In today’s competitive construction environment, Electrical & Mechanical Contractors face mounting pressure to deliver projects on time and within budget. Data from thousands of projects has revealed that specific productivity killers are systematically undermining contractor performance, leading to significant financial losses that could be prevented with proper awareness and planning. Read on for 5 productivity killers Electrical & Mechanical Contractors should be paying attention to.
1. Change Orders and Cumulative Impact: The Silent Project Destroyer
When change orders exceed 10% of base contract hours, projects enter what researchers call “cumulative impact” territory. This phenomenon affects not just the changed work, but all work on the project. The disruption creates a cascade of inefficiencies including mobilization and demobilization costs, stop-and-go work patterns, loss of rhythm, and broken learning curves. Research shows that contractors can expect productivity losses that correlate directly with the percentage of change, making change management critical to project success.
2. Dilution of Supervision: When Leaders Become Bottlenecks
Perhaps one of the most overlooked productivity killers is dilution of supervision. When additional work is requested, supervisors must suddenly manage both changed and unchanged work, becoming ineffective in multiple areas instead of being productive in their originally planned role. The supervisor becomes overwhelmed studying changes, communicating with crews, ordering materials, acquiring tools, and reviewing safety practices for modified work. These same patterns can be caused by an imbalanced ratio of supervision → journeymen → apprentices. This creates a decision-making bottleneck that can result in median productivity losses of 25-31%, depending on severity.
Median Productivity Loss
3. Overmanning: More Workers, Less Productivity
Overmanning occurs when a job has too many bodies for the available work area, materials, and tools. Research has shown that a job is likely overmanned when the peak number of workers divided by the average number of workers exceeds 1.6, which creates logistical problems for work area, tools and materials logistics, and supervision. A common cause of overmanning is delays early in a project and added scope of work. Research demonstrates that overmanning combined with higher percentage changes and longer processing times creates exponentially worse inefficiency effects, making workforce planning crucial to maintaining productivity.
4. Excessive Overtime: The False Economy
While overtime might seem like a quick solution to schedule pressures, it creates three critical productivity killers. Worker fatigue negatively impacts productivity, morale, and safety. This fatigue leads to increased absenteeism, creating a vicious cycle. Most significantly, workers subconsciously adjust their pacing for longer work periods, failing to maintain the intensity expected during normal 8-hour shifts. The research shows that scheduled overtime beyond 40 hours per week consistently reduces overall productivity. So not only does each hour cost more, but less is accomplished per hour.
5. Loss of Learning: Breaking the Efficiency Chain
Loss of learning occurs when highly repetitive operations are interrupted or personnel are changed, forcing new workers to slowly relearn operations. When work continuity is broken, crews lose the efficiency gains that naturally develop from repetitive task experience. The research reveals median productivity losses ranging from 21% for minor disruptions to 32% for severe cases where learning curves are completely disrupted.
Median Productivity Loss
The Compounding Effect
What makes these productivity killers particularly dangerous is their tendency to compound each other. The worst productivity impacts occur when multiple factors combine—such as high change percentages with long processing times and overmanning conditions. A project experiencing 60% change orders with extended processing times and overmanning can see productivity losses approaching 40-50% of total actual hours.
Taking Action
Understanding these productivity killers is the first step toward mitigation. Electrical & Mechanical contractors who implement robust change management processes, maintain appropriate supervision ratios, carefully plan workforce deployment, manage overtime strategically, and preserve work continuity will maintain competitive advantages in an increasingly challenging market. The research is clear: these productivity losses are measurable, predictable, and most importantly—preventable.
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