Apprentices and most Journeymen working on a construction job site are better off not thinking but simply following routines and patterns established by management based upon best practices. At first read this sounds harsh and yet it comes from my own experiences as a contractor operating multiple jobsites with small crews on each from two to ten people this one concept generated a lot of bottom line profits and kept injuries very low.
If you listen carefully to someone who was recently injured you will hear the following two phrases more often than not; "I thought..." or the worst one "I just wanted to see what would happen if..." which means their mind wandered off, or in the case of most apprentices they are of two minds and one is always out looking for the other one so the lights are on but nobody is home.
Apprentices are one of my favorite groups to pick on because I have served an apprenticeship which means I experienced first-hand the Four Levels Of Learning.
Being an apprentice is an interesting phenomenon where otherwise intelligent people regress into a mental state just above plant life because they are allowing massive amounts of information to pass by the amygdala and going directly into the cerebral cortex to be stored in long term memory. At the same time their muscle memory is being altered at the cellular level to do things that do not make sense at the time. In time they stick with the process and come out the other side as very intelligent and highly skilled Journeymen or they quit and go into something else.
The system is the solution. Being process dependent not people dependent means investing the time and energy to plan your construction projects so that everybody understands what is expected of them.
Microsoft Project is a wonderful tool and if all you use is 10% of it, just the Gantt chart for scheduling and resource allocation it cannot help but make you money.
Real life example. Our main office is a two story building we purchased at auction for the right price. It was in terrible shape having been foreclosed on and appeared to have several years of deferred maintenance. The entire electrical system and HVAC system had to be replaced along with most of the plumbing which was ripped out or leaking. Parts of the foundation and supporting beams and columns needed massive repairs. And there were several tons of debris everywhere inside and outside the building.
We invested over one hundred hours putting together a commercial remodeling project plan which included all new phone lines, data cabling and an alarm system. The project plan was detailed out and broken down in phases with schedules for material deliveries, debris removal and skilled trades that would be complete in less than thirty days including all the building permits and final inspection.
We hired our contractor clients to handle the majority of the work and I was the project manager. At the kickoff meeting nobody could understand how it could possibly get done in that time frame; however, at one time or another they all had private strategy sessions with me which included custom Business Process Management action plans for part or all of their construction company. In every case the part of my recommendations they actually implemented were extremely successful. This means they increased profits and cash flow by making or saving money.
Remove choice at the operating level. There was a mix of laborers, apprentices and journeymen and because it was all orchestrated with a 4' X 6' white dry erase board that was updated regularly with the people's names, tasks they were to perform and location.
Everyone knew exactly what was expected of them, they had the tools and equipment, we had to rent some of them, and material arrived just in time.
Minds tend to wander when the next step is not clearly understood, which leads to thinking, which is a distraction, which leads to injuries and injuries cost pain, time and money! We experienced no injuries.
The entire project turned into a learning experience for most of the contractors involved because they saw my project management and construction accounting methods come to life before their very eyes. Just to be clear I am not the great and powerful OZ, it just so happens I am an inch wide and a mile deep in a few areas. Outside my areas of expertise I am worse off than an apprentice with delusions of adequacy.
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