Construction workflows: How to pinpoint and reduce inefficiencies

With everything you do as a construction business owner in a single day, you don’t have time to manually track the progress of each individual job. You’re balancing construction site visits, managing your team and tracking financials along with other countless day-to-day tasks.

Construction project management tools keep projects on track, avoids delays and organizes projects. Find the workflow that’s the best fit for your business.

What is a construction workflow?

A construction workflow is the sequence of activities that takes place during the construction process, from the initial design and preconstruction stages to the final inspection and completion of the project. It outlines the various tasks and milestones that need to be accomplished in a logical and organized manner to ensure the successful execution of the project. The construction workflow typically includes the following key stages:

• Preconstruction
• Design
• Procurement and Mobilization
• Construction
• Testing and Commissioning
• Completion and Handover
• Post-construction

Why is a construction workflow important?

A construction workflow is essential for efficient project management, cost control, time management, collaboration, quality assurance and risk management. It provides a roadmap for all stakeholders, ensuring that the project progresses smoothly, meets its objectives and is completed successfully.

A smart construction management process should be a priority for keeping an organized business. It’s important to know that efficient workflow and communication go hand in hand.

The benefits of improving your construction workflow

Prevent mistakes, hold your team accountable and save money with an efficient construction workflow. Check out these five benefits of improving your process:

1. More efficiency

Standardizing your procedures will move everything along. Establishing a set order and average timeline for the task lists and to-dos keeps the job pacing on schedule. Inconsistency in workflow means rethinking the steps for every project. This is wasted time. Don’t reinvent the wheel … set the workflow once and stick with it on similar projects. 

2. Fewer errors and less rework

Organize your work site tasks into checklists so every team member is aware of their tasks and the timeline. This way, you won’t be scrambling to assign to-do’s to get everything wrapped in time. Your project will be mapped out in a timely planner in the hopes to avoid a job that’s rushed and not completed properly. You’re already on a tight schedule, and no one has the time for upset clients and rework. By putting organization and task delegation first, you’re more likely to get quality work.    

3. Increased collaboration

With a successful workflow, tasks are assigned to the appropriate workers with customized flowcharts. This increases collaboration among employees and holds everyone accountable for their portion of the project. It’s easy to see what task comes next and what still needs to be completed before the project can move to the next step.

One way to increase collaboration is to try a bottom-up approach to workflow. This means getting the people who spend the most time completing the tasks involved in the planning and assigning stages of task management. Construction projects are truly a group effort, and using a workflow gives you a strong visual of this.

4. Enhanced safety

Construction equipment breaks down and requires timely tune-ups. Consider implementing a maintenance workflow to keep equipment safe and in excellent shape. Also, avoid critical errors by giving specific instructions on how to complete each task in the workflow. Communicate exactly what needs to be done for each task. Staying on top of safety will ultimately help you avoid project setbacks.

5. Better cost control

Standardize a process for repeated jobs and enter into smart construction management software like Buildertrend. Determine the best order of tasks and assign them to your team members. Simple planning ahead like this will give you more cost control over your projects. Less time on the job means less money spent.  

What challenges do your construction workflows have to overcome?

Many construction companies face issues with project management. Some common challenges with construction workflow include:

Miscommunication among project stakeholders

This is a common and avoidable problem. Besides the project manager, other roles involved in your project may be homeowners, designers, engineers, architects and general contractors. This is a long list of stakeholders to keep in agreement. A central point of communication that offers both a customer portal as well as sub accounts will keep the communication in harmony.

Delays in material deliveries

Material delays can set you back, and afterwards it’s important to rethink the workflow and schedule. What can be done while you wait? The project should never sit still if you can avoid it. Dig into the task management and find where you can keep it moving, even if it’s in an expected direction.

Plan ahead for material delays by researching market trends and consider joining a group purchasing organization to avoid future delays. A group purchasing organization will give you access to lower material prices and a large network of builders.

Use Buildertrend’s Daily Logs feature to post photos and update your clients on the good news (find it!). Maybe the countertops are delayed, but the beautiful tile is finished in the bathroom. That’s still progress to report. Material delays are common right now, so don’t let them bring you down.

Unexpected changes in project scope or timelines

Managing your work scope and any issues that arise is a complex process. Whenever a timeline shift occurs, you should notify your entire project team. This is important because it moves the schedule and the entire workflow of the job. Changes in timelines and scope pose their own issues, but what you can do is notify your team and adjust the workflow. It happens, so be ready to react, communicate and move on. 

