Workplace Efficiency

[Wyatt Thompson, PLA]

The recent turn in the How Do You Create Plant Schedules on Autocad Plans has got me thinking about how to be more efficient with my work. Competition for work has become fierce and we all have to work smarter to stay ahead; it’s true that time is money. What are some things you do to work smarter and faster? I’d love to hear from employees as well as principals and owners. 

And since we’re talking about efficiency I don’t expect anyone who is gainfully employed to actually respond to this thread during working hours. 🙂

[Tanya Olson]

I know this isn’t exactly what you mean, but your question got ME to thinking…..What does efficiency mean to you? Does it mean getting more work done in your 8 hours? Does it mean getting more ‘product’ out there faster? Not to utterly diverge from your topic, but I mean this seriously. I think there are a number of kinds of efficiency. And we’re not on an assembly line here. Hopefully thats not what we’re going for!

Several documentaries I’ve seen about architects and artists (sadly, no LAs) show the subject agonizing over just getting started on a project – doing everything but getting started, from all outward appearances avoiding work. But then they do START. And it turns out that they started about the time they were agonizing over getting started….their brains were already on the job. They weren’t even aware of it. They think of themselves as procrastinators, but they are really processing – laying the mental groundwork for action. That’s what I consider efficiency!

Want to be more efficient? Get enough rest, eat right, exercise daily, and leave time to stop thinking about work. Your brain will probably still be working. Too bad you can’t bill for those hours!

Does proficiency equal efficiency? If it does, then put in your hours – It takes 10,000 of them to become an expert at your work, according to Malcom Gladwell. Presumably that means you work faster….or does it?
Maybe the question should be – is there a significant difference in the speed of accomplishing any given task between landscape architects of the same level of experience. Sure, there are probably some notorious time-wasters, but my guess is that we are all probably pretty similar. Not that I think you should abandon your quest – on the contrary – the answers to the plant list question made me realize how many ways there are to do the same thing and wonder how it all comes out in the wash (time-wise).

Time management – well that is another story. Want to manage your time? Turn off your phone.

I guess its not very efficient to answer a practical question with a philosophical answer……but I haven’t reached my 10,000 hours yet.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Efficiency starts with being able to produce a competitive product at a competitive price. That all starts with a business plan that identifies the market that the company is targeting and is followed by finding the most effective way to get the most profit out of that market.

Depending on the business plan, it could mean staying on top of the most current software and skills to produce cutting edge 3d design and producing volumes of contruction documents and specifications, or it could go toward the other extreme where simple linework layout plans are the most salable and most profitable.

The beauty of our profession is that it is as diverse as it is undefinable with specific niches and specific ways to exploit those niches. A difficulty dilemma created by that diversity is that we have a standard broad based education to equip us with the diverse understanding necessary to be prepared to begin to follow any track within the profession. We often come out of that education system with a much narrower perspective of what “real” landscape architecture is and we tend to have been convinced that everything we were exposed to in school is the standard practice of every landscape architecture office.

What is efficient in one business plan is inadequate in another. What is a competetive design package in one, is excessive, inefficient, and un-sellable in another.

That determines efficiency in the overall office operation. Efficiency in tasks is probably more what you are after. That again is more often dependent on the business plan as well, but certainly more broadly apllicable.

[Tanya Olson]

Speaking of which – Andrew, have you ever written a business plan for a landscape architecture firm? Business plan examples from other industries don’t seem to fit the bill….

Interesting idea – efficiency is related to office/corporate culture, which of course also sets the value of any given task – monetary and intangible values.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

It seems to me, in my limited experience, that Principals (and some P.M.s) design and everyone else produces. There is no judgment in that statement, it’s just reality. I’ve learned a lot about design by “producing” plans for great designers.

Design takes time, exploration and is non-linear. There are no right answers, only defensible solutions.

Production on the other hand is tangible and quantifiable. I.E. After I’m handed a design sketch, how long does it take to produce an accurate and beautiful concept plan for presentation to the client? After the concept has been approved, how long does it take to produce a set of construction documents? This is pretty static stuff.

The biggest inefficiencies I’ve noticed are a lack of standardized tools such as symbols, line-weights / types, details, drawing templates, etc. If you have these things in place, then production is just plug-n-play. If you don’t have these things in place then you end up recreating the wheel for the most basic processes. I would like to see an office that formats their computers / AutoCAD so that these tools are set and there is no changing them. Production is not the time for creativity. It is time to produce a product.

