Efficient Business Practices

Business efficiency comes from planning. If there is no planning there is little efficiency. One can clearly see this principle in the construction industry. For, example, if a contractor is given the task to set tile in a bathroom an efficient contractor will plan every move in advance. He will make a list of all needed materials & special tools. Here, the tradesman can set the tile in little more than a day. However, the contractor who does not plan may take three or four days to complete the job.

The following describes the activities of an inefficient contractor. The inefficient contractor has no list to work from—his priorities all mixed up. He starts the work by putting tile up without carefully checking the straightness of the walls. This makes him work harder to straighten the mess out as the job progresses. The contractor does not have all the tools he needs on the site or sufficient supplies on hand. The work proceeds in a more-or-less stop and go fashion. Stop and go is inefficient because it breaks up a very productive work rhythm. Every time the contractor and his tradesman stop work they again get up to a productive speed. Sometimes tradesmen who are short of materials will improvise, thus, lowering the quality of the work. Without a powerful focus on the work, without interruption, the tile-setting job drags on. "Think smarter, not harder" is a saying found in the business community.

Tactical Inefficiency

Having inefficient employees can sometimes be a profitable circumstance. The construction industry and the service industry are rife with incompetent or under skilled employees being sent out on jobs represented as fully qualified journeymen. When a job is being billed out as "Time & Materials" the homeowner must pay the service provider for all time on the job. This means that if the tradesman must frequently go to the supply store for parts the homeowner pays for their lack of planning and stocking materials. If the tradesman is inexperienced the homeowner again pays for tradesman's learning on the job. So, an unscrupulous company can churn up more billable hours using marginally qualified personal than it can with fully trained personnel.

• Bad Management
• Survival Excuses
• Churning Up Work
• Tactical Inefficiency