Enhancing Communication to Combat the Sawtooth Effect

Written by Lonnie Cumpton, Co-founder and Senior Director Product Strategy and Customer Success | read

Industry leadership

Enhancing Communication to Combat the Sawtooth Effect in Electrical Contracting

Sawtooth Series Blog Post 1 of 4:

Welcome to the first entry in our series dedicated to overcoming the challenges presented by the sawtooth effect in electrical contracting. This phenomenon, where project knowledge and efficiency fluctuate significantly at handoffs, can lead to substantial disruptions and inefficiencies. Effective communication and robust documentation are foundational strategies for smoothing these fluctuations, ensuring consistent project momentum.

The Importance of Effective Communication

Clear and continuous communication is crucial in any construction project, more so in electrical contracting where the precision of details can dictate project success. Enhancing communication helps in retaining crucial knowledge and reducing the steepness of the knowledge drop-off at handovers.

Strategies for Improving Communication

Standardize Communication Tools: Adopting consistent platforms for project management and communication like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Procore centralizes information, making it accessible to everyone involved in the project. This reduces miscommunications and ensures that all team members are updated in real-time.
Implement Regular Meetings: Scheduled regular check-ins involving all key stakeholders can help to ensure everyone is aligned, address potential issues promptly, and plan effectively for upcoming project stages.
Create Comprehensive Documentation: Developing a robust documentation protocol where all project details, changes, specifications, and decisions are recorded and regularly updated is critical. This ensures that valuable project knowledge is preserved and easily accessible.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Incorporating SOPs as outlined in the ELECTRI International report by Dr. Hala Nassereddine, enhances consistency across project phases. SOPs ensure that tasks are performed uniformly, reduce errors, and save time. The report highlights specific SOPs such as Daily Logs, Procurement, Lookahead Schedules, Change Management, and Document Management, which are crucial for maintaining high levels of efficiency and communication. Link to all Electri Reports, you will need a free Electri User account.
SOP Generator: A Valuable Tool The SOP report introduces an innovative SOP generator tool, the SOP-Pro tool, designed to help companies easily create and customize their own standard operating procedures. This tool is particularly useful for electrical contractors looking to implement SOPs tailored to their specific needs and project requirements, ensuring that all team members follow the same procedures and standards.

For your convenience we have downloaded the op report and provided a link to it here. Electri SOP Report