Construction project planning can be a tricky business. It’s a case of possibilities, both good and bad. In best-case scenarios, the planning can go like a breeze, everything proceeds according to the timetable, and the end result is stellar.
In worst-case scenarios, you can end up with something that pleases nobody and becomes a hugely expensive disaster.
Thankfully, there are steps you can take to ensure that your project planning yields the best possible results. Collaborative forecasting is one approach that can help get optimal outcomes for your construction projects.
What Is Collaborative Forecasting?
Every business should plan for the future. You don’t need a crystal ball; just consider how current trends affect what lies ahead.
For instance, if you notice a spike in sock sales, quickly order more to meet demand and keep your customers from going elsewhere.
Also, if a publication like “Socks Today” reports an upcoming elastic shortage, take action now by stockpiling socks to prepare for the potential supply issue.
Now, turn to others engaged in the same business to seek their input. Instead, approach suppliers and/or delivery people to ask for their perspective.
By bringing their points of view on board, you can achieve a more detailed and accurate forecast, which can help with performance and cost management. This is the essence of collaborative forecasting.
Construction Collaborative Planning
Let’s drop socks now and think about construction. When you’re considering how a project will pan out, it’s crucial to have a clear picture of how the economic landscape (both micro and macro) will change as the project develops. Even the most successful and wisest construction wizard won’t know everything.
Incorporating diverse viewpoints into your plan is important. Consider including suppliers, architects, contractors, engineers, city planners, building regulation professionals, government observers, eco-advisers, and clients. Each of these stakeholders offers valuable perspectives that you may not be able to see on your own.
Consequently, they’ll be able to flesh out your forecasting by giving you an idea of the state of play and likely oncoming developments as they see them. Will it take a lot of time? Potentially, sure. You’re seeking a good deal of quality information from a large number of partners. But, done right, collaborative forecasting can really deliver. Let’s see how.
Advantages of Collaborative Forecasting
More Viewpoints = More Detail
If you’re planning out a big construction project, you need to be sure how certain markets might look by the time you’re sending out purchase orders.
Concrete market specialists, for example, will give you better input into your business profitability analysis than if you just take a guess yourself. Combine this viewpoint with one from your labor management on how staffing levels will look, and you’ll begin to assemble a more detailed picture.
Different Viewpoints Bring Different Knowledge
There may be a detail that’s only visible to people in certain positions. For instance, you spot that clients are favoring a particular finish, which might encourage you to lay in more stocks of the relevant supplies.
However, a chat with a colleague tells you that this particular finish was highlighted in a recent TV program. It may be the case, therefore, that the increase in demand is short-lived.
Better Buy-In
When people are listened to, they feel more valued. When people feel more valued, they work harder to achieve the team goal. So, collaborative forecasting can put extra pep in everybody’s step.
This can work to streamline the process of construction project planning, as nobody feels ignored, and the team spirit is enhanced.
Incorporating Collaborative Forecasting in Construction Project Planning
Here are some collaborative forecasting methods you can employ to streamline your construction project planning:
Make the Workflow Collaborative
You know how important a reliable workflow is in construction. In an activity where the intersection of variables is of paramount importance, you need to be sure you know what’s going to happen when.
If a delivery of joists arrives a week late that’s going to be a hugely costly delay for the whole project. Too early and you may have to keep them off-site, which entails more woe in the shape of getting them to the site at the right time.
So, the workflow has to be realistic and make sense to everybody. To make this happen, get input from everybody involved. This will reduce the risk of overly ambitious timescales and likely deadline failures.
In future construction projects, involve everyone by asking for their input on the project from the beginning. This will make it a regular part of your planning process, ensuring all partners understand their roles from the start and streamlining the overall procedure.
Nurture a Collaborative Environment
So, you’ve got your collaborative workflow, and everybody knows what they have to do.
Don’t neglect the communication side of things. One approach is the weekly site meeting. Frequent and regular site meetings are essential in terms of keeping people in touch with each other and aware of snags and unforeseen difficulties.
Deadlines can be adjusted and workloads re-apportioned to cope with changing situations, and this is often easiest to achieve via a good old-fashioned meeting.
More than this, though, it’s important to set the collaborative mood. You need staff to feel comfortable enough to tell you things that you might already be aware of, like factors to do with seasonal variability that you’ll have seen all too often before.
This means you should encourage staff to speak out if they spot something and not slap them down for doing so. Colleagues should feel that, no matter what position they hold, if they have a concern, it should be voiced and it will be listened to constructively.
For example, if a junior colleague starts to suspect that a consignment of bricks might be held up due to a brewing supply chain issue, then it’s best they speak up about it.
It’s down to senior management to take the thought seriously and thank the member of staff for their input. Discussions can then take place on the forecasting implications of this possibility, and alternative transport options can be considered.
For a collaborative environment to thrive, it often needs to be modeled by those at the top. So bear in mind the necessity to listen and value input.
Get the Right Tech
Collaboration depends not just on the right attitude but can also hinge on having technology that gets everybody communicating optimally and working together well.
There are times when not everybody can make it to regular meetings in person. In the past, anyone who wasn’t able to make an in-person meeting had to miss out, catching up afterward by asking others what was discussed.
Now, however, virtual attendance is basic, so you have the ability to capture everybody’s input into your ongoing forecast.
You also need tech that gives you instant updates on inventory levels, so good, accurate, and detailed stock inventories are a must.
Most importantly, these figures need to be accessible to everybody involved so that you can deliver reliable integrated business planning.
What is integrated business planning? It’s a way of bringing all relevant information together so that a business has one set of numbers, which entails good decision-making and further collaborative forecasting.
Collaborative Forecasting for Constructive Thinking
Get everybody involved, and you’ll have a better outcome. OK, it’s not as simple as that. You also have to use certain rules and procedures, or you’ll have a chaotic free-for-all.
But, by thinking carefully about your workflow, and getting your environment and tech level right, you’ll have the best chance of introducing good-quality collaborative forecasting to your construction project planning.