As competition for labor and materials remains intense throughout the construction industry, completing projects on time and on budget requires ever more creativity. Industry pros provide suggestions about how to re-think “business as usual.”
Running Scenarios
Coping with supply chain disruptions has had builders scrambling for last minute substitutions for some time now. Pros suggest that the practice of running scenarios can really help builders mitigate this challenge:
The owner and their team should weigh availability issues with other concerns such as safety and quality. For example, choosing bolts over welding reduces variables that can affect quality, resources and supply chain issues. This is because bolts are generally simpler to install, requiring nothing more than a high-quality initial product and proper torquing procedure. Welding…requires significantly more material control…and welders must have skills that require testing and certification. Welds also typically require some form of nondestructive testing, depending on the applicable design code. An additional benefit of the example of bolts versus welds is that the reduction in special training or skillsets opens up the field to a larger resource pool, mitigating workforce shortage challenges. Project-wide, there are many similar designs elements that can be selected to reduce the need for special training or skillsets.
Taking time to establish the right partnerships and collaborations is another tactic that owners find helpful in steering the business—and each of its projects—to success. For example:
Owners are seeking to exert greater control over the value chain, collaborating with industry partners for more robust preconstruction planning, as well as becoming more involved in procurement decisions. Early planning, especially assisted by early contractor involvement (ECI), translates to early commitment for critical materials and equipment, while the collaborative approach ensures that design-phase decisions are coordinated to fit with actual products ordered. Additionally, general contractors contribute in-depth understanding of long lead items as well as material availability and pricing. Often these contractors have strong relationships with vendors, subcontractors and suppliers, enabling the team to improve hold times based on a letter of intent.
Another useful tool that helps owners gain more control over their businesses is The
Partnership Account® from Colonial Surety. With it, among other benefits, you will use our powers of attorney to issue your own bid bond. That means you can do so right up to the last moment, incorporating material substitutions and accounting for pricing fluctuations. In addition to issuing your own bid bonds, you can expediently order performance and payment bonds, run management reports, check your current and aggregate limits, view your underwriting profile—and more. Let’s get you growing, today: Learn more and pre-qualify for The Partnership Account® here now.
Piece By Piece?
Prefabricated and modularized building techniques are becoming increasingly important throughout the industry—and experts remind us that with careful planning, they can be helpful in keeping projects on time, on budget—and safe too: “Safety, quality and efficiency risks are inherently greater for field fabrication than for controlled shop settings. For this reason, prefabrication and modularization can help mitigate field resource availability, including the construction labor shortage. However, prefabricated items require more up-front design time to support procurement, so preconstruction activities should examine timing issues surrounding material and shop availability constraints.”
Of course a step by step approach is important to plotting business capacity and growth too—and that’s what Colonial Surety provides via The Partnership Account for Contractors®. With this free service, we will help you plot out the growth of your business, strategically, one step at a time. The Partnership Account® arms you with a private digital dashboard, providing you with a day to day snapshot of your single and aggregate limits, as well as your current and available bond capacity. As your work in progress decreases, you can even update your work on hand—increasing your aggregate so you can go ahead and move that next bid ahead. Take control of your finances—and get an edge issuing your own bid bonds, instantly, using our powers of attorney.
Get started today: Pre-Qualify and Get Free Scores Here.
Founded in 1930, Colonial Surety Company is a leading direct seller and writer of surety bonds and insurance products across the USA. Colonial is rated “A Excellent” by A.M. Best Company and U.S. Treasury listed.