In construction, talk is cheap—but hard numbers carry real weight.
Field teams often push back on prefab, asking for proof that it actually saves time and money compared to traditional site-built methods. Their skepticism is understandable. Many have spent their careers fighting through weather delays, missing materials, and schedule chaos, and they’ve learned to expect the unexpected. Prefab promises something better—but unless you can show it, those promises are just words.
The good news: you can prove it.
The even better news: it's really easy to get started.
The Power of Simple, Consistent Time Tracking
The first step toward proving prefab's value is tracking time per build—not in broad strokes, but with detailed, project-specific data. This means recording exactly how many hours each team member spends on each order, broken down by task. Over time, these daily snapshots build a powerful picture of your true efficiency.
Start simply. An Excel spreadsheet or Smartsheet file can get the ball rolling. Set up basic columns: date, employee name, order number, task description, and hours spent. At the end of each day, have team members log what they worked on and for how long.
Over a few weeks, you’ll start to see where your time goes—and more importantly, how much faster prefab delivers compared to traditional field methods.
Here’s how to make it manageable without overwhelming your team:
Order ID: Assign a clear, simple ID to each build order.
Work Types: Break down work into categories like layout, cutting, welding, assembly, or quality control.
Honesty over perfection: It's better to have rough-but-accurate data daily than "perfect" data nobody records.
Review Weekly: Patterns emerge fast: bottlenecks, super-efficient builds, and unexpected time drains.
Tip: If you want a head start, reach out to the Building Swell team for templates to get you started.
Turning Time Tracking Into Trust
Once you have a few months of real data, you can turn that into the most powerful selling tool your shop has.
Imagine sitting down with your field superintendents and showing them that your prefabbed riser units cut installation time by 40%, or that your skids consistently reduce field welding hours by half. That’s not a marketing claim. That’s math—and it’s a conversation-changer.
Field teams want to hit their dates and avoid overtime headaches just as much as you do. When you can show how prefab helps them succeed, you become a trusted partner. Better yet, you can tie those time savings directly to dollars: labor cost per order, install time per unit, total project days saved. It’s no longer a question of whether prefab is worth it. It’s a question of how much they can expand it.
Scaling with Building Swell
Manual tracking is a great place to start. But as your shop grows, the cracks show up fast: messy spreadsheets, missed updates, delays finding the data you need when an owner or GC asks for proof. That’s where a tool like Building Swell makes life easier.
Instead of chasing down time sheets or cross-referencing six versions of a schedule, Building Swell automatically connects real-time labor data, order progress, and cost visibility—all in one platform. You can see exactly which builds are on pace, where bottlenecks are forming, and how each shift impacts your backlog.
Field teams can even submit changes or new order requests digitally, so your data stays clean from start to finish.
Less chasing. More clarity. Faster proof that prefab works.
Want to skip the spreadsheet phase and get a demo of how Building Swell streamlines it all? Reach out to us here to find a time.
Why Proof Beats Promises
Prefab’s advantage isn’t just faster schedules or tighter budgets. It’s certainty. When you can show exactly how much time and money your process saves—order by order, day by day—you earn trust with field teams, general contractors, and owners alike.
Good data doesn't just defend your shop. It builds your shop’s reputation, one project at a time.
