In today’s construction market, remaining a cost competitive bidder with decent margins is tougher than ever.
We live in this world every day just like you because we not only sell Unistrut materials–we also do our fair share of installation work. In this post, we’ll share some tips on how to improve your bottom line by examining material costs versus materials plus labor costs.
If you are like most contractors, the struggle to stay competitive in the market while maintaining profitable margins is a tough, uphill battle. You can’t keep bidding jobs and running projects the way you did in years past and expect a different outcome. Today’s construction market demands efficiency. How do you become more efficient you may ask? Keep reading, and we’ll share some ideas to make you more efficient, cost-competitive, and profitable.
第一步是查看您的材料采购。请记住 - 发布采购订单的费用约为75美元。停下来考虑一下。您需要要求定价，可用性，然后比较报价。接下来的购买需要发行PO。当材料到达仓库时，您需要使用PO检查BOL并将材料转到工作现场。你明白了。
当您考虑所有这些考虑时，您上次何时询问批准的供应商是否携带其他产品？也许您是从供应商A和供应商的锚点购买硬件。不要以为您的供应商会花时间寻找您，了解您的业务，并告诉您他们还能为您做些什么。您可能会为一盒锚支付$ 5.00，但是只要少了一个PO，您仍然领先70美元。要更进一步，请查看您的工具。您是否正在开车去大盒子商店来供工具，用于硬件的供应商A和供应商B？华体会体育网赞助沃尔夫斯堡除了您所知道和信任的整个Unistrut系列外，还有Powers锚和紧固件的库存分销商。
这是另一个例子 - 购买预先切割和捆绑的支柱与购买股票长度。假设您的供应商只售出10英尺长，但您需要六英尺。如果另一个供应商以20英寸的价格出售Strut怎么办？通道的较长部分每节仅产生2'的浪费，而不是在每个10英尺的部分浪费4英尺的材料。
Now let’s take this to the next level. Say you have an Electrician on-site at $30/hour, and his sole purpose is to cut联合国for four days to support conduit. We’ll assume he can cut 20 pieces in an hour. That comes to 640 cut-to-length pieces over four days, with $960 in labor. With our dedicated production saw, we can often cut strut for much less than you would in the field paying prevailing wages. And if we “bundle” the materials per jobsite area, you’ll save even more labor costs.
要将重点带回家，让我们看看另一种情况。假设您有一份工作，要求在混凝土甲板上使用40英尺的支柱，80个配件和30个锚点。这种情况可以结合上面讨论的一些问题。我们可以将您的所有材料直接剪切，捆绑和交付到工作现场。您将支付少量（但公平）的削减，捆绑和交付的价格，但请考虑节省劳动力。很有可能您通过自我绩效这些任务来支付更多的人工成本。
有时，我们面临的最大障碍之一就是睁开购买。请记住，大多数购买经理只负责谈判材料的最佳价格。他们并不总是具备考虑劳动成本的必要技能。思考超越每英尺或每件成本的成本，并查看供应商提供的服务，以使您的工作人员更有效。我们的许多客户开始看到更大的了解：材料成本 +人工成本=总成本。
这是最后一个情况。假设您正在从事一个项目华体会体育网赞助沃尔夫斯堡is also on-site. We have the expertise to design systems to include supports for your equipment along with ours. Perhaps the Electrical Contractor needs to run 14 pieces of conduit, the Mechanical Contractor has four small ducts, and the Plumbing Contractor has to run eight pieces of copper. Where does this all go and how is it coordinated? What if everyone tries to take the same place? Unistrut can create systems to accommodate all of these competing requirements, and we can usually modify existing systems or designs for much less than you can do it yourself. Sometimes adding a clamp or bracket to the design can save hours in field labor. We work with strut in the field every day–trust us–we get it.
在框外思考可以节省您的时间和金钱。如果剩下的低价人对盈利能力造成了太大的损失，请记住探索所有可用的选项：
- 检查您的资源。不要仅仅购买最低价格的价格，而是提供最佳服务的供应商。这将使您的工作人员更加高效。利用节省人工成本的材料和设计。
- 考虑减少供应商列表，并尝试从一个供应商那里购买多个物品。有时，单一采购在一些精选的项目中稍贵一些。也就是说，多个采购订单的成本通常超过您从一家供应商购买时可能会遇到的每一件费用的潜在增加。
- 取消是什么使您更加高效。自己做并不总是最便宜的选择。
如果您仍在阅读这篇文章，那么我们已经捕捉到了您的想象力，也许您正在寻找一个可以帮助您简化购买并提供增值服务的供应商，以使您在市场上保持竞争力。我们可以做所有这些，并帮助您提高底线盈利能力。了解更多，contact Unistrut Service Company为进一步协助。