March 25, 2009
When you look back at last week, how much of it was spent (wasted) fixing, editing, or just plain redoing the activity of the person that precedes your work?
Outlined below are examples of the wasted efforts about which I am speaking:
- The product salesman convinces the Architect to use the product but does not adequately educate them on how to specify the product correctly for a Project specification.
- The Architect writes a Project specification that is ambiguous in places by not editing the manufacturer’s guide specification correctly, for example: 4 mm or 6 mm MCM thickness, PE or FR Core, 2 Coat or 3 Coat color finish, standard or custom color, rout and return exposed sealant system or rout and return dry system.
- The MCM Subcontractor bids the following for a Project: 6 mm, PE Core, 2 Coat, Standard Color with a rout and return exposed sealant system. The Architect wanted a 4 mm, FR Core, 3 Coat, Custom Color finish with a rout and return dry system.
- The General Contractor uses the lower price of the Subcontractor and then must secure a Change Order from the Owner to provide the higher priced combination desired by the Architect.
- The cold formed steel framing Subcontractor does not build the substrate in conformance with the Contract Drawings.
- The MCM Subcontractor discovers the variance of the substrate and either has to have the General Contractor have the cold formed steel framing Subcontractor redo the work or must alter his panels, or have the General Contractor alter the substrate.
Construction is an inherently challenging industry when everyone does their work correctly. It is an infinitely more difficult and frustrating industry when the precedent work is not performed correctly. In the challenging times in which we are currently operating, we all must do our work better if we are going to be successful.
It is important that each of us “Do It Right” for those who follow us in the Process. It is also appropriate that we do things that can guide others to “Do It Right”. Let us use this Blog as a forum for how we can insist upon our predecessors, in the Construction Project Process, doing their work properly. So, stake out your position in the Process and share with others the means and methods you have used to help your predecessors in the Process “Do it Right” so that you do not have to waste your time, effort and money.
We all look forward to your comments. Remember, whenever you make one of your predecessors better, you become better, so share your successes.
Thanks,
Ted S. Miller