Effective Communication With Subcontractors Drives On-Time Project Success
So much of competent and on-time project completion relies upon effective communication with your subcontractors. Face it: Failure to deliver according to milestones and deadlines is costly. And once you get behind the on the flow of concrete, the schedule just seems to get further and further from reality.
You cannot control local weather conditions. Neither can you prevent authorized design changes, owner-enacted disputes, or the complications of unexpected natural disaster. But when delays pertain to services provided by subcontractors, you got to wonder how much of it links to a lack of reliable tools for efficient project communication.
The following construction tips will help you eliminate the problems that accumulate when you are faced with limited resources, multiple projects and an inefficient method of communicating with construction subcontractors.
Communicating With Subcontractors – Identify The Points of Failure
The greater the required workload the more often subcontractors overextend their capacity for task-related quality and efficiency. Managing equipment, labor and materials is never so difficult as at the time when facing a shortage in asset availability. And only through effective accurate and up-to-the-minute communications can you ensure that your subs do not find themselves bogged down beneath the strain of too much project and not enough project-resources.
Solution: Identify the points wherein a failure in communication generates a compromise in project quality and project deadlines. Is your communication with subcontractors falling short in any of the following key points of operations?
- Purposeful relationships with in-the-loop daily updates
- Reliable accounting of available assets, including materials, equipment and workers
- Clearly defined plans, deadlines, milestones, safety regulations and a declared expectation for quality craftsmanship
- Multi-source feedback from project to project and sub to sub
- Immediate heads-up on unexpected complications and/or material delays
- Routine progress reports
- AND any other point of focus that clearly causes complications in your daily communication program.
Coupling A Reasonable Project Plan To Communication To Subcontractors
Avoiding delays in construction scheduling requires more than communication alone. Effective and reliable asset and workforce allocation demands comprehensive planning as well as focused communication with subcontractors. Contractors of every size are susceptible to unexpected burdens in labor availability, equipment resources and timely arrival of materials, yet good planning can eliminate so many of the common daily problems.
You must ensure that your subcontractors are ready and able to up the hours when necessary. But you must also ensure that subs have a clear understanding of the milestones and goals. Lastly, you must ensure that your subcontractors clearly understand who pays the cost for missing deadlines and milestones.
Careful project planning and communication helps eliminate the unexpected, but planning and communication must involve more than few notes jotted on a blueprint. Subs need rapid access to machine status, worker availability and all relevant documents. They also need to know the when and the where of all related project-related activities.
For this you need rapid communications involving custom forms, sms forms, and timesheets. For this you need the resources readily available via the Assignar workforce and asset allocation and planning software. It’s a favored tool for construction contractors. To learn more about automated Assignar planning and communications with your construction subcontractors, click here.
