Article by Ken Naughton, President, Management Controls
Today’s economic conditions continue to create challenges in the global business environment, particularly in manufacturing.
Whether it be staffing uncertainty, fear of cyberattack on critical technology, or difficulty sourcing raw materials, these challenges can lead to wrinkles in the working relationships between manufacturing project owners and contracted labor teams. And these challenges can often negatively impact overall project performance.
Disagreements or disputes between project site owners and contracted labor teams typically fall into three general categories: safety, productivity, and cost.
Identifying and understanding where things go wrong between owners and contractors makes it easier to find answers and solutions. This is where the latest in tech and automation tools can benefit both parties.
The Challenge: Optimize Cost Savings and Productivity without Sacrificing Safety
At the end of the day, contractors want to get paid, and project owners want to minimize costs. The main challenge of the owner-contractor relationship are disputes surrounding over- and under-billing, which are often hard to resolve after the fact. And this is only exacerbated by the fact that the pen-and-paper method is still commonly used to track time and labor expenses, leading to costly errors.
On the other hand, one thing project owners and contractors can all agree on is safety. But this can become a challenge when there is pressure to save costs. For example, if teams are working overtime or an unsustainable number of shifts to meet deadlines and avoid extending project components, they can become dangerously fatigued. Or some contractors may be working on projects or with equipment that they are not qualified to, putting themselves, others, and jobsite equipment in danger.
So how can project owners work with contractors to maximize project safety and overall productivity, all while driving cost savings and reducing business errors? Let’s look at the tech stack.
The Solution: Use Automation to Capture, Predict, and Prevent
Over the last several years, there has been an incredible boom in industrial-focused technology and innovation that proves practical and effective in today’s business environment. While many manufacturing leaders have adopted advanced tech to automate processes on the site or warehouse floor, it’s time for the industry to consider similar tools for back-office operational tasks, too.
Capture Correct Invoicing Data
Concerning the issue of over- and under-billing, today’s technology can be used to automatically track pre-determined variables in the owner and contractor’s work agreement. This can include built-in pay rules and schedules that are constantly factored when time is logged in a digitized tracked system. This reduces common errors like overbilling by 15 minutes or incorrectly selecting the wrong skill level for a labourer, resulting in underpaying.
Use Real-Time Data to Predict Project Needs, Increasing Productivity
Automatic time and labour tracking mean project owners and contractors gain real-time visibility into who is on the job site. Some automation tools can even pinpoint the exact location or equipment in use with each labourer.
Understanding who works with each piece of equipment in real time gives direct data to project management. This enables leaders to make up-to-the-minute, informed decisions about how to allocate laborers across projects to ensure deadlines are being met or exceeded. And when project productivity is increased, so are cost savings.
Prevent Avoidable Accidents with Real-Time Insights into Worker Fatigue and Location
From a safety perspective, being able to see the exact location of all laborers at all times is an incredible feature. In the event of an emergency, leadership already has a record of everyone on the job site and their location. This can make evacuation to emergency exits more efficient and ensure all team members are accounted for.
Further, using automation tools to access real-time data, project management teams have direct insight into who has worked overtime or too many consecutive days. This means they can properly manage fatigued laborers, minimizing the potential risk of accidents or overlooked safety protocols.
Transparency Keeps Projects Running Smoothly
Ultimately, this all comes down to transparency. Powerful insights and visibility into project details give project owners and management a transparent view of project statuses. Meanwhile, a digitized, automation-based contractor management system provides transparency between the ownership and contractor teams to know that billing is being handled accurately from the start.
Tapping today’s advancements in tech tools for back-office procedures, manufacturing leaders can create a win-win situation for themselves and contractor teams, resulting in a positive working relationship for all involved.
