As a homeowner, it is quite a frustrating experience to finally get to start a project, have a list of everything needed for the project, get to the home improvement chain store and find out they don’t have half of what is needed in stock. That store suggests going to one of the branch stores, which after a long ride also lacks what is needed for the project. In a last ditch effort, a visit to the competitors home improvement store produces the same results and the project gets put on hold. It is time to start taking better stock of your stock.
The same type of scenario occurs for a vehicle owner when in need of a small repair. The appointment is made, the vehicle is brought to the shop, however the part that is needed is on back order and won’t be in for three days, making a simple, quick repair quite the ordeal while waiting for the part.
Inventory issues can affect all areas of life. A cooking recipe calls for many items and normally would be shopped for ahead of time. However, if something was being made that had been made many times before, a last minute trip to the store would not be uncommon. For no particular reason, the usual store doesn’t have a couple of the ingredients on the list, a visit to the second and third store reveals the same thing. Either many more stores have to be visited, the recipe has to be altered, or something else has to be made, just because you, and the grocery stores weren’t taking better stock of your stock.
In all of these cases, nobody at any of the stores seemed to know why the inventory was low or non-existent. “We just work here,” is a common excuse used many times.
Perceptual Inventory
The construction industry is riddled with inventory problems. Not having what is needed for any one project can cause significant delays, costing enormous amounts of money. In order to keep a project moving smoothly, inventory and material management should have the highest priority. Service contractors need to have the correct parts or supplies readily available to avoid having customers that are disappointed or angry.
Thanks to cutting edge technology there are many computer software solutions available to the construction industry to make inventory an easier task. However, many contractors are not taking advantage of the software to it’s fullest potential, and some aren’t using it at all. The construction industry has welcomed software into the business for accounting and business management, but inventory and material management seem to not be a priority.
Supply and Demand with Cutting Edge Technology
It is an inconvenience when mechanics, home improvement stores, or grocery stores run out of a certain item or have a low quantity once in awhile. It definitely won’t put them out of business though. The construction industry isn’t allowed to work the same way. If materials are missing, or equipment isn’t available the project will stop. A stopped project costs a lot of money, and this type of inconvenience will lose the company future jobs. It can cause a domino effect of one project holding up another one and so on. A construction company’s reputation may never be rebuilt from something like that.
Unlike retail and grocery stores and mechanics, where lacking goods from time to time won’t necessarily break business, construction projects rely on having the right materials ready to go when needed. If they’re missing or incorrect, then the whole project can come screeching to a halt. With service contractors, the inconvenience caused from delays or rescheduling can result in significant lost business, and they too can cause delays on larger projects they’re a part of building if their materials are not ready to go when they are.
Construction software solution can not only save time by automating material management, it saves money from delays in projects. When inventory used to be controlled manually it was very easy to under or overstock, however with the new solutions it is very simple to keep track of every single thing right down to a screw.
If your construction company is suffering from delays, setbacks and cancellations due to your inventory, it is definitely time to update your construction software, or to get some. It is a wise investment that will pay you back ten times over. So to the construction industry we say, it’s time to start taking stock of your stock.