Builders that schedule well, do well. Part #2

Welcome back to our guest blog by Belinda Gelston, “Builders that schedule well, do well”, Part 2! We are going to pick up right where we left off in the first installment, so if you haven’t read that yet, check it out here. Alright, over to you Belinda.

Now, here’s how builders that schedule well, will do well, continued...

Know the Council lead-in times

Good build management software has prompt days. For example, if the lead-in is 10 working days, meaning that it is a two-week wait for a building inspection, set a prompt to alert you to phone and book the inspection, 10 days out.

Ensure supplier and sub-contractor buy-in 

Hold a kick-off meeting and share the schedule so you can ask for confirmation that they can deliver on the dates set out, and that time frames allowed for are realistic. Also, ask them to confirm that they can work with whatever else is happening on the site.

Key tip: Put in some “fat” that only you have the visibility of - if you allow 5 days for a one day dig out, you are almost guaranteed the contractor will do it on the 5th day. Put in one day visible to the contractor but add four days “fat”. That way, If the dig gets pushed out by 2 days due to weather you still have 3 days up your sleeve. Within a task, establish clear scopes of work for each supplier and trade, with job-ready and job-complete definitions.  This is also important in the milestone view for the customer, because if you plan your “fat” well you will under-promise and over-deliver.

Don’t forget to schedule in the Worksafe requirements like Toolbox meetings so that they’re not overlooked.  

And finally, think about what else is happening on-site? Be aware of and allow for what else is happening on the site on any given day - some trades require the site to themselves, like the painters, or floor polishers etc,  or it could be an access issue like the driveway being poured for example.

Time-sheeting 

It may sound simple, but it’s extremely important that the project manager Gets the guys on site to clock in, and select what they are doing that day. This information can later be pulled out in a report for future allocation of labour on similar projects.

Monitor & Document Progress

Keep track of progress with detailed daily site reports. This is admin that may not seem like the most glamorous of jobs, but it pays dividends moving forward when done correctly. 

Once you get a hang of compiling these reports, here are some key things to look out for:

• Keep an eye on how close you are sticking to your schedule. Watch for any red flags that might indicate you are falling behind schedule. Pay particular attention to areas that ran over or were completed earlier than scheduled. Try and determine the causes of these discrepancies. This allows you to improve your planning and scheduling for future projects and allows you to compare this project to past performances on similar projects.

• Reviewing daily reports can help you identify aspects of your project where you are falling behind. Think ahead about Contingency plans that can easily be executed - this will go a long way in mitigating and resolving issues before they get out of control.

• You may need to assign overtime if you are running behind schedule. Weather delays might require you to bring in extra labor and equipment to get your project back on track.

• Brainstorm possible schedule delays with the rest of the project team and build contingency plans for each situation. You might not need them all, but you will have them ready to go if you do.

Communicate & Collaborate

Good communication is key to staying on schedule. Establish procedures for your sub-contractors to alert you when they are falling behind or experiencing delays. This will allow you to start adjusting your schedule before the issue snowballs. 

With software packages such as Rave Build all communications can sit within a project’s overview. Meaning that you can always find an email, phone number,  or other contact detail that you might need to resolve a dispute.

Collaboration goes hand in hand with good communication and keeping everyone together on the same page. It requires having to trust in all parties and valuing their input as important members of the team.

Part of this collaboration is sharing your well thought out schedule, and Rave’s cloud-based software allows all key project members access to it, ensuring they’re kept up to date in real-time as to exactly where the schedule is at, when they are required on-site, and up to date on any relevant plan revisions, variations, and RFI’s.

Extra for experts:

Slippage reports - Review what you actually allowed for, and where your project came in, so you can be aware of the time frame for future similar projects.

Variation Management - Thanks to recent Rave Build updates, There are tools available that are making the management of variations more transparent, with customers being able to electronically sign off on a requested variation within minutes, negating possible delays. (If you want to read more about managing variations, check out Andy’s recent blog here.)

Just to wrap up this two-part blog, I’d like to reiterate what’s most important, Builders that schedule well, are also less stressed, and busy.

This final quote is one I am very proud of - this particular project manager is of my generation, and never saw himself utilising technology. He took a while to get the hang of Rave Build but with consistent support and training, he finally did. As you can see by his testimony has not looked back:

“Rave Build gave me the capacity to grow and I went from 6 to 30 builds in 12 months”.

Gary, Golden Homes.

As always, if you need any support with RaveBuild, we encourage you to reach out to us at support@ravebuild.co.nz or call us at (NZ) 07-210-2228 or (AUS)1800-179-163