prevent errors before they appear or flag critical problems at an early stage.
But most importantly, they will be able to send and receive contextualized updates. In other words, updates that are inextricably linked to planning and instantly inform about the impact of new information on the development of project activities.
Many project and site managers rely on tools like WhatsApp, Excel or email to communicate with their teams, ending up lost in a sea of disconnected data, with no indication of whether their program reflects reality.
This is not because WhatsApp and Excel are bad tools, but simply because they weren't made for construction and can't bridge the gap between the office and the site.
Thus, administrative tasks quickly become a black hole that sucks up most of a project manager's productive time on a daily basis. This is why build-specific tools are important, and why building repeatedly is a solid step toward more visibility, more control, and less administration.
How to standardize your construction processes
Now that we have an idea of why standardization is part of construction's new normal, let's take a closer look at how you can actually start introducing repetitive processes into your projects.
Without further ado, here are three things you need to keep in mind:
1. Connect your teams
Firstly, you need to keep your teams connected at all times. To achieve this, you must consider construction-specific tools as your most valuable ally. By giving your teams the opportunity to directly report progress in the field, you speed up the decision-making process and add more clarity to daily communication.
At the same time, you'll be able to easily monitor progress just by using one tool instead of juggling from one app to another. Simply put, as a project manager or site foreman, you need digital tools made for construction to build a clear communication path for all project stakeholders.
This consistent connection between the office and the field is the first step to better understanding the pain points in your processes and will allow you to begin collecting accurate data to improve your processes. So, long story short, before you get busy with standardization, make sure you lay the right foundations with a construction-specific digital solution.
2. Connect your data
After implementing the right software, it's time to take the next and most decisive step. It's time to connect your data. By bringing together all your website information into a single source of truth, you can gain a unique overview of your processes and easily discover where there is room for improvement.
This is, of course, an ongoing process that will evolve from project to project, paving the way for iterations and greater repeatability.
Data collection and analysis is one of the main obstacles to the spread of standardization in the construction industry. In a typical project, task updates come and go across different applications and spreadsheets, leaving no room in the long run to trace the roots behind problematic operational patterns.
And the problem becomes even bigger if we take into account that construction produces more data than almost any other industry around the world. By putting all your attention into connecting your teams and the information you receive in the field, you gain a significant advantage over your competitors.
3. Invest in digital adoption
Last but not least, you must always remember that digital adoption is key. In this sense, you need to find the right tools and people who can convert what is happening in the field into something truly digital.
At first, you may encounter some resistance from some stakeholders, as there are always people who don't like changing their work routine. This is where early adopters can really make a difference. They don't need to be people who are digital experts. Instead, they should be people who work on site every day and understand the struggles of the different field teams.
These early adopters could be the digital adoption evangelists you need. It goes without saying that to find these people, you need the right tool. An intuitive yet easy-to-use tool that people on-site can rely on to collaborate better and more effectively with others.
In short, digital adoption is something all construction companies absolutely need to focus on. If you are not able to collect the data in the field, all your efforts will be in vain.
See where you are and start standardizing your processes!
Improving and standardizing your construction processes is a challenging but very rewarding journey. In an attempt to help you, we've put together a detailed guide that shows you step-by-step how you can see more in your projects, design repeatable, data-driven processes, deliver sooner, and much more.
