Business Intelligence — October 2021
The past year and a half has left builders facing countless supply chain challenges. What is the most innovative work-around you came up with during the pandemic to compensate for supplies you couldn’t acquire on schedule or within budget?
Jimmy Canoles
Vice President of Service
Cole Roofing Company
Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy have leaned into our ecosystem of suppliers, vendors, customers and influencers. We have helped others and others have helped us. Unwilling to sacrifice quality, we have been able to flush out ideas, find common ground and work towards solutions that limit the downside for all parties. Consistent and proactive communication with all stakeholders is key. Adopting contractual language that creates a shared risk scenario while being fair to all parties has been extremely productive. Having a team that thrives on problem solving along with timely, honest dialogue with our customers has allowed us to continue to provide meaningful work for our people and successful projects for our clients despite the logistical hurdles and unimaginable supply chain collapse.
Taylor Classen
Partner
Delbert Adams Construction Group
While working on a restoration project for the Aberdeen B&O Train Station, we had trouble sourcing two materials that were included in the original design. The items, Pressure Treated LVLs and PSLs, were going to be used as exterior structural elements to hold up the new roof and updated interior structure. Once it became clear that we would not be able to acquire these items in time, we were able to bring a new material selection to the engineer – Pressure-treated GluLams. Not only did these meet the structural specifications but also the design requirements which we were closely following to bring this historic station back to its original appearance.
Another challenge arose during construction of a pump house at a local shopping center. Our steel fabricator told us there was a shortage of the round bar component needed to fabricate joists and would take nearly nine months to arrive. Rather than upset the project schedule, we spoke with the engineer and suggested going “old school” — using structural steel beams. The engineer was able to redesign the roof and, with only a minor cost increase, the project was finishing on schedule.
Bill Erickson
Business Development
Petrie Construction LLC
We were caught off guard at first and had to mitigate the delays as best as possible but became more proactive. We had our PMs perform a thorough due diligence on just about all lead-time items, not just the major ones such as lumber and steel. We had a roofer who said the insulation delivery would not make the schedule due to trucking issues. We learned the manufacturer also had a plant fire which pushed things back. We researched the product and found another manufacturer who made an equivalent product and had inventory. We made the switch with owner approval and no cost change. Checking as close to the manufacturing source as possible and learning the logistics of the supply chain is something we now check on before committing to a schedule.