It may sound counterintuitive but just because you’re effective, doesn’t mean you’re efficient.
Stick with us here.
You recently closed out a building project and you have a beautiful new facility to show for it. You were effective in achieving the right outcome.
However, dipping into your contingency funds, missing a few milestones, or even a little rework is not very efficient.
Using your contingency funds often suggests that there is room for improving the efficiency of your project. Even though you got it done, you wasted time and money that should be spent completing other projects.
While the terms effective and efficient might seem interchangeable, they’re actually quite distinct. Understanding the differences between them leads to better decision-making and ultimately, better construction program outcomes.
What’s The Difference between Effective and Efficient?
Efficiency can be thought of as the ability to accomplish tasks or objectives with minimal waste of time, resources, or effort. It revolves around optimizing processes and streamlining workflows to ensure maximum output for a given input. On the other hand, effectiveness refers to the extent to which objectives are achieved, regardless of the resources used or the time btaken. In essence, effectiveness is about achieving the right goals, while efficiency is about achieving those goals in the most optimal manner.
In construction, the distinction between efficiency and effectiveness is crucial.
An effective process might be getting the job done eventually and at additional costs but ultimately, it’s not sustainable without efficiency. That extra time and money that it takes to get your projects done will eventually end up costing you somewhere down the line either by reputation, scheduling conflict, or budget restriction.
This is where efficiency comes in.
Efficiency Leads to Lean Construction
When construction management processes are streamlined by increasing efficiency, resources are conserved, time is optimized, and it’s easier to allocate those saved resources toward new and needed projects.
This is the basis of lean construction.
Lean construction aims to maximize value for stakeholders while minimizing waste and improving efficiencies across the board.
If you’re regularly adding on to your facilities, opening new locations, or building new roads, you want to be lean so things run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
At Projectmates, we recognize the importance of operating your construction program as a lean, well-oiled machine.
Data automation, project standardization, and ease of use increase your efficiency while industry-leading construction program management tools help you leanly manage every step of the construction process from concept to closeout.
Contact us to learn how you can deliver projects that save you time, save your stakeholders money, and save your project managers headaches.
