Achieving Operational Excellence in Construction

Optimizing business operations can seem like a lofty goal in the construction industry. From supply chain issues to labor shortages and project performance to cash flow, there are a lot more moving parts here than in many other industries. That said, it is possible to optimize your business through small continuous improvements like reducing waste, improving costs, and maximizing human potential. 

Continuous improvement is a part of operational excellence, which champions executing business strategy more effectively and consistently than the competition. But operational excellence goes further, highlighting the importance of every employee being able to identify and deliver value to the business. This article sets out to demystify operational excellence and encourage you to incorporate its principles into your business operations.

At the heart of it, operational excellence means that all employees understand their contribution to the flow of the business and can identify and correct any blockers to that flow. This removes the need for management to deal with smaller day-to-day business issues and allows them to focus on strategy and growth.

There are ten principles of operational excellence, which are grouped under three categories:

• Cultural enablers
• Continuous improvement
• Enterprise alignment

Cultural enablers

The workplace culture is the most important part of operational excellence. When employees feel respected they are happier and work harder. From top executives to junior employees, everyone should feel respected and valued in their role and the workplace. Leadership should seek input from employees and listen to ideas and criticism for the culture of respect to thrive.

1. Respect every individual
2. Lead with humility

Continuous improvement

Everyone in the business should be willing to experiment, learn, fail at new ideas, and try again. This cycle is necessary for there to be true innovation and growth. Processes are great, but when they are old, tired out, or not working, they will result in poor quality. 

3. Assure quality at the source
4. Improve flow and pull
5. Seek perfection
6. Embrace scientific thinking
7. Focus on process

Enterprise alignment

Teams should be connected and communicative, understand how they work together, and strive to work together better. Optimization and improvements only work on processes when leadership understands how the business works. Further, each member of every team should know and understand the purpose and trajectory of the business. When they have internalized this knowledge, the risks they take will be made with confidence and assuredness, and a culture of innovation and action will be born.

8. Think systemically
9. Create value for the customer
10. Create constancy of purpose

To succeed, operational excellence relies on strong leadership, excellent teamwork, and active problem-solving.

Leadership

With operational excellence, the traditional leadership structures operating in a top-down fashion are rejected. Employees in each department are empowered to respond to any blockers and issues they identify and make the best call. This allows for a company to keep the flow of value moving rather than being stuck waiting for approvals. 

In this style, rather than being involved in every decision and potentially slowing down progress, the leadership team manages the company’s strategic decisions and provides the resources and training needed for all employees to succeed. For this to work, there needs to be a high level of transparency where employees have access to relevant information to make informed decisions.

Teamwork 

There is no shortcut to achieving operational excellence. Quality work is guaranteed when every element of a job is completed correctly. In construction, this means different departments—from the office to the field—need to be connected and communicative. This type of business organization will allow potential blockers to be found and dealt with effectively and efficiently. 

Having connected systems allows your teams to work together seamlessly, learn from past performance, and make informed decisions on future ones, allowing for better resource planning and smoother workflows.

Of course, this teamwork needs to be facilitated by clear processes. Every team must understand their place in the business, what their role is, and who they need to work closely with to achieve the business’ goals. 

Problem-solving 

Active problem solving is key to operational excellence. It requires all levels of the workforce to understand what the business goals are and continuously strive toward them. When everyone understands how the company operates, it becomes easier to flag errors or blockers and course-correct effectively.

Embrace progress, improvement, and problem-solving in the workplace by putting in place a system that allows for cross-departmental collaboration and innovation. 

The main way to keep track of success and build a culture of collaboration is through smart cloud-based software. For the construction industry, Briq is the clear frontrunner to help your business achieve operational excellence. It connects with commonly-used construction and finance technologies and sits atop them, pushing and pulling information and allowing multiple teams to work together in real-time. 

Briq is a financial automation platform that enables construction companies to be more efficient and profitable. Briq automates financial workflows by connecting the people, processes, and systems that contractors use to run their business. Hundreds of construction companies rely on Briq to manage their budget, forecast, and spend.

If you want to talk about using Briq to achieve operational excellence in your construction company set up a demo.