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
October 6, 2009 at 3:47 pm |
Stimulus money really does make a difference. Most people just don’t see the effects, but it works.
November 26, 2009 at 1:31 pm |
Seriously saying we do all make these type of mistakes and every time we try to improve our guidelines by going through even the small details – we miss some – as this is part of construction business