The New Abnormal – Making Projects Come In on Time

Hi. Dennis Engelbrecht, Digging Deeper. Thanks for tuning in today.

We've just gone through our spring round table groups, and of course the biggest thing facing everybody today are the
pricing challenges and also the supply chain disruptions. It's sort of a new abnormal, if you will. A couple of years back, we
were talking about the new normal. Well, now it seems like we're stuck in the new abnormal and what was true yesterday
isn't true today with all the various supply disruptions and pricing changes.

And so that's creating a very challenging environment to get projects accomplished, to get them done on time without
busts, to make it all come together. So that's putting a lot of extra pressure on project managers, project engineers, field
engineers, superintendents, trying to get these projects done on time and manage the whole supply chain as you go down
downstream.

So, let's talk about a few possibilities for how you can get success in these challenging abnormal times. So the first thing
is if you haven't been using your material logs religiously, you better dust them off or create them, because you really
need to know what's happening downstream from you and not just to your initial subcontractor or supplier. You need to
know what's happening all the way downstream, because it's likely that those disruptions are going to be surprising even
your suppliers and your subcontractors.

It seems like every day we read something in the press, the construction press of some new product that you can't get or
there's a shortage of, or that there are delays for. So you need to be, first of all, looking at those things on a daily basis,
but also even anticipating where the problems might come so that you can make plans around them and keep your
projects moving, possibly get replacement materials or find alternatives for those supplies as you look downstream.

So, it takes a lot of working very closely between you and your suppliers and your subcontractors to make sure that
everybody is abreast of each thing that's coming along the line. Make sure you understand which items are critical path
and which items you can possibly work around. But again, you should have that log, be keeping it updated religiously on
a daily basis, and not even just the weekly basis.

And also keep in mind that the recency of communication is critical. If you were told the blinds are going to arrive three
weeks ago, well, that's just not good enough today. You need to get that updated regularly, and yes, people might be
annoyed with you that you're constantly checking up, but truly, things are changing so fast out there down the entire
supply chain that you really can't afford to be surprised.

So, what you need to be is a hyper project manager, hyper engineer, hyper superintendent, just digging down deeper,
making sure you understand everything that can affect your project. And we know that this doesn't happen like this every
day, that we are in an extreme type of mode out there right now. So hopefully this doesn't last forever, but take the extra
step, ask the extra question, make the extra phone call or even personal visit to make sure that your supply chain is coming
in as expected and your project can continue and finish on time.

Dennis Engelbrecht, Digging Deeper, thanks for tuning in.