I read a report saying the average carpenter spends 15% of their workday just moving materials around.

It was in a trade magazine article about job site efficiency. They tracked a bunch of crews for a week and that was the number. I started paying attention to my own week and, honestly, it feels about right. That's a lot of time not spent cutting or fastening. Makes me wonder if there's a better way to set up the truck or organize the drop zones. How do you guys cut down on the walk-and-carry time?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_piper19d ago

Honestly, we started staging all the cutoffs in one spot near the saw. It sounds simple, but not having to walk back to the scrap pile every time you need a short piece saves a ton of steps over the day. You just have to be strict about keeping that area sorted.

paigewhite26d ago

Yeah, that number hits close to home. We spend a stupid amount of time just hauling stuff from point A to B. My crew started doing a five minute huddle to plan material placement, and it actually shaved a good chunk of that wasted time off our day.

lisaf3826d ago

That's a smart move, @paigewhite. Did your crew run into any pushback at first about taking time for the huddle, or did everyone see the benefit right away? I'm curious if you had to change the plan much after trying it for a week.