June 16, 2009 by Rob Mathewson
Any jobsite is a conglomeration of various interests, each holed up in the silo of their own discipline (e.g. trade specialty, consulting specialty, specialty inspector, etc.) The GC acts as the conduit that ties each silo into the project. Unfortunately, there’s no established protocol for neighboring silos to share information. Except of course, when there’s a problem. Then there’s plenty of conversation, though it could be somewhat contentious.
Think about your relationships with your neighbors at home. There are those that you chat with frequently and those that barely wave. When it comes time for you to take over all of the street parking for your kid’s birthday party, which neighbor is going to be the one who blows up at you and starts yelling across the street?
Keep that scene in mind the next time you’re on site and you come across a new inspector, engineer or low voltage electrician that you have no reason to talk to. Five minutes of “Hi, How d’ya do?” Could pay off for both of you down the road.
Tags: construction communication, construction jobsites, construction sites
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May 26, 2009 by Rob Mathewson
The folks at Compendia focus on a serious situation for the construction industry with this post. Their point is that those companies left standing will have made serious staff reductions and suffered a significant loss of tribal knowledge in the process. Gearing up to (hopefully) meet to coming increase in demand means training new employees and building the company’s knowledge base up from scratch.
While the author certainly makes a valid point, I find it a bit ironic. After all, how much tribal knowledge do construction professionals leave behind willingly with every finished project? Yes, construction projects are temporary affairs. But every completed projects has taught scores of valuable lessons to the project team. Unfortunately, without any systems in place to capture and replicate those lessons, many evaporate forcing others to re-learn the same lessons at some time down the road.
Tags: construction defects, construction outsourcing, construction productivity, Geedra, productivity
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May 11, 2009 by Rob Mathewson
You and your team sharpened your pencils and beat back the most ravenous pack of competitors that you’ve ever seen in your career to win a coveted stimulus project. Congratulations.
Now it’s the morning after and you realize that things will be different with this project. Scrutiny from the government, the media and even the general public will be higher than you’ve ever experienced. Also, the razor thin margins that you have left for yourself mean that you have less wiggle room than ever to get this one right.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What changes did you make in your approach to bidding that led to your winning the contract?
- Have you made appropriate accommodations to your operations practices in anticipation of the increased scrutiny? Timely, complete reports help a lot. Get out there and snap plenty of pictures.
- Have you worked with your suppliers (and your subs with theirs) to improve the accuracy of their delivery schedules? Successful Just-In-Time deliveries can add precious days of cash flow while minimizing costly idle time.
- Pre-Construction Quality meetings with your trades are helpful. In-project Quality meetings are even better. Track exceptions from inception to closure and don’t let schedule pressure affect your expectations for closure. Shortcuts only cost more in the end.
Times have changed. Have you?
Tags: construction defects, construction industry, construction inspection, construction productivity, construction quality, construction quality control, general construction, general contractor, public projects, quality control, risk management, stimulus money, stimulus projects
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April 15, 2009 by Rob Mathewson
From this month’s Construction Executive Magazine (Sorry, no online copy for this article, authored by Chris Mosley at Sherman & Howard LLC)
- Purchase the Right insurance – Review your policy limits to confirm the existence of completed operations coverage. Typical general liability policies limit coverage to $1 million, which is wholly inadequate for construction companies. Also, liability policies limit their coverage for defects claimed during a single policy year ( i.e. you can’t file a claim for work that was done several years ago.) Consider excess insurance including completed operations coverage.
- Procure the appropriate additional insured endorsements from subcontractors – GC’s should required Subcontractors to maintain their own completed operations coverage. Also, GC’s should review each Sub’s additional insured endorsements. If the Sub has not obtained a completed operations additional insured endorsement, the GC is liable for that Sub’s defects.
- Hire a Qualified Insurance Broker – Make sure the broker as claims experience. Also, you should have confidence in your broker’s ability to review your risk exposure and the additional insured endorsements of your subcontractors.
- Engage a Personal Counsel Experienced in Insurance Issues – Doing so increases the probability that insurers will pay claims in full. It’s also best to find your attorney at the same time you are shopping for coverage, rather than doing so after a claim arises when you’re likely to have a few more things on your mind.
