“Successful projects need the right teams.”
Today we talk about building our project teams with subcontractors and suppliers that are the right fit for the job.
We all have team members that are subcontractors or suppliers on our projects. These team members play an important role in the success of our projects yet we often give little consideration to their qualifications for the project.
Each member of our project team as a part of the success and our team is only as good as its weakest link. Having one bad supplier or subcontractor on the project can drag the whole project down. To avoid these issues we need to spend some time in the beginning making sure our subcontractors and suppliers are right for the job.
I worked with a client one time that was having issues with their concrete foundation contractor. The subcontractor was struggling to get the job done and hurting the whole schedule. When I started working with them to determine how to solve the problem we spent some time looking the subcontractors capabilities. This particular subcontractor was new in the foundation market and had previously completed some home foundations. The project they were on was a government warehouse. The Owner had daily quality inspection teams and they were having issues with the way the subcontractor was performing. The subcontractor was not used to this type of work and did not understand the requirements and was making mistakes every day and having to re-do the work constantly. He just didn’t understand the requirements. They eventually had to hire a replacement to complete the concrete foundations and the subcontractor probably went out of business. This all could have been avoided.
[tweetthis]Successful projects need the right teams.[/tweetthis]
If the team had taken the necessary steps in checking the qualifications of the subcontractor they would have never hired him for this project. You need to do the same thing when hiring your subcontractors. Make sure they have the necessary experience to complete your project successfully.
Having the right team on the project from the start will help drive the success of the project.
Take-Action Items:
-
Start qualifying your subcontractors and suppliers
-
Review qualifications before awarding a project
