Masonry Magazine December 2002 Page. 41
3. Train your supervisors and employees.
Training is an investment in sound management principles and techniques. Construction companies rarely hesitate to train employees in specific skills such as how to operate a new piece of equipment. The benefit of training is measurable almost immediately: the employee is more productive as soon as he has mastered the new skill. Training in how to improve productivity is no different.
Supervisor training should be specifically related to how to improve productivity at the job site. Supervisors must be trained to look at the job not on a day-to-day basis, but as a work process with many discrete steps that must be completed over an extended, if limited, period of time.
You should also explain what productivity means to all employees and show them how increased productivity leads to fewer hassles and greater profits. Once you have identified new, more productive ways of doing something, make sure everyone involved understands the change and why it is being implemented.
Productivity training should always stress that the most productive workplaces are always the safest and produce the highest quality work, since accidents and rework are major drains on productivity.
4. Employ new technologies.
New technologies such as scheduling software and more efficient equipment can yield an immediate return on investment in increased productivity. Studies show that the construction industry spends fewer dollars for research and development than any other industries in the United States. The technological explosion that has revolutionized the U.S. has so far only affected the very largest construction companies.
In implementing new technology, construction companies should learn from the mistakes made in other industries. Too often, companies have attempted to implement new technologies and equipment literally overnight, leading to a cataclysm of change that disorients and discourages workers. We suggest that construction companies take a gradualist approach, introducing first the new software or equipment that will have the most immediate positive impact. Make sure the training that you provide in new technologies not only details how to use the technology, but also how the company and the workers will benefit from it.
5. Communicate that increasing productivity is everyone's job.
No one knows how to do a job better than the person doing it. A construction company should therefore enlist all of its workers in the search for greater productivity. The company should communicate explicitly that suggestions are welcomed and should consider some type of reward system for suggestions that increase productivity. One effect of involving the workers in improving productivity is that they will come to look on the goal as making progress, not finding blame.
This brief review of how to improve productivity may make the task of improvement seem daunting to the average general contracting company. Typically construction companies enlist construction productivity consultants to help them improve. The consultant has a wealth of experience in the construction industry to draw upon in addressing the specific needs of the company, as well as a methodology for identifying and addressing the barriers to increased productivity. The consultant understands both the best industry practices and the current construction technologies that can improve productivity. Perhaps most important, the consultant can provide the supervisor and crew with the training that will yield the greatest productivity improvements.
Michael P. Rollage is a principal in McCrory & McDowell, a Pittsburgh accounting and consulting firm, where he heads the firm's construction industry practice. He has more than 30 years of experience in the construction industry, including more than a decade as a controller and CFO for two major construction companies.
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