The virtues of writing something down cannot be overstated. Especially given we’re all feeling the pressure from an industry with ongoing labor shortages, large-scale projects, stronger than-ever demand for more sustainable building practices and technologies, and far-flung job sites. Just one day spent designing a thorough enough plan could save several days of repeating steps and wasted time. That’s why we recommend process mapping as a best practice for your prefabrication and modularization strategies. It’s simple, elegant and can reduce headaches across shareholders while boosting productivity and driving results — provided it’s recorded.
While it wouldn’t be fair to say that, as an industry, we don’t meticulously plan; it is probably fair to say that lifelong professionals don’t often commit their tips, tricks, and trade secrets to paper (or digital). That means when experts leave (for the next job, the next company, or retirement), they take their information with them. Teams left behind lose that knowledge, processes suffer, timelines extend, and the work gets gummed up until someone figures out what was missing and gets everything back on track. Unfortunately, that usually means that now another person has an entire process built into their brain, so the cycle will lather, rinse, and repeat in perpetuity unless someone gets things written down.