7. Pay attention to safety.

The most important reason to have a strong safety program is to prevent injuries. But good safety practices also reduce the delays and downtime associated with accidents on the job site.

8. Manage overtime.

Excessive overtime can result in fatigue, higher accident rates, absenteeism and worker turnover, all of which can hurt productivity. Proper planning, scheduling and supervision can help keep overtime to a minimum.Improving productivity is one of the most effective strategies a contractor can employ to boost its bottom line.

Here are methods how to increase productivity at construction site in order to increase the profit margins:

1. Coordinate effectively

The most important thing that construction company should always do is to completely analyze every single phase in the construction process in order to understand which are the points where productivity can be improved. They should start by measuring key factors and setting benchmarks. But all the analysis can be worth nothing if they do not have the right person to delegate the tasks. The company needs to find a way to motivate the workers and check if everything is going on according the plan, plus ensuring that the construction site would be completed in previously estimated time frame.

2. Track and measure progress

Essential of every implementing plan is to track and measure progress. As mentioned earlier, there have to be a person who will take care if the construction site to be done on time. For that goal to be achieved, supervisor should check daily what was done by the workers and complete weekly or monthly reports about it. These reports would enable company to measure the progress more accurately so there would be increased productivity through cost savings, improved quality work and more satisfied workers.

3. Improve efficiency by training the crew

An important element to improving productivity is increasing efficiency on the project by training the crew. Construction companies should always be ready to train their crew in order they could deliver higher quality of work. How to operate the new equipment is one of the skills that could immediately deliver results in productivity. Mastering skills through training is measurable benefit since the workers could better understand the new techniques that will deliver greater profits and cut the costs that will ultimately bring higher wages for them.

4. Implementation of new technology

Implementing new technology in the project or in the whole company is one of the core forces that would surly increase the productivity and raise the profit margins. New technologies like scheduling software and more efficient equipment can immediately show their ROI in productivity. Recent studies show that construction sector spends less for R&D than any other industry. Companies should more careful in implementing new technology because there have been a high number of attempts to introduce new technology and equipment overnight, that resulted in confused workers and decreasing productivity. That is why the training that companies provide in how to use the new technology not only to be focused on the part “how” rather than how the company and the workers would benefit from.

5. One step ahead planning

The biggest problem in construction site is “waiting”; that is result of bad planning. Sometimes weather will affect your work or similar factor that are beyond your possibility of control, your crew ability is always in your hands and is up to you to plan their tasks in order to finish the job in time with highest quality. That is why one step ahead planning is so important. Predicting the forces or factor that could affect the job or in other words productivity of the project must be taken into account earlier, so when they arrived you will be prepared to treat them and use them to improve productivity.

3. Conduct an activity analysis.

Spend some time monitoring activities on jobsites and analyzing the results. Often, this process will reveal opportunities to improve productivity. For example, better scheduling and logistics can reduce delays that result when workers have to wait for materials or equipment, or for other workers to complete their work. In many cases, solutions are surprisingly simple, such as finding a way to store materials, equipment or tools closer to the areas where they’re needed, or storing materials on wheels so they can be moved more easily.Strategies for reducing personal time — such as locating portable toilets closer to work areas — can also have a significant impact on productivity. On one high-rise project, a structural contractor reduced the amount of time it took for workers to have lunch by arranging for a sandwich shop to operate alongside the structure.

2. Focus on unproductive time.

Research by the Construction Industry Institute shows that craft workers typically spend less than half of their time on tasks. The remaining time is spent on unproductive activities, such as waiting for equipment and materials, waiting for instructions or waiting for work areas to be ready. If, for example, workers spend only 30% of their time on direct work, your greatest opportunity for productivity gains is to focus on the 70% of worker time spent off task. In other words, reducing the amount of time workers spend off task will produce greater benefits than attempting to improve their efficiency during the time they spend on task.

In an industry as labor-intensive as construction, few things can hurt a contractor’s profitability more than unproductive workers. Here are eight tips for improving productivity.

1. Don’t blame your workers. While it’s tempting to blame poor productivity on lazy workers, late starts and excessive breaks, the fact is that most construction workers strive to be productive. More often than not, poor productivity is the result of waste and inefficiencies that are within management’s control.