One project is demanding; between the builders, concrete pourers, roofers, framers, electricians, plumbers, and everyone in between, managing many tasks for a single structure can be a headache. Throw in five or six (or ten) of these projects simultaneously, and without proper planning, you’re asking for trouble.
Managing the details of several jobsites means coordinating the moving parts of multiple projects at once, making organization and communication must-haves. Otherwise, construction project timelines and budgets run off the rails, leading to a cascade of problems that trickle from one construction site to the next.
As your business expands, you need strategies and technologies that focus on organization and communication to manage each project effectively. In this article, we explore such strategies and technologies, along with best practices and common challenges project managers and companies face when balancing multiple sites simultaneously.
Challenges of Managing Multiple Construction Projects
Before we dive into the tech goodies and best practices, let’s expand on some challenges we all face when confronted with multiple projects. A few of the most common hurdles include:
Coordinating Multiple Teams and Stakeholders
Rarely are we lucky enough to have several projects scheduled near others, making it easy to travel to the different projects. In reality, it’s quite challenging to carve out enough time to visit multiple sites in one day, forcing us to divide our attention and delegate all the tasks, even when we don’t want to.
Technology, such as construction cameras, makes managing multiple sites and keeping project stakeholders in the loop easier. Trust in your project managers and business practices are also essential components of a multi-project organization.
In the case of Brixmor, they were spending far too much time and money on traveling between locations. Their project sites spanned multiple states, and they needed a solution that could provide real-time project visibility from anywhere. Learn more about what solved their problem here!
Maintaining Consistent Communication
Poor communication leads to delays, errors, and unexpected costs. Effective communication keeps everyone on the same page, allowing senior leaders to delegate and coordinate teams across all worksites.
Tracking Progress and Budgets
Being unable to monitor progress is another significant challenge when you can’t physically be in two places at once. A hands-on approach is sometimes necessary, especially when all the projects are on tight timelines or facing budget overruns.
Using a systematic form of communication, such as walkies around the job site or third-party applications, like Slack or Signal, to send end-to-end encrypted messages to team leaders and site managers.
The team over at StoneBridge encountered an issue keeping tabs on decentralized teams across multiple sectors. To consolidate project oversight, they turned to TrueLook to install user-friendly cameras to track progress remotely. Read all about how these cameras saved precious dollars.
Ensuring Compliance and Safety Standards
The amount of paperwork for one site can feel overwhelming; compounding that by several factors means organization becomes paramount. At any time, an inspector or regulator can stop by one of your sites and verify compliance.
Between the permits, licenses, and Certificates of Insurance (COIs), digital solutions are now the go-to method for keeping everything in order and in a centralized location. Failure to keep these documents ready at a moment’s notice can result in fees or legal reprimands.
Key Strategies for Managing Multiple Construction Projects
Although you now have a better understanding of the challenges you face when managing many projects, navigating them when they arise is another story. You can implement these actionable strategies today and mitigate some of the issues we talked about earlier.
- Invest in Centralized Construction Project Management Software: Use centralized project management software to keep track of all information, including project schedules, budgets, and team responsibilities. These platforms give you a digital bird’s eye view of all construction projects, unifying everything in a single source of truth instead of the juggling act of using multiple tools.
- Prioritize Tasks and Projects: Prioritize projects based on deadlines, complexity, or resource availability. Other popular ways to prioritize projects include value, size, location, and community impact.
- Delegate Responsibilities: Build a bench of high-performing leaders you can rely on for strong delegation to ensure all aspects of each construction project are in good hands. Hiring, vetting, and training are essential in crafting a trustworthy team.
- Maintain Regular Communication: Set up regular check-ins with every team member and stakeholder. During these meetings, identify potential hangups, address obstacles, and create meaningful relationships with your crews.
- Monitor Project Progress with Technology: Technology like TrueLook’s platform provides you with remote live viewing and can help give team members real-time views into multiple construction project sites.
Deploying technologies like construction cameras and theft deterrents in crucial places also prevents theft. Likewise, relationship-building establishes trust and creates contacts that can be utilized in future construction projects.
The Role of Technology in Managing Multiple Construction Projects
This article already includes plenty of references to technology as a cornerstone component in managing multiple projects. Still, highlighting the advances drives home why it’s so integral.
Some of the advanced technology construction professionals deploy include:
- Remote Live Viewing for Real-Time Visibility: Cameras with remote viewing and real-time visibility allow project managers to monitor all projects, reducing the need for constant on-site visits. This reduction in site visits saves money while improving oversight quality.
- Time-Lapse Videos for Documentation: Time-lapse functionality records each project’s progress, which is useful for reporting and identifying potential delays. These time-lapse videos can also secure insurance claims during theft or vandalism incidents.
- Intelligent Security Features: AI-powered motion detection helps prevent theft or vandalism across multiple sites by automatically tagging and reporting potential criminal activity. AI features can also track trends, providing you with project analysis and pattern insights.
- Mobile Access and Flexibility: The ability to access monitoring tools from any device keeps managers informed, no matter where they are. Remote dashboards give you the flexibility to watch all your projects at once or single one out for further review.
Advanced digital tools automate many of the manual processes that dominate construction company admin. This automation saves time, prevents human error, and reduces the stress of managing multiple construction sites.
Best Practices for Staying Organized and Efficient
Up to this point, you should have a good handle on managing multiple projects without losing too much hair. To keep the rest, we have a few tips and tricks to help you stay organized and efficient.
- Set Clear Objectives for Each Project: Set clear goals to ensure the whole team knows what success looks like. Delegate certain tasks to trusted leaders and invest in training programs.
- Automate Where Possible: Use tools like TrueLook’s camera alerts to reduce manual oversight and improve visibility.
- Track KPIs and Milestones: Track and share key performance indicators (KPIs) and milestones to manage and celebrate project milestones.
- Schedule Regular Reviews and Adjustments: Review your progress and make adjustments as necessary. Consistently update your strategy to adapt to changes while building off successful practices.
Streamline Multiple Construction Projects with TrueLook
If you’ve been wondering how to manage multiple construction projects, we hope this guide gave you clarity. By combining a handful of the best practices we discussed with foolproof strategies and fail-safe technology, you’ll have no trouble keeping up with five-, ten-, or even 15-project schedules.
That fail-safe technology takes the form of project management software, construction compliance platforms, or construction cameras with real-time remote viewing. These offerings help streamline the process of managing more than one project by providing viewing, security, and documentation for every site, regardless of the number.
Ready to get started with remote construction management tools to keep multiple projects on task without leaving your desk? Request a quote from TrueLook and see how easy it can be to monitor your vital assets!
