I have seen several projects bidding recently where it seemed a greater importance was placed on the bid date rather than receiving quality bids. On one of these bids, the plans were only 60% complete and an addendum was issued on Friday for a Monday bid date that changed the scope for the contractor and [...]
The other day I received a call from a nationally ranked architectural firm based in Omaha. They wanted a presentation on our capabilities in estimating. This was the third time I had been asked to do this in the past few years. The first two times I made a presentation nothing ever came of it. [...]
Identify the items in the specification that are in your scope of work. Identify items on the drawings that you have taken off or accounted for. Typically this would be done by coloring the item. Identify the notes on the drawings that you have completed. Review all of the drawings to make sure that you [...]
Smart companies make stupid decisions in a multitude of different ways when it comes to construction. They may know their own industry or service sector better than anyone else, but many of these otherwise excellent firms lose all concept of doing something correct when it comes to dealing with construction projects. They make selections based [...]
We just finished helping one of our contractor clients bid an industrial project on a fast track design build basis. The drawings were stated to be 60% complete by the facility owner. The only 60% complete item about the package was their thinking it was 60% complete! This is on a project that is likely [...]
1) Not knowing what the schedule is saying. 2) Not getting input from your subcontractors or your field personnel. 3) Including activities in the schedule that have no impact to the schedule or any relationship to any activity in the schedule. 4) Trying to hide delays in the project so the schedule looks good. 5) [...]
On a recent assignment we encountered a hospital project that will be headed for the toilet and likely end up in litigation or arbitration. We can see this coming prior to bid time. The problems could have been avoided if the owner only knew. I don’t know where it started. It could be with the [...]
The politicos keep announcing how the United States economy is recovering nicely. Too bad the recovery in the construction arena means unemployment is rising. A few months ago unemployment for construction was less than 15%. As of March 2010 it is 27%. The Economic Stimulus is still a bad joke for firms involved in construction. [...]
1) Not including logic in the schedule. 2) Constraining activities that should not be constrained. 3) Including too many activities. 4) Not including enough activities. 5) Not putting in the correct duration for activities.
Contractors are violating one of the basic tenants of business. They are bidding work without any profit added to their bids. Not only that, they are bidding projects without fully recouping their costs of doing business. This is nothing new, just more prevalent and in larger sums. On a recent assignment we prepared the independent [...]