I have experience building/ fixing bicycles and at a workbench you will find a set of standard tools needed for the job. If you cluttered the space with wood working tools, automotive tools, HVAC tools, etc. it would be frustrating finding what you need. It’s a gumption trap. There is a tool for the job and a correct way to do the job. Producing concept plans and construction documents is the same way. On the production end of things, users need fewer options, less flexibility.

For example: 15 line types, 15 hatch patterns, 15 colors. That’s it. You don’t need any more than that.
Symbols: 10 trees, 10 shrubs, 10 ground cover hatches. That’s it.
Call-outs/Dimensions: For Plans – 1/16 scales, 1/8 scale, 1/4 scale standardized call-outs/ dimensions. Other scales needed for details.
Text: Have 3-5 types of text available. That’s it. This is what we use for concepts, this is what we use for C.D.s.

Basically, everything on the production end should be refined, distilled to it’s essence. Creativity kills production.

The only other area I’ve noticed a lot of waste is printing. We live in a digital age and while printing needs to be done, it needs to be done a lot less. AutoCAD has tools for digital mark-ups that allow a P.M. to monitor the corrections being done by other employees. There is no need to print 30×42 sheets of paper for every little correction. Plotter paper, inks and printheads are expensive, not to mention that it’s wasteful and bad for the environment. By using the digital tools we have available we can greatly reduce our consumption of physical goods, save money and streamline processes.

I had a P.M. that needed to see everything on paper. He/she wanted to see all product white-sheets printed, then the sheets would just get tossed in the trash. It drove me nuts! Why not download the PDF and start creating a digital library of the products we use most often. Instead of searching the web, downloading the PDF, printing it out, throwing it away, repeat indefinitely. Go to the digital library, open the PDF. It looks the same on your desktop as it will on paper. Adobe Acrobat even has markup tools, so that’s not an excuse for printing it either.

Obviously printing needs to happen for presentations (or does it? Projectors…). We live in a digital age and we can save time, money and resources by keeping things digital.

So that’s my two cents. I could go on and on, getting into specifics but that’s the gist of it. Refine production methods and keep things digital. Those are the two biggies I see all the time…

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I agree that standardization and limiting of lineweights, text, dimensioning, layering, hatches (and hatch scale), and symbol blocks adds hugely to efficiency in production.

There is nothing worse for wasting time than having to “clean up” a drawing that has any of the afore mentioned things out of whack. The number one CAD faux pas has got to be poor layer management. Being in what is primarily a CE/Survey office, we exchange a lot of dwg files and it is amazing to see the range of difference between meticulous drawing management and utter chaos mostly in regard to layer management. When layers are well managed, almost any other editing is rather simple because you can isolate that which you need to change. Always keep CAD drawings in as finished a state as possible – ready to print a final or progress print anytime that it is opened.

A general principle for efficiency is to be aware of what helps the next person in the office and doing your best within reason to make their job easier.Pay attention to what they do and try to set them up as best you can. Don’t isolate yourself into a perceived job description and leave things for others to clean up behind you. Do the things that no one else wants to do and remember that in a shrinking economy, whatever is best for the overall performance of the company is probably what is best for you.

Specialists don’t downsize well. When offices shrink they still need everything to get done. There might not be room for a full time this or a full time that, but there will not be a bunch of part timers to do all the tasks needed to be done. When there is a person who clearly demonstrates an ability and willingness to take on any task from making coffeee and cleaning the bathroom to use of cutting edge technology who can fill three or four part time roles wrapped up in one full time job (s)he probably won’t be getting dumped any time soon.

Lastly, in the age of cell phones, Iphones, Facebook, email, and the net, keep it on your own time. It is especially an advantage to you if you do this in an office where everyone else is abusing it. (I know what you are thinking, check my times of posting and you’ll see they are before 8AM, between roughly 12:30- 1:15, or after 4:45PM Eastern). used to share office space with a guy that would shout out news updates to the owner in the middle of the work day. I almost told him that he was making a big mistake as the economy was tanking in ’08, … being the newest guy in the office, I thought better of it. He and another were let go and I’m still there. Don’t think for a minute that your bosses don’t know who is doing what no matter how oblivious they appear to be. No matter what anyone else is doing, walk the high road – they will notice eventually.