Unforeseen site conditions that can impact the project schedule

This is another one of those issues that you just can’t anticipate. The best solution here is to build in time for project delays and overruns. If it’s too late for that, you may consider filing a construction claim, and then update the schedule and communicate with everyone involved.

Expert advice from one our experts: Pinpoint workflows to improve construction processes

Now that we’ve covered the benefits of strong workflows and the challenges to get there, it’s time to dig into actionable tactics to find and eliminate inefficiencies. For the answer to that question, we went straight to one of our experts. Rachel Wieser is a training coordinator here at Buildertrend, and she has several insights that will help you streamline your construction business processes.

“When I’m first meeting with a client, there are three main points that generally cause wasted time during the timeline of a project:

• Communication
• Admin time for field staff
• Accessibility of important documentation

I always find that the biggest breakdown in a project is communication, especially between the field and office,” Rachel said. “This lack of communication causes inefficiencies throughout the entire project. The office doesn’t know if they should pay a sub, so they waste time calling or texting a project manager. Project managers are constantly on the phone with subcontractors giving them information they should be able to access or asking when they need to be onsite. And clients are constantly concerned about what the next steps are and why things are delayed.

By first outlining construction processes for all these areas that commonly get miscommunicated or forgotten, business owners will have a more efficient way to keep everyone in the loop without spending hours and hours on just phone calls.

What are some tips for finding workflow inefficiencies?

Use these four tips to locate and fix workflow issues:

Be willing to change

“To find your workflow inefficiencies, take a step back and be willing to accept that things will have to change for you and your team. One of the biggest hurdles I deal with when working with clients is that they know they need better processes, but they either don’t want to make the change or they don’t accept that they have room to improve,” Rachel said.

When there are inefficiencies with your current construction processes then something needs to change, no matter how uncomfortable that may be.

Get feedback from your team

“The second way to identify inefficiencies is to talk to your team one on one,” Rachel said. “Get their honest feedback on where they feel that they could save time. It’s best to have an idea of where they may already be experiencing delays and ask some questions to really get them thinking.

Do they lose their checklists for job sites or have trouble getting subs to the sites on the right days? Are they spending more time driving from site to site than actually on site? How much time do they spend in the office that could be eliminated with new processes? And this doesn’t just apply to field staff. Ask your office administrator how much time they spend trying to find receipts, invoices or approvals from the field. I often see that an administrator will spend hours on the phone with PMs or superintendents trying to find all the right information for billing and invoicing.”

Construction software solutions like Buildertrend can help provide a platform for everyone to communicate quickly and efficiently without having to spend hours on the phone.

Fully utilize your construction workflow software

“Clients always tell me they don’t know how they made money before using Buildertrend,” Rachel said. “If you aren’t using an organized project management system, you’re already lacking efficiency in your projects because everyone is trying to make things work best on the fly instead of being proactive about issues and concerns. By diving deeper into Buildertrend, you will help eliminate disorganization for your team.”

Sign up for Onsite Consulting

“Finally, if you feel like you have tried all these ways to identify inefficiencies in your company, team and processes, but you just aren’t seeing results, you may need an outside eye to help you identify the weak points.

“If you’re a Buildertrend customer, our Onsite Consulting Team is a great resource,” Rachel said. “We’re super invested in helping you identify areas that can be improved upon.”

How Buildertrend helps project workflows run smoothly

Buildertrend has several tools that help with eliminating inefficiencies: templates, document folders, pre-construction tasks, selections, estimate outlines and basic bid information to send to subs. Every project is unique, but with automation tools there will always be ways to get 20% to 30% ahead of where you would have been with manual processes. This could save you anywhere from one to three hours in getting a project set up and started.

“Additionally, I recommend that all communication is handled through Buildertrend. You can use Messages to communicate and collect job-specific information from clients, subs, team members and even people who are not set up in Buildertrend,” Rachel said.

This ensures that everyone is on the same page and reduces the number of unnecessary phone calls. By tracking communication on the job level, you’ll easily be able to find past conversations without sifting through thousands of emails.

Reduce workflow inefficiencies with Buildertrend

Buildertrend’s construction project management software will keep your jobs running smoothly. To see how you can reduce the amount of wasted time and increase productivity, schedule a demo today.

Construction workflow FAQs

Get answers to the most common workflow questions.