5 Proven Tips to Cut Project Time & Enhance Electrical Workflow Efficiency

If you’ve spent considerable time in this industry, you know that when designing an electrical system, success comes only with efficient project management - from staying on top of the big picture in real-time to collaborating with the team and taking care of the details. And, without proper management of electrical workflow, details go missing, deadlines go for a toss and budgets go overboard!

So, how do you keep your electrical project in line? Take a look at these 5 practical tips to improve your efficiency and speed without compromising on compliance and safety guidelines:

1. Standardize Your Approach: When planning, designing, testing, and installing an electrical system, balancing budget, functionality, and deadlines is crucial. So, when you implement a standardized approach, it brings you several benefits. Electrical projects are dynamic and handling scope creep on such projects requires you to be responsive to ongoing changes in work schedules, timelines, and budget.

Having a standard procedure enables you to facilitate real-time updates and ensure that long-term budgets & timelines are met. This may need you to leverage software, create specifications, streamline internal processes, and train your team. Doing all of this creates a clear roadmap of what needs to be done and helps overcome the inaccuracies and inconsistencies associated with ad-hoc design.

2. Go Back to the Basics: In every project, there comes a time when you need to make additions and alterations to an electrical system. The last thing you want to do at this stage is start from the scratch. To keep up with the defined timeline and budget, you’re tempted to take the easy way instead of the right one. So, when a change comes, several designers modify the individual component instead of reassessing the entire electrical system. Cutting corners and making an isolated change can then have a cascading effect – tumbling down a meticulously constructed house of cards! So, anytime you need to make any change to the electrical workflow, be sure to reassess the entire flow to ensure that any change does not prove to be detrimental in the long haul.

3. Design & Develop in 3D: Your design needs to be both comprehensive and practical to guide safe and compliant installations. This can be made possible with 3D design technology.

• 3D models help you visualize the complete electrical system even before it is built. No blueprints or complex designs can make electrical schematics easy to follow for all stakeholders the way 3D models can. They allow designers to analyze all the technical elements in greater detail.
• 3D models bring complete transparency to the electrical workflow. This eliminates all the possibilities of last-minute surprises that can derail installation. Whether you’re working on a plumbing project or an HVAC installation, a 3D model ensures that everyone is on the same page and significantly reduces the chances of change orders and costly rework.
• Leveraging CAD software allows electrical design engineers to work natively. They can integrate real-world components directly into the model and review the workflow before installation. As every component is evident in the model, any scope for clashes can be immediately found and fixed.

4. Find Inaccuracies in the Design Before Installation: Any engineering design is to be used as a diagnostic tool that facilitates collaboration for faster remediation. 3D models make a project collaborative and actionable for all stakeholders. An excellent presentation of any electrical engineering workflow includes these 3 key steps:

• 3D Render - Design a model and visualize it according to industry standards.
• 3D Tour - A 3D tour of the visualized flow is an excellent way to present the work from start to finish
• Schematics – Pre-drawn schematics & drawings of a project that is not fully realized helps you reconsider the flow in case of inconsistencies or potential pitfalls.

Whether you are working on a project from scratch or reworking an already built project, you’ll need to consider the following crucial aspects:

• Structural & functional integrity
• HVAC systems
• Pipes & water systems
• Existing electrical work
• Other electrical installations

5. Client-centric Design: A project is successful only when it fulfills the needs and demands of the client. But while you use your knowledge and experience to meet client expectations, you also need to ensure that everything is fully functional, compliant, safe, and efficient. Here are a few key points to consider:

• Budget: Consider the client’s budget during the planning stage. If the project requires doing more than what was previously defined, try to find better alternatives. If you need more financial support, justify why along with all the details. Explain how you plan to finish the project without cutting any corners and well within the defined timeline.
• Client Needs: Every client has unique needs. So, you will need to adapt the workflow to their specific needs. If you have an idea that is risky or requires more time for execution, keep your client informed and involved at every step.
• Feedback: Ideally, you should keep the client informed about your plans before implementing a workflow. Consider their feedback and if you think they are not right, explain why and offer an alternative to accommodate their vision.

Concluding Remarks

Electrical engineering is a complex discipline and improving your efficiency or accelerating the project timeline is not easy. That being said, you can consider hiring an experienced consultancy offering electrical engineering and design services. With their expertise, you can rest assured of accomplishing projects of any scale and complexity much better, faster, and more efficiently.