If you job hop, never leave a job in such a way that you would feel uncomfortable to ask for your job back.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Wise words, wise words…

[Elizabeth Renton]

This brings up another roundabout efficiency issue. How efficient can you really be if you’re being inefficiently managed in your office? What if you’re the most organized, well structured worker in the office….who’s being tossed into a chaotic work pattern by the ‘higher ups’? Who is ultimately responsible for the ‘efficiency’ of the office?

I have REPEATEDLY voiced concerns over the way projects are run, the way time is managed, the way contracts are executed….and at the end of the day, if the ‘higher ups’ don’t follow through there is ONLY SO MUCH I CAN DO to operate efficiently. Efficiency is not just about how fast the cad monkeys pump out construction documents. It’s about the way the entire office is run.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I know that feeling. I work in a very chaotic office that is often more reactionary and last minute hurries to meet a deadline oriented than any sane person would operate under. That is the personality of the office from the top and despite several of us trying to change that, it just does not change at the top. However, as hectic as it is, the office has been and continues to be quite busy while all the similar offices in our area are very much struggling. I have come to the conclusion that although the chaos does not create the success, it just may be the btproduct of whatever the strategy “the top” is doing that is maintaining our success.

Efficiency from the bottom up can only be taken to a certain point before it aggrevates the top. No good things come from aggrevating the top.

When chaotic situations are dictated from the top, those of us executing the work are most efficient when we don’t let others see that we are rattled and when we help keep those around us from running with the frustration. It is really hard not to fuel frustration and not to be fueled by it around you. Sometimes it gets to me, but more often I keep another staff member who freaks out rather easily much calmer by pretending that I’m relaxed. I talk calmly while she has no idea that I’m almost as freaked out as she is. She calms down and we both glide through without making those blunders that happen when you are aggrevated and in a hurry. It helps that the boss is always calm and not a yeller – perhaps he is doing the same thing that I am.

It is very easy to get a whole group of people to be negative, but it usually has disasterous results. Be the calming influence and that will produce the most efficiency under the circumstances. Don’t kid yourself that no one notices. They either do, or they will.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Not the case at all in the case of my boss. Part of it is that the owner can do everything and has no fear of making a deadline promise or responding to “emergencies” for our regular clients. The man is amazing, but it is not a kind of flow that is either logical or comfortable for people who like clean organization and predictability like most of us.

The business works very, very well, but sometimes you can feel like Lucy working the conveyor belt at the candy factory (might be an outdated example). The onlty difference is that all of the candy gets selected, packaged, and shipped. The point is that the organization and order that many of us at my work place feel would improve things may just be what would kill our competitive edge. Order for everyone in the work place sometimes equals comfort for them far more than it equals efficiency for the company’s goals.

When I am told that we need to get a site plan of a car dealership addition out at 11 AM when I get in at 8 and there is a new building footprint in an email that just came in, I think “are you out of your mind?” while three hours later I’m stapling 14 copies of a revised Site Plan with new lot coverage and parking calc’s. We could have spent the first hour rescheduling the work load and replanning the week (that’s what I would have done), but instead we are done and on to extinguish the next fire or back into the actual organized flow that we pretend we are going to follow more than we actually do.

The last thing that I would believe is that my boss’s business is suffering from his aggressive drive. Increasing my or some of my co-workers’ comfort level with a pre-determined work flow would be great for us from day to day, but it very well could kill a competitive edge that we clearly have over competitors and find some of us in the “unenjoyment line”. I’m closing in on four years with this company and have grown to believe that it is the securest place that I could hope for me to be in at this time, although it is often rather hectic. The man is as incredible as he can be frustrating and is highly respected for good reason.

I’m suggesting that it is possible that Elizabeth may be dealing with a similar situation where agressive quickly adjusting organization in the minds of higher ups is too fast and uncomfortable for others to perceive it as logical and orderly. Without comfort and predictability, there is not often a sense of efficiency. Different people have different comfort levels.I have no doubt that my boss feels completely in control and following an organized work flow while many others on the project feel almost out of control. It is simply that the rest of us have enough difficulty with the rapid and frequent adjustments that it is uncomfortable and not perceived as organized or efficient. In retrospect, it clearly is efficient.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Damian – Great observations and explanations. I totally agree.

