The various trades in construction are affected by capacity fluctuations to differing degrees. Trades that are produced on site and are far more exposed to the influence of the weather, such as civil and road construction, roofers or tinsmiths, carry a higher risk of utilisation fluctuations. Trades that are prefabricated and thus produced in a workshop, on the other hand, such as timber construction, steel structures and prefabricated concrete elements, are considerably less weather-dependent, which favours more even company utilisation.
Ultimately, however, project work is characterised by the fact that all trades are dependent on one another and that delays caused by weather, illness or mistaken planning have an influence on everyone involved in the project. For this reason, forward-looking capacity planning is indispensable in order to offset the risk of overcapacity and capacity bottlenecks. Since site personnel are the decisive resource for capacity planning and productive working hours ultimately represent the planning bottleneck, the question arises of how these temporary fluctuations in staff capacity can be offset.
Here various options present themselves to construction businesses, which may make sense depending on the individual starting situation. One option for smoothing out capacity fluctuations would be an internal reshuffle of employees, through which differences in staff utilisation at different locations can be minimised. A further option would be the use of external personnel. Here the question arises of the circumstances under which it is worth employing temporary staff or borrowing employees from another business temporarily - and which aspects have to be taken into account in doing so. To what extent can it make sense to form a consortium with other construction businesses or to commission construction businesses as subcontractors to carry out construction work? We will look at these questions in more detail in the coming articles.
Downtime, capacity bottlenecks, overcapacity - the adversaries of forward-looking capacity planning
by Elena Höppner Content MarketingPublished on 1/20/2022
Unplannable spells of bad weather, the annual flu wave and not least coronavirus with its quarantine rules - the causes that lead to unforeseeable downtime in a construction business are diverse. In addition, an inconsistent order situation, bringing with it capacity bottlenecks due to a large number of orders as well as overcapacity due to a lack of orders, can lead to sometimes severe fluctuations in staff utilisation. Not least, mistimed planning as well as possible construction errors by other trades involved in the building project are circumstances that can result in a delay to the entire project and thus affect the capacity utilisation of your own business.
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