Process Improvement and Cycle Times

When contractors grow inefficient processes usually get substantially more inefficient dramatically changing the Return on Investment (ROI) model.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

Saving 5 minutes per cycle for something done 100 times per month is only worth $6,000 over a couple years. At 1,000 cycles per month it’s worth investing up to $60,000 to make the process more efficient.  

Management Tools: Graph representing Saving Seconds Adds Up with Increased Cycle Times.

Where are your opportunities?

Too many times as contractors scale they look primarily at the technology tools and get poor results. One factor often underestimated is the investment in rolling out the new standards versus just the cost of the technology

Corbins Electric and NOX Innovations are really good at is looking at the whole workflow, talent, culture and technology. They give a great example of this with their purchasing process improvement.  

Everything stated here seems easy enough but is VERY difficult to execute consistently.  The team at Corbins has done an amazing job balancing high-level strategic direction, culture and process streamlining.  They are also great about sharing with their peers in the industry.




Situational Awareness - Learning to See
It is critical for project teams to develop a model of the project in their minds so that they can quickly make the thousands of decisions required to keep the project on-track. This is called Situational Awareness and includes three basic layers.
Issue 3 of 9: Relationships
Construction Ownership Transition Issue 3 of 9: How Strong are the Post-Transition Relationships with Customers, Employees, Vendors, and Subcontractors?
CFMA: Talent Pipelining
Contractors will face continually worsening talent shortages through 2030. Those that want to continue sustainable growth must manage every aspect of their talent management processes with extreme rigor.