Schedule Schmedule: What Subs Need to Demand from General Contractors
Like what we are now seeing with Obamacare, the deception continues in our beloved industry.
Try getting a schedule from the GC as a subcontractor. When you ask for a schedule at the beginning of a project, i.e. the baseline schedule, the contractor often says, "We don't have one."
(The one produced at bid time is no longer valid when a project starts.)
We want to link our labor codes to a schedule to track our manpower from budgets to actuals. However, we can't get the information.
We want to link our labor codes to a schedule to track our manpower from budgets to actuals. However, we can't get the information.
Any time a sub asks for updated schedules along the way, the managers think all we want it for is to prepare a claim. They give us self-serving schedules in the field but not for project managers to use as analytical tools. It's used to show each trade that they are behind, as a hammer, so to speak.
This is just bad business practice.
This is just bad business practice.
We want a schedule to give us indicators as to planned vs. actual as it relates to costs, billings and time.
If we are compressed, we need to know how to adjust, not necessarily for more compensation either. If that is the case everyone including the owner should know that there is a compressed schedule leading to a stacking of trades which will affect subcontractors' productivity.
This is not how we bid the job.
Often in building stadiums or casinos with hard opening dates, you see the effect of unanticipated spikes in manpower which goes unrecognized by the players on the job, only to cause angst and bad feelings at the end.
Often in building stadiums or casinos with hard opening dates, you see the effect of unanticipated spikes in manpower which goes unrecognized by the players on the job, only to cause angst and bad feelings at the end.
Subs need to stand up for themselves and interact with updated schedules, which can help all parties keep better track of the realities rather than hiding these issues until the end. By tracking internal labor codes and against schedule codes, it becomes a window on the bid vs. actual analysis so necessary to improving performance both within companies and on projects.
We just won't get any better if schedules are hidden, not shared, and don't include subcontractors information except for an initial inquiry on durations a sub will take on the schedule codes.
We just won't get any better if schedules are hidden, not shared, and don't include subcontractors information except for an initial inquiry on durations a sub will take on the schedule codes.
We are living in the dark as too much of our money is held and these claims emerge.
The lawyers are winning and we are collectively losing.