Tags: construction attorney, construction claims, construction defects, construction insurance, construction liability, construction quality, construction quality control, construction risk, construction warranty, dispute resolution, insurance, risk management, wrap insurance
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March 27, 2009 by Rob Mathewson
One of the attendees at my social media presentation to the local Associated Builders and Contractors board mentioned that he felt that there were many wasted opportunities to share stories about the great work his crew did. He went on to say that his superintendents problem solving abilities were a real competitive advantage, but he found it difficult to convey that to current and potential customers.
I thought social media would be a great mechanism for sharing such stories. The company benefits in a couple of ways. First, as the gentleman above suspected, these stories make great marketing copy. They create an opportunity for current customers to emotionally invest in the work of their contractor and paint an enticing picture for prospective clients.
However, I think efforts to recognize your crews’ success on the web will pay bigger dividends for the morale of the crews themselves. Think about it. If you see yourself mentioned in the company’s print newsletter, you might take it home to share with your spouse. However, if your mentioned in a blog post, with a link to the recognition page on the company website, then you’re likely to share that with all of your friends and family by email. Chances are that more than a few of those folks are in construction too, which means that your recognition effort can have recruiting benefits too.
See part 2 of this post for a 7-step approach for promoting the work of your crews.
Tags: commercial construction, construction hr, construction human relations, construction industry, construction labor, construction marketing, construction pr, construction Public relations, construction quality, construction superintendent, construction workers, contractors, general construction, general contractor
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February 24, 2009 by Rob Mathewson
Imagine that you are an assembly line worker in the days of Henry Ford. You work in an environment where throughput is king. In other words, keep the production line moving at any cost. If you cause the line to stop for any reason, you get fired.
Fast forward to 1995. Ford, having learned a thing or two from Toyota, which ironically, had previously gotten their start by copying from Henry Ford, institutes Lean Manufacturing in order to instill a culture of continuous improvement through employee empowerment. For the first time ANYONE is empowered to stop the production line if they see something wrong.
Imagine for a moment what that was like for the newly empowered workers. Not having been there personally, I can only assume that the collective response to this new initiative can be summed up in two words “Yeah, right.” One day, you can lose your job for gumming up the works. The next day, you’ve got full braking rights.
Construction personnel have the same quality rights as the Henry Ford-era workers. In construction, the schedule has the same “Golden Calf” status as Ford’s assembly line. Impede it at your own peril.
One day, the age of enlightenment will reach construction. Hopefully, I’ll get a front row seat to hear the very first empowered construction workers say those historic words: “Yeah, right.”
Tags: construction productivity, construction quality, construction quality control, Construction Verification, Geedra, general construction, general contractor, Henry Ford, Lean Construction, quality control, workmanship
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February 16, 2009 by Rob Mathewson
A recent conversation with a quality manager from a major general contractor brought this cartoon immediately to mind. You see, this poor chap was under the delusion that he could simply walk from his desk to a condo unit to check the fit of the refrigerator and then walk back. The time required to complete his journey: 2 hours!
At every turn, the quality manager was beckoned by a information-starved sub contractor with a question. Each question began innocently enough. “Got a minute?” they would ask. But after a dozen or so of these, his 10 minute walk turned into a 2 hour journey.
My take on Billy’s journey:
- Ground-level direction leaves a lot to be desired.
- Tradespeople want to do a good job for their clients, but don’t always have sufficient information to do so.
- If chance encounters with roaming managers are how trade questions get answered, then I bet a fair number of trade questions go un-answered.
Project quality suffers in all cases.
Tags: commercial construction, construction productivity, construction quality control, construction rework, construction superintendent, contractors, general construction, general contractor, productivity, quality control, residential construction, workmanship
Posted in Case Histories | 2 Comments »
February 16, 2009 by Rob Mathewson
Take the Geedra survey and tell us what’s important to you in the construction industry.
Tags: construction defects, construction quality control, Construction Verification, Geedra, risk management
Posted in Industry, Inside Geedra | Leave a Comment »
