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“Without labor, nothing prospers.” – Sophocles.
Labor and workmanship form an imminent part of any construction activity. The quality of material and the number of plans made, won’t matter if you do not have the right laborers on site. And one of the major concerns facing today’s construction field is the labor cost overshoot and how to control it. There are many reasons why it’s happening. Also, there are ways in which this issue can be sorted and solved. Let’s find out.
Bad Planning
Improper or bad planning is the major problem while executing work and is always going to cost you more. Always be prepared with your work plans and drawings before the start of your work. Start your daily work at the correct time and end it at a stipulated time. Make use of labor to work maximum in between this time period. Making them work overtime is not advisable. It might end in cost overshoot and later on quality issues. The exhausted laborers’ morale also affects your work quality while working overtime. This in turn will invite troubles and costs overshoot.
Inefficient or unskilled workforce
The biggest challenge in construction is the demand for the skilled labor force. And also the availability of inefficient or unskilled labor force. Due to the high demand for skilled laborers, you will be forced to use someone who is “jack of all trades” in your project. It will affect your project completion and eventually delay the project affecting your work quality. Never compromise your project with unskilled laborers on skilled activities.
Most of us look for low-cost laborers in the market, to reduce our construction cost. But compromising with unskilled laborers or negotiating to get low-cost labor is always going to reflect in your project quality. In turn, creating delays in project schedules reworks on-site, and headaches in the future.
Lack of communication
Effective communication plays a major role to execute and complete a project successfully. Your drawings and activity plans have to be communicated with your laborers effectively in order to avoid the confusions in work. Poor communication will always result in bad productivity, quality issue, misunderstandings, and delays.
In construction, major communication is carried out in documents. All the construction-related documents have to be properly explained and communicated with your laborers. Make sure that your laborers have understood properly what you have communicated. Keeping copies of these documents on sites may not be enough, it can get lost in a busy site. You need to adopt technology and teach your laborers to use soft copies for future references. It can range from a WhatsApp group to google drives to construction-related mobile apps. It is good to have a site supervisor who knows to use technology and communicate with them properly.
No means to monitor/track
Most of us won’t properly monitor the laborers at sites. And negligence gives more freedom to the laborers at the worksites and results in poor productivity. Therefore start monitoring your laborers. It helps you to evaluate their activities and results. It avoids wastage and reduces your construction cost. Technology can help you do this. There are mobile apps and websites to help you track and monitor your daily activities, thus, in turn, helping you to measure your labor productivity.
Material wastage
It is a commonly known fact that material wastage is prevalent in the construction industry. Minimizing the material wastage will help you in saving your cost. Material wastage can be reduced by proper planning and usage of the materials at the right time. Good labor tries to reduce the material waste by using the materials in proper quantity and proper execution. The wastage alone can cost you hundreds of rupees from your pocket.
To avoid material wastage, you need to track and monitor your labor as you do with their workmanship. How can you do that? Take note of the inventory in the site, plan for each construction activity, and forecast your material requirement on site. Get daily consumption reports and inventory stock updates.
Idle/standby labor
Maintaining adequate laborers in construction sites is a difficult task. Likewise arranging labor as per construction activity. You need to plan ahead for your project to avoid idle/standby labor costs. To do that you need to forecast your construction activity and for that, you should have a detailed BoQ (Bill of Quantities). It helps to plan better labor-wise and material-wise. In addition, like arranging labor you need to arrange materials on-site at the right time to maximize your labor efficiency.
Labor management helps you achieve better savings and quality projects. Having a trusted workforce which will be available for you anytime, helps you plan better. Categorize your skilled and unskilled workforce and empower them through constant training and upgrading programs.
We hope you have got a good idea on how to reduce your labor cost overshoot. Share your thoughts below.
Good read Nithin!
Thank you @finaz naha