Construction projects involve a million moving parts, and things can quickly go out of hand if you do not have efficient systems and processes in place. One of the critical responsibilities of a project manager is to organize your processes and plan how you want the project to progress and come to life.
Getting straight to the point is crucial when managing construction to ensure every stakeholder and team member is on the same page and knows what is happening. When you are working on many projects, making many business decisions, or coming up with new ideas as a team, process mapping can help. Process mapping can help you get things in order. It can be used to record a process, train new employees, and improve it. In construction, process maps are like work breakdown structures showing how things are supposed to be done and what tasks should be done before and after a specific activity.
In this article, we will examine how process mapping works, its benefits, and practical tips for making a process map to help your team plan and manage projects and ensure smooth project delivery.
What Are Operational Processes?
No matter what industry, a company has its own business process, activities, or tasks that need to be done to reach a specific goal. Every company has its own set of procedures, such as accounting, customer service, management, and support.
As a result, general contractors and project managers have all the reason to streamline and improve their processes. Some of the benefits that you can realize are the following:
Get Rid of Bottlenecks
One of the benefits of streamlining your processes is creating a smooth one. You can find what works or get rid of repetitive jobs. This way, you can increase productivity and lower costs because you know how to distribute resources and labor properly.
Improve Customer Satisfaction
The main goal of a construction company is to deliver projects on time, within budget, and of the highest quality possible. You can do this by automating some tasks, giving people the choice to do things independently, or improving communication. Using construction technology, such as construction scheduling software, can help you get a clear overview of what is happening with the project.
Monitor Market Changes
Most businesses fall apart like a house of cards when the market changes, while others do well even when things get tough. Focusing on streamlining your processes can reduce the time needed to do simple tasks, like ordering inventory or assigning tasks to your construction crew.
Boost Employee Engagement and Retention
By automating repetitive jobs and making workflows much more straightforward, you can free up your staff and allow them to work on more critical tasks. As a result, your employees will enjoy coming to work and take accountability for their tasks.
What is Process Mapping and Why Do You Need It?
Process mapping is a way to show how a process works from beginning to end. It should clearly show how processes and workflows work and how they are connected.
An essential goal of process mapping is to clearly and briefly explain how each process, no matter how big or small, works. This makes it easier for everyone on the team to understand how each activity is interconnected and how it affects the overall picture. When you create a process from beginning to end, you can better understand how it works and find where it could be improved or made more efficient.
Most processes can be mapped out with process mapping, but they are often used for process research, training, integration, or process improvement. It can be when you need to explain a complicated process, deal with a problem that keeps happening in a process, or ensure that everyone on the team knows their job.
By clearly showing every step that needs to be taken to carry out a specific task, process mapping can help you create a solid plan to make processes more manageable. Process planning can help you and your team in the following ways:
Find Inefficiencies
As mentioned earlier, having a clear idea of how your processes work will help you find potential bottlenecks and holes and stop them from becoming a bigger problem.
Increase Comprehension
This helps people fully understand how a process works. By breaking down ideas into smaller steps, they are made more accessible.
Plan for Contingencies
This lets you deal with problems that might come up. Construction management software can help you create contingency plans for things that may happen out of control, like inclement weather or untoward incidents.
Delegate Responsibilities
Make sure that different people or groups know their duties. Keep everyone on the same page and ensure that each one takes accountability for their task and how it affects the company’s bottom line.
Boost Communication and Collaboration
Communication is more accessible when there is a straightforward process and direction. Faster contact allows for faster decisions.
Helping workers and encouraging them to communicate and collaborate makes them more productive and happy at work.
How To Utilize Effective Process Mapping To Manage Construction Projects
Construction projects must be managed well to ensure quality, safety, and profits because they are complicated, expensive, and must be finished on time. However, this is easier said than done. Many construction project managers need help with problems like delays, price overruns, waste, and inefficiency, making it hard for them to do their jobs and get good results.
In this section, let us go over each step of the process planning process.
Write Down Your Project’s Scope and Goals
Before starting a construction project, you must have a clear, attainable set of goals and a scope that fits your client’s wants and needs. This information can help you and your team plan for your project’s budget and schedule. Since you have a clear idea of your project’s scope, you can also plan accordingly and prevent scope creep and change orders, which can slow things down and cost more.
Use Lean Construction Principles
Lean construction is a way of thinking and doing things that reduce waste and speed up the building process. This involves eliminating activities that do not add value, using resources efficiently, and giving customers what they want.
Adopting lean principles can help you handle construction projects more efficiently by letting you focus on what is essential, reducing mistakes and extra work, and raising quality and productivity.
Utilize Construction Technology
Construction technology can help you streamline the management of building projects. It offers powerful features that enable you to automate, connect, and make things easier. Using software can be a risky investment, so you need to find one that works for you and your organization. You can utilize digital tools and software to create and share project plans, keep track of performance and progress, handle papers and contracts, talk to and work with your team and partners, and keep an eye on and manage risks and issues.
Breakdown Your Activities into Smaller, Workable Tasks
You can try to divide your projects into smaller, more manageable pieces delivered in short, iterative cycles. Changes and feedback need to be incorporated quickly and constantly. Using agile methods can help you handle construction projects more efficiently, allowing you to be more flexible and quick to respond.
Equip Your Team With The Right Skills
In any construction project, your team is your most valuable resource. As a result, you must take the time to invest in your team and ensure they have the skills, knowledge, and drive to do their jobs quickly and satisfactorily. You can do this by giving your team regular training and coaching, giving them the freedom to make choices and solve problems, and praising them for their work.
Constantly Review, Evaluate, and Monitor Your Processes
To make building project management run more smoothly, you can keep reviewing your processes and improving them based on data, feedback, and lessons learned. Key performance indicators (KPIs) like cost, time, quality, safety, and customer satisfaction should be used to measure and study your project’s performance. This will help you find gaps and opportunities to improve.
Strive For Continuous Improvement
Once the current processes have been noted and monitored, it is time to analyze them. You must find waste, slowdowns, and places where resources aren’t being used to their full potential. You can use flowcharts, value stream mapping, and data analysis to find these problems.
How To Deal With Common Challenges in Process Mapping
For instance, you may need help if you do not involve stakeholders enough, are not collecting enough data, have processes with unclear goals and boundaries, and have workers who want to stay the same.
These things can slow you down, so we have listed a few tips to help you deal with the everyday challenges in process mapping.
- Stressing the importance of improving processes will help you get strong support for your team.
- Invest time, money, and effort to teach your staff about process mapping.
- Establish regular feedback and communication loops to ensure everyone knows what is expected of them and get more people involved.
Key Takeaway
You can change how your workflow works now that you have all the information and insights you need. Overall, you will need to make the steps more straightforward to understand and better, eliminate unnecessary tasks, and use automation or technology where it makes sense. The goal is to give them a picture that will make them want to back your plan to change how the business works. Remember to communicate all changes with your team and advise them on what they must do to make it happen.
