Trim construction costs? Are you looking for ways to bid a construction job but don’t know how to easily?
Today’s post if our archives at SafeSourcing, Inc.
Are you looking for ways to bid a construction job but don’t know how to easily trim costs. Do you have a favored supplier of your construction materials, but see their pricing is getting higher year after year and you think that you have limited options?
There are couple ways to get your costs down:
First would be to run a request for proposal (RFP) in order to qualify new potential suppliers and their capabilities to support your needs. You will also be able to verify specific pricing relative to materials or to be used during the job.
- Your RFP should be specific to the project you are working on. As an example, if you are sourcing a new roofing project or replacement roofing, then you could invite local suppliers from the area where the job is to be completed as well as the big national suppliers. Supply all with the same exact detail relative to framing/studs, the type of membrane materials, the insulation type, flashing, piping, ladders, lightning protection etc.
- From the completed RFP you will be able to choose a primary supplier and possibly a secondary supplier to work with based on their submission of information and pricing within your RFP.
Secondarily you might also run a request for quote or Reverse Auction in order to compress pricing based on all of the specifics submitted through the RFP from the general contractors or run a more specific RFQ targeting the higher pricing from the RFP, which could items such as labor or material costs.
- As an example, using the roofing scenario, you might choose to run an RFQ on membrane materials only from the manufactures to be used by the general contractor.
By running these e-procurement events you will be able to choose the best qualified supplier with the best pricing as well as present that supplier with your best priced manufacturer of the membrane materials. The combination of these two types of events will provide you significant savings on two specific fronts within the same category, and resultantly lower your overall construction costs.
The roofing example is just one of many areas within the construction category in which SafeSourcing can reduce costs and aid increasing profitability.
If you would like to learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.
