To stay healthy, your business needs to be profitable. There are several ways to get there, such as by boosting total sales, building a strong customer base and increasing your company’s reputation. Another key to profitability is reducing overall costs, often by improving work efficiency and team productivity. Reaching these goals is possible with a smart project workflow.
What Is Project Workflow?
Put simply, a project workflow is a way of breaking projects into their individual steps. Done right, a workflow identifies all the necessary activities for project success and the order they need to happen in.
To create a clear workflow, answer the following questions:
- What needs to happen: Outline all activities necessary for successful completion.
- Who performs the work: If possible, identify the job position or individual responsible for each task.
- How to reach the goal: State any obstacles, solutions, resources or tools necessary for project completion.
- When steps occur: Assign rough estimates of project times or track the status of key milestones.
- Where to end up: Always have a single endpoint in mind, the objective that means success.
By outlining current project steps and requirements in this way, it’s possible to see ways to improve your workflow.
How Can You Streamline Your Workflow?
You don’t have to be a huge manufacturer to implement workflow solutions. Even small workshops can minimize wasted time and maximize productivity. Follow these tips for good results.
Track Your Projects
The more information you have available, the easier it is to make adjustments to workflow. Instead of playing things by ear, start to keep track of project steps.
Many businesses benefit from platforms created specifically for workflow and communications, such as project management software for workshops. This type of industry-specific software can offer an overview of current project info, work trends, client orders, proposals and other data. Automated tracking saves time and reveals important details about your business operations.
For example, you may discover that your team is spending too much time on tasks that deliver minimal benefits to overall product quality or customer satisfaction. Or you may notice that the majority of your project budget or work hours are going to one or two main steps. Any improvements in those areas can have significant benefits for your bottom line.
Improve Communication With Teams and Clients
One of the most common workflow problems involves too little communication. Sometimes, the issue is with client communications, and other times it’s related to in-house communications.
Streamline Client Communications
Scheduling an in-person or online session to speak directly with clients is worth the time invested because it can almost always reduce the number of other steps required for successful completion. Look at the follow examples with and without good communication to see why this is important. First, the bare project:
- Receives work order for new table
- Picks a style that is popular and starts building
- Completes 75% of work and contacts client to coordinate delivery details
- Learns that client wants a larger table with unique features
- Has to start much of the project over, wasting materials and time
It’s obvious that this result is less than ideal. Sadly, it happens often. Home remodelers, cabinet builders, welders and many other work professionals know this experience all too well. How can better communication change things?
- Receives work order from client
- Contacts the customer to ask questions and clarify details
- Begins the project with a clear idea about the finished product
- Keeps in touch with the customer at regular milestones, making minor changes as needed with minimal time investment
- Delivers a product that thrills the customer in less time overall
Every workflow should have steps relating to communication with customers. Projects aren’t just about creating items; they revolve around making customers happy.
Improve Team Communications
Meetings don’t automatically help productivity. The focus should be more on productive communications and collaboration. Put simply, everyone needs to be on the same page. Emails, calls and meetings can help, but it’s more important to have a central repository where everyone can see what is finished, what needs to be done and who is assigned to each task.
Forget About Multitasking
Multitasking is a waste of time. Do one step at a time, but do it right. Divide tasks according to employee areas of expertise.
Keep projects clearly organized on a workflow chart. That way, you can visualize how to get from point A to point B as directly as possible.