Proactive Planning: Your Shield Against Construction Project Delays

Construction projects are complex and full of risks that can lead to project delays. Mitigating those risks is critical to trade contractors’ ability to finish jobs on time. 

Because lack of resource planning greatly increases the risk of delay, proactive planning of key resources is essential to a trade contractor’s ability to finish jobs on time. 

“Properly managing resources will help maintain project efficiency and minimize potential challenges caused by resource shortages,” writes the team at construction management company ACMS Group.

Here’s how construction project management software, like eSUB, helps trade contractors proactively plan two of the most critical project resources — labor and materials — to help prevent project delays. 

Labor: Minimize Wasted Time With Proactive Planning

Effective labor allocation is one of the most crucial elements to finishing jobs on time. You need the right people on the right jobs at the right times or you will not be able to meet project deadlines. To make smarter decisions about labor allocation, you need access to accurate real-time and historical labor data and insights. 

That information allows you to see where and how workers are spending their time. It will identify where you may have skills gaps, where skills are being wasted, where work isn’t getting done, and where hours are being lost to non-productivity. Armed with that knowledge, you can proactively plan labor in ways to reduce that labor waste and mitigate project delays. 

Construction project management software provides the data that informs labor allocation decisions by centralizing project information. This information is entered by the workers themselves through time sheets, field notes, daily reports, and other field communications. 

“Analyzing the data from projects of similar scope in your project history can help to identify how much manpower will be needed for future projects,” explains the team at Commercial Construction & Renovation Magazine. “It will also help to identify the different staffing requirements as you move through each phase of the project lifecycle.”

That information enables you to allocate your labor resources to maximize productivity so projects finish on time.

Materials: Avoid Delays With Accurate Planning

Waiting for project materials to arrive can cause significant project delays. That’s why it’s critical to plan materials as accurately as possible at the start of the project and be agile throughout it.

“Planning for materials acquisition and long-lead issues is crucial in ensuring the success of your construction projects,” the team at Reeve-Knight Construction writes. “By adopting a proactive and strategic approach, you can effectively mitigate the risks associated with long lead times and optimize your project planning process.”

A key part of that proactive strategy is data. Real-time and historical project data stored centrally and analyzed by construction project management software gives you the ability to estimate the materials you will need at each stage of a project so you can plan accordingly. This helps ensure your projects aren’t delayed while crews wait for the delivery of materials. 

Submittals: Save Time With Streamlined Processes

Submittals keep projects on schedule by ensuring compliance with project materials specifications at the start of a project. The centralized information helps keep communication between stakeholders clear so that everyone is aligned about the details for each project phase. The keys to a successful submittal process are organization and management. 

Construction project management software streamlines and automates parts of the submittals process to help your crews manage and track project materials. These capabilities reduce errors and miscommunication regarding submittals which, in turn, reduces delays. 

It’s one bottleneck 3G Drywall eliminated with eSUB. The construction company was using spreadsheets to create and track submittals which significantly slowed down their processes and restricted transparency. eSUB enhanced the accountability and transparency of the process for the company. 

“eSUB has been a big help with the submittal process,” says co-owner Mathew Gurley. “I love how it tracks [them], so when you sent it and there’s a 12-week lead time and they say well, you didn’t send me the Submittal in time. You can show them you did, and when… You can track it.”

Proactive resource planning is critical to mitigate project delays. Through data centralization and process automation, construction project management software allows you to plan your labor and materials resources ahead of time as well as track progression so your teams are more likely to finish their jobs on time. 

Schedule a demo of eSUB Cloud today to learn more about how this software helps you avoid project delays through proactive resource planning. 

Images used under license from Shutterstock.com.