How To Save Time on Construction Projects

Project managers, engineers, and city officials are constantly seeking ways to streamline construction project timelines and reduce costs. Tight budgets and rising demands from stakeholders make efficient project management essential. Sticking to a strict project schedule is challenging amid supply and labor shortages and lingering supply line delays.

The best time-saving techniques contractors, architects, and construction managers can employ to manage construction projects include leveraging technology, refining preconstruction planning, and improving quality management. These strategies help reduce waste and delay while ensuring the completed project meets quality standards and complies with applicable codes and regulations. Here’s more detail on how to save time on construction projects.

Preconstruction Planning: Laying the Foundation for Success

A well-thought-out plan is crucial in minimizing delays and improving project efficiency. This begins with preconstruction planning, where you need to consider the following:

1. Scope of Work: Have a clear understanding of project goals and key deliverables. This will help in setting realistic timelines, coordinating work processes, and assessing the resources required.
2. Budget and Cost Estimation: Accurate cost estimates are imperative, as they help avoid cost overruns and facilitate better financial planning.
3. Design and Engineering: Engage with architects and engineers early on, making any necessary adjustments to designs, specifications, or site conditions. This reduces the likelihood of rework later in the process.
4. Permitting and Approvals: Be proactive in securing relevant permits and approvals, as delays in this process can cause major setbacks.
5. Constructability Reviews: Conduct constructability reviews to identify and address potential challenges before the construction phase begins. This includes considering factors such as site access, work sequence, and required equipment, as well as evaluating the feasibility of specific construction methods.

Communication and Organization: Streamlining Project Coordination

Effective communication and organization are central to keeping construction projects moving ahead. Implement the following strategies to optimize project coordination:

1. Regular Team Meetings: Conduct routine meetings with project stakeholders, including architects, engineers, construction crew chiefs, and administrative staff. This ensures everyone is on the same page as you discuss progress updates, address concerns, and make any critical adjustments to project plans.
2. Designated Point of Contact: Establish a dedicated point of contact for each project aspect to facilitate smooth communication and avoid confusion.
3. Long Lead Time Accommodations: Accommodate anticipated long lead times for materials, equipment, and labor by integrating them into your project timeline. This helps avoid delays and equips your team to mitigate potential risks.
4. Delegation and Task Management: Empower team members by delegating tasks and responsibilities according to their expertise. This fosters ownership and improves efficiency.

Modern Tools & Techniques: Leveraging Technology for Enhanced Efficiency

In recent years, construction project management has made significant strides by using technology and advanced tools. Consider adopting the following practices to optimize efficiency:

1. Project Management Software: Harness the power of project management software to centralize information, improve resource allocation, scheduling, and track project progress. This enhances coordination and facilitates better decision-making.
2. Building Information Modeling (BIM): Utilize BIM technology to create digital representations of project elements, enabling greater accuracy, enhanced collaboration, and minimization of errors.
3. Drones and Reality Capture: Use drones and reality capture tools to survey sites, monitor progress, and inspect hard-to-reach areas. This enables quicker and more accurate data collection, reduces safety risks, and improves efficiency.

Drones can create high-resolution photogrammetry to help plan routes, analyze survey data, and assess construction site conditions. Additionally, reality capture technology such as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) can scan building interiors and deliver highly accurate measurements, resulting in higher-quality data and more informed decision-making.

By leveraging drones and reality capture technologies, construction professionals can easily obtain data, detect problems early on, reduce project costs, and streamline workflows.

1. Improve Communication: Stakeholders, suppliers, and project team members must communicate frequently and clearly to ensure everyone is on the same page. Technology plays an important role in improving communication, especially in large and complex projects. Consider using communication tools such as instant messaging, video conferencing, and project management software to maintain alignment and resolve issues as they arise.
2. Use Virtual Reality: Virtual reality (VR) technology can help construction teams visualize and assess project plans before construction even begins. By implementing VR, designers and architects create 3D models of a construction site. These can help identify potential conflicts, problems, and errors before construction crews set foot on the site.
3. Implement Smart Resource Allocation: Allocating resources correctly will help streamline the timeline and ensure that projects stay on track. By implementing modern resource allocation techniques, such as resource leveling, resource smoothing, and resource allocation software, construction professionals can optimize resource allocation to maximize efficiency.

Maintain Quality Standards: Develop Quality Assurance Protocols

One danger of speeding up project timelines is the temptation to compromise on quality. Use quality management protocols to maintain quality standards. This includes regular quality checks, testing, and inspections, as well as implementing industry best practices and guidelines on quality management like ISO 9001:2015.

1. Conduct Regular Inspections: Commercial construction and infrastructure projects require regular inspections during the project to ensure building and safety code compliance as well as compliance with applicable state and federal standards.
2. Stay on Top of Revised Standards: Building and safety codes and requirements can change with each legislative session, or with the issuance of updated or amended regulations. Set up alerts for changes in applicable rules for your type of project so you won’t find yourself caught toward the end of work with required change orders or modifications.

Inspections and keeping up with revisions in standards are aspects of careful planning that can save time and money by identifying effective ways to safely complete projects while consuming fewer resources and creating less disruption.

This is especially true for infrastructure projects. For example, rather than replacing an entire culvert, it may be possible to rehabilitate a culvert using a culvert lining system. Workers can install this without closing the road that crosses above. The result should still meet requirements for environmental and structural compliance, water flow, and ability to withstand storm surges and divert flooding.

Commercial and municipal infrastructure construction projects depend on defined processes for preconstruction, communication, and organization planning as well as modern tools and techniques. Quality management and monitoring of developments in standards help project managers stay up to date on the newest requirements for building and safety standards.

By adopting these successful strategies to save time on construction projects, contractors, architects, and construction managers can streamline timelines, reduce costs, and improve project outcomes. This will improve their bottom line and facilitate the successful, safe, and efficient delivery of high-quality construction projects.