Part one of this series covered action items for avoiding project overruns during the pre-construction phase. Topics covered included: the need for a thorough review of the quantity takeoff and budget done for bidding purposes; incorporating value engineering to save money on materials, labor, and equipment; project managers completing their own independent takeoff and pricing; and best practices for establishing a construction budget.
A high percentage of a project’s budget is labor, for example in Division 9 labor is approximately 60 percent of a project’s budget. It is imperative that a company fully understand and manage labor production. Analyzing and understanding historical labor and production information assists in creating guidelines for accurate bidding on future jobs but also for active job site management. If this historical data is not available then consider conducting onsite time trials. These trials involve assigning specific tasks to workers in the field and recording how much work is completed in a given time period. The trials should be conducted under real field conditions, if possible, using typical work performed on a regular basis such as wall framing, drywall hanging or installing ceiling grid.