Managing Performance in your CAD Department (Part I)

Barrie Mathews, Softco Engineering Systems
October 5, 2004

Managing is about getting things done effectively and then improving how it is done. To be able to understand how something can be improved, measurable data is needed from which you can track and compare performance of the team. Once you have historical data you can classify it and then you are in business. You can gauge performance based on your policies and then implement better ones.

But how on earth can anybody measure the work in a design firm? Job A is different from Job B, there may be a difficult client or an easy going one, the lead designer is a different Architect or Engineer, and it's either uniquely new work or redesign based on a similar prototype. Design depends on unique requirements for construction and usage that add more variables into the mix. It is the kind of work that tempts you to say it's impossible to manage, just leave it to the participants, and let come what may. In fact it's not impossible, but it is indeed more difficult to plan and carry out work in a design firm. Below are some management techniques that might be of some help to you in monitoring the performance of your design firm. They will enable you to see areas for improvement and manage things better.

Break down the work into useful components you can measure, evaluate, and compare with previous results. Here's an example of what we will call "mind components" for you to monitor and assess in your design firm:

Important Objectives:
Accuracy
Clarity
Understandability
Improve efficiency of day to day work
Make the work invigorating and satisfying for all team members (overcome tedium)
Reduce re-work
Reduce down time due to scheduling problems
Reduce design addenda during tender
Reduce design issues and supervision time during construction phase
Client satisfaction

Things that Affect the End Result:
Type of work involved
Team members level of expertise
Number of changes to the design
Communications between team members
Re-use of prior designs
Software resources
Scheduling of staff

Measurable Data:
Time spent in consultation with the client
Design engineering time
Time to deliver contract drawings
Time spent on administration during construction or manufacture

Classifications for Evaluation of Measurable Data:
Kind of construction
Type classification of construction
Modularity (design is Modular or Not Modular)
Prototype (design is New or Repeat)
Unit size of the project
Scope of the project (what deliverables?)
Number of sheets in the drawing set
Competence rating construction or manufacturing personnel (1 to 5)
Satisfaction of constructors (interpreting the drawings) rating (1 to 5)
Client satisfaction rating (1 to 5)
Difficulty factor due to site conditions (1 to 5)
Difficulty factor due to complexity (1 to 5)
Date of completion
Duration (number of days from start to finish)

Note that the last 5 items are assessments that only you can make. Do it at the end of the project.

To build your historical database, you will need reliable data from the time sheets of your team members and the time sheets must be filled out at the end of each day. Something along the lines of the example below will give you some data with which you can better manage things.

Remember that time sheets filled out on pay day for the entire 2 weeks should be cause for delay in getting the pay check also! Big boys record their time each day so what reason is there that your staff can not do this too? Perhaps this can be set up for electronic submission over your network to the database so you will be able to check each day that everyone has recorded their time and remind them if they haven't.

Database Tables and Fields

You will need a "Project Labor" table in your database with a field for each data heading listed on the time sheets, and a "Projects" table with fields for each data heading listed under the "Classifications for Evaluation of Measurable Data" section above. You will need a key field (an index field) for the Project# in both tables so that you can access the applicable records when you want information for comparable projects in searches and reports.

To eliminate the variables, restrict the data in your "Project Labor" table to time spent in hours rather than the actual costs because labor rates will change. Count on giving pay raises as you improve the management of your department! Your staffs level of competence will increase over time and but only you as the manager can be the judge of that. So in order to get comparable information from your data, you must rate the current competence level of each staff member relative to a Journeymen, using a field called "Journeyman Factor". For example, if the employee is a student you might enter 0.6 in the data record for that employee. Now your reports are always generated in Journeyman Hours (Hours x 0.6 in this case). Competence will increase over time until you will ultimately be entering a factor of 1.0, which is the factor entered for a Journeyman. I used to apply a factor of greater than 1.0 if I had an exceptional achiever. And once I could keep records showing consistent output I could use these factors to justify wage increases, and establish fair wage rates for high and low achievers.

A word of caution should be mentioned here. Do not try to define too many data fields when you start developing your management system. You are apt to find that entering the data either takes too long or it may not be practical. Start with just the rudiments first, and then improve on it with experience. A suitable improvement may be to divide the drawing time on your time sheets to separate "details" from "plans" once your staff gets used to them. This would enable you to identify a boost in performance due to improvements you made to your resource library for standard details for example.

Getting Information for Managing Performance

Once you have 2 or more closely matched jobs in your database you can track performance by entering searches. Here's an example search that can be defined in your database reports based on the following conditions:

Project = 107
Kind of construction = "Retail Stores"
Type classification of construction = "Single Storey"
Modularity (design is Modular or Not Modular) = "Modular"
Prototype (design is New or Repeat) = "New" Unit size of the project = "10,512 Square Feet"
Scope of the project = "Design and Supervision"

Consulting Time per Square Foot:
Rate = (sum of values of records for "Consult" field x "Journeyman Factor") / Unit Size of Project

Drawing Time per Sheet:
Rate = (sum of values of records for "Drawing" field x "Journeyman Factor") / No. of Sheets

Qualitative data:
Competence rating construction or manufacturing personnel (1 to 5) = 4
Satisfaction of constructors (interpreting the drawings) rating (1 to 5) = 4
Client satisfaction rating (1 to 5) = 4Difficulty factor due to site conditions (1 to 5) = 2
Difficulty factor due to complexity (1 to 5) = 1
Date of completion = 02/15/04
Duration (number of days from start to finish) = 234
Now you can compare this information with that of other projects with similar conditions.

Questions and Answers

1. Was the consulting time too high, better, or worse?
2. Why was it too high? Was it a difficult owner or poor communication?
3. Is there improvement in time per drawing sheet due to improvements to the resource library for standard details?
4. If there is no improvement over the past, then what caused the problem?

I began examining these kinds of things while running my first business, 37 years ago. You can't find step by step instructions for this in a book. Similar application may or may not work in your business. It's all about focusing on the components you can in fact manage, learning from experience, and gathering reliable information. With this information you can analyze the problems and know where to improve performance. Things will grow from here. In Part II, I will discuss ideas on how you can make estimates and implement scheduling procedures in your design firm.

About the Author

Barrie Mathews is President and Manager of product development at Softco Engineering Systems Inc., developers of the S-MAN Cad Standards Management Systems for AutoCAD, and may be contacted by email at barrie.mathews@softcosys.com.

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