Doing more with less--the new normal? A challenge and an opportunity.

摘要

Existing resources can at times be better utilized with consolidations, scheduling, and routing. For most activities, administrative and travel time are much less productive than time in the field, and field time can be increased by changes to staff schedules that have more days beginning and ending in the field rather than the office. Scheduling and routing inspections in a geographic cluster can also increase efficiency. Consolidating inspections (e.g., having one specialist perform multiple inspections at a single site) can provide savings, especially when the other inspections are fully funded. A word of caution-I have seen instances in which the time required to cross-train specialized inspectors was greater than the savings derived from consolidation.