MATERIAL PROCUREMENT “ESCAPE ROOM” CHALLENGE
Material procurement and tracking is a very important part of any construction project. It is the management of all of the materials. If we don’t know how long it takes for the specified materials to be fabricated, where they are coming from or how long it will take to get to our job-site, then we cannot effectively manage our schedule, budget or subcontractors and suppliers. The submittal process verifies that the proposed materials are correct per the documents, but we also need to know how long these will take to process, fabricate and be shipped to our job-site as well. Essentially, we are determining if the approved materials be on our job-site in time to maintain our overall schedule.
This challenge is set up a bit like an escape room. The main question is, using all of the information provided, will the steel be delivered to our job-site before it is needed for installation? If it is, then you win (and your team wins). If it isn’t, we need to think outside of the box to try to get it there on-time. Sometimes we don’t receive all the information in a nice complete package, so to solve this puzzle, you will need all of the different resources below, a bit of brain power (maybe some coffee) and grit to solve this challenge!
LETS GET STARTED
Let’s first watch the short video to the right to best understand the equation we will need to tackle this challenge.
We have sent a Letter of intent (LOI) to our steel supplier this morning. We also left a voicemail asking them to start their submittal process and requested current fabrication times to get an idea of the lead times. They returned our call and left a voicemail below.
REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
MATERIAL TRACKING EQUATION
Based on the information gathered above in the ‘Material Tracking Worksheet’, and using the equation, would our steel be on-site in time to be erected on the date it is currently scheduled?
If you have any questions, challenges, or comments regarding this exercise, please feel free to reach out to our Director of Training and Outreach, Amy Powell at apowell@gtc1.net