I’d add that equally as negative as having some seniors doing CAD is having some juniors organize the office. Simply put, we don’t know what we don’t know (why do I think this phrase will be the next “it is what it is”?).

[Elizabeth Renton]

I appreciate everyone’s interesting responses. I guess i’m in a unique situation- i’m a ‘junior’ level employee with more advanced responsibilities. This is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because I know the ins and outs of every single project they hand to me…meeting with the client, setting schedules, coordinating with other professional disciplines, writing contracts and proposals, etc. I know the hectic circumstances that get thrown in the loop that are totally out the principals’ control, and I don’t blame them when things get turned upside down. What i DO hold them accountable for is maintaining the office workflow INSIDE OUR OFFICE. True, we can’t control it when the architect demands that he needs these drawings in 4 hours, but they CAN control how our office reponds to that heat. And yes, most of the principals do not do the grunt work in CAD, photoshop, construction documents, etc. so they are out of touch with how much time is involved with some of these tasks. I don’t expect them to do the work, but what i DO expect is that when i say I HAVE TOO MUCH WORK I NEED HELP I CAN’T MEET THIS DEADLINE, it is the seniors job to listen and respond and take action to alleviate the situation. As Damian said, you don’t get help if you don’t ask. If I ask and no action is taken, if the seniors just blow off the concerns of the juniors that they are dependant upon, there is absolutely no way an office can operate efficiently.

I’m not going to site here and pretend i have all the answers. But i DO know when something isn’t working, and if I raise concerns and make suggestions and offer ideas and nothing is done about it, efficiency is out of the question. It takes ALL levels of workers, seniors and juniors, to make this machine run well.

[Tanya Olson]

I agree and its a lesson I have to keep learning over and over again – principles / owners / managers / partners don’t really like being told how to run their business even when they ask employees their opinion. Corporate culture, once entrenched just does not change. It might help to chant ‘Bend like the reed, bend like the reed.’

[Jason T. Radice]

In total agreement with standardization and having the right tools to do the job efficiently. I am consistently surprised at how many of my former employers did not actively seek time and labor saving software or hardware, and then refuse to spend the money on the best equipment to fulfill those goals when presented with a cost/benefit analysis. If you can cut your costs and save time with a short repayment timeframe, wouldn’t you spend the money? I guess time and quality really isn’t that valuable. I’m also surprised at how gullible many of them are, believing whatever the salesman tells them without doing a simple Google search and finding out for yourself. How many of your senior management or partners have an MBA? And why don’t they?

To that end, I keep a library of common details that can easily be modified to suit a particular design, common templates for presentations, plant lists, and the like. I also try to be as precise as I can from the earliest stage I can. Nothing thing like being haphazard and finding there is a gas line running through the middle of your site when it comes time to dig. This seems to happen consistently with architects. I guess they don’t teach you how to read utility plans in architecture school. What’s an easement?

I feel the biggest hindrance to efficiency is a firm that maintains a circuitous design process, knowingly or not. This seems to happen when there are in-house reviews with upper level staff that have no connection to the project, but feel they can input on its design anyway. They have little to no knowledge of your process and your conversations with the client, so it goes without saying that as soon as you change the design to reflect the comments, they change their mind or don’t remember what they said in the previous review session resulting in endless tweaks and redesigns. This goes for clients as well. I try to involve my clients in the design from the initial walk through and take studious notes, and then provide the client with a copy. Everybody is on the same page, they made decisions early, they know why you are doing what you are doing and you have paperwork to back it up. Saves a lot of argument and time, and a client is less likely to question a decision they had already made themselves.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Dear god, thank you. Can I please come work for you?

“How many of your senior management or partners have an MBA? And why don’t they?” – This is an excellent point. and a subject that I’ve given much thought. If I were to go back to school, would an MLA or an MBA be most valuable? Why doesn’t our profession insist upon business men running the office instead of artists? Just because you have an art degree and a MLA, does not mean that you know how a business should operate. Most “creatives” are too right brained to run a business. They don’t control the process, they are reactive, make snap decisions and operate on emotion and adrenalin alone. The end result is an office that looks, feels and operates like a Jackson Pollock painting.

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