Every working industry faces numerous challenges almost daily, for example, maintaining employee productivity, dealing with the industry’s struggles, and overcoming financial problems.
The construction industry comes in with a unique set of challenges and pitfalls that they need to overcome.
The project manager needs to ensure the operations carried out on the site without compromising the workers’ safety and ensuring everything completes on schedule and not tight on budget.
It seems easy, but in reality, it is a challenging task.
One of the studies revealed that around 98% of the projects turn out to be over-budgeted, whereas 77 percent of them experience significant delays.
The delay in the work carried out, and over-budget is only due to the challenges faced.
What are those challenges, and how to overcome it? We have listed down some significant challenges and tips to solve those problems.
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Power Shortage
It is probably a prevalent problem faced by construction companies. Construction projects involve potent machines that require the right amount of power supply.
Sadly, too much is never enough. It ends up in halting the project, thus resulting in further delaying it.
Tips:
One of the effective ways to guard against the power shortage at the construction site is installing fuel tanks.
Companies like Krugerpower can help constructors a long way in maintaining enough fuel resources to avoid power-related challenges, especially when the construction is in full swing.
Risk Management
Often, project managers end up preparing for the long term risk, and the short term risks are out of the equation.
These small issues can turn up to be big boulders, making a substantial impact on the construction process.
Whether its schedule conflicts, change in the taste of stakeholders, or unreliable subcontractors, any minor issue can derail the project.
Tips:
- Have a contingency plan prepared beforehand.
- Add a wiggle room in the schedules.
- Invest in safety training programs to avoid any potential problems.
Lack of Structure
If you don’t set out your goals clearly, it is nearly impossible to get things done efficiently.
Your construction project can go smoothly over budget, fall behind, or even both. You need to set a clear target you need to hit.
Without setting out these goals, you have no right to blame the other employees for not playing their part right, and it’s the harsh truth.
Tips:
- For project management, performance management is the vital key. If you want employees to stay on track, they should be clear about the functions to perform.
- Break down more significant projects into smaller goals, so it is easier to accomplish.
- If employees don’t complete the task of the day, you need to ensure that it is completed the very next day on a priority basis.
Communication Gap
Any type of business can only be successful if the employees’ communication gap zero. It is especially essential when various parties have one project.
With no proper communication, necessary tasks can jump into jeopardy, and the management or the team would be left unaware of the issue until things go out of hand.
Tips:
- Enact clear guidelines.
- Communication should be a priority. It informs the teams of the obstacles and signs of progress by the end of each day.
- Proper training is necessary for the employees beforehand.
Unrealistic Expectation
Some stakeholders and clients create a lot of fuss. Some may want you to force you to complete the project as per the schedule without any room for delay, and some may want you to work under the given budget.
Satisfying your stakeholder or client is the biggest challenge of them all. Some things may be possible for the skill managers, and some may be out of their hands.
This way, you end up working in stress, which could result in unachievable productivity.
It usually occurs due to bad forecasting, a close relation with risk management where you are underprepared for short-term problems.
Tips:
- Break the forecasts into monthly or weekly goals to see if it is achievable.
- Try communicating with the client or stakeholder.
- Get every term and condition written down and signed beforehand.
- Manage the expectations from the very first day to ensure a winning project.
Conclusion
The secret to a successful project is to brace yourself and overcome the challenges and problems before the project begins.
Monitor the construction process closely and take notes of all of the issues and progress every day. Try to solve these issues alongside the process to avoid future inconvenience.
