One of the best ways to make effective use of this shelter at home (or lock down) period is to thoroughly plan our project execution. Good planning can boost our bottom line very easily by 20% based on our past experience. I know we are always fighting urgent fires of the day (or the hour) and planning tends to get pushed down to a lower priority. But we must resist the urge to do so and keep this very important task at the fore front.
Specifically, for all projects – and starting with the projects that will start construction in May, we must:
- Generate Construction plan set from the permit plan set – working with the design and construction team. Construction plans have lot more details than the permit set – extra sheets showing string diagrams, conduit layouts, communication layouts, equipment mounting details, setbacks and distances between various site anchor points are common additions.
- Generate a detailed take-off list or BOM.
- Price the BOM to come up with accurate materials budget.
- Get the lead times of all components that are required for the project.
- Come up with a detailed labor budget in terms of person-hours, travel, lodging, gas and other staples.
- Working with construction, produce a Schedule for the project. including tentative resource assignment.
- Generate the TOTAL bottom-up target project Budget.
- Generate a cash flow model of the project.
In these difficult times it is important to stand united and help one another in whatever way we can. Stay safe and stay healthy. Remember, some of the best initiatives are built in trying times. Like all difficult situations, this too shall pass!
