On construction projects of all sizes, maintaining the schedule is paramount. While most projects experience some level of delay, a construction project can be heavily impacted, derailed and even cancelled when certain items in the scope don’t go as planned. This includes items with a long lead time – items that take a long time to actually get in hand. It’s extremely important that long lead items run smoothly through their entire process; from procurement to installation. In this article, we’re breaking down the procurement strategy for long lead items in construction, along with a few tips to consider!
Jump To Section:
- Long Lead Item Examples
- Planning Stages
- Estimating & Bidding Stages
- Long Lead Item Coordination
- Risk Analysis During Procurement
- Execution & Monitoring Stages
What Are Some Examples Of Long Lead Items?
As we stated earlier, a long lead item in construction is anything that’ll take a relatively long time to take place after the initial request is made.
What’s a long time? Opinions on this varies, but in my opinion, I consider any item that takes more than one week to get as a ‘long lead item‘.
While the one-week time period can serve as a benchmark, it’s important to remember that some items will take weeks, months or even years to be fully, 100% delivered.
Long lead items can also require heavy coordination, take place over multiple phases of work and represent a considerable dollar value.
Here are a few examples of long lead items in construction:
- A contractor or service that must be scheduled to work several weeks in advance, with little room for change or adjustment after the fact.
- A piece of specialty equipment that’s in high demand or hard to get.
- Materials that are not commonly used or stocked regularly.
- Custom-fabricated items: there are truly too many examples to list, but some I’ve personally procured include exterior facade systems, stonework, stainless steel building components, ornamental sheet metal, bridge deck panels, guardrails and many more.
There are so many different types of long lead items in construction – these are just a few examples.
With the risk surrounding long lead items, it makes sense to prepare for them as much as possible at the beginning of the project. That said, long lead items matter throughout all phases of any type of project, as they have the ability to effect the project’s overall outcome to such a high degree.
Let’s talk about how to handle long lead items throughout each key project phase.
Long Lead Items During Planning Stage
When any project is in the conception stage, it’s difficult to clearly imagine what the end of the project will look like, at least in terms of how to make it happen. Owners and initiators know what they want, but they don’t know what exactly needs to happen along the way.
By identifying items with a long lead time, Owners and Designers alike will at least have an understanding of the project’s overall timeframe.
On larger projects, this doesn’t usually apply to items that take just a week or two to get. When a certain element of a project requires several months of lead time, such a factor can drastically impact how the project will proceed. Expectations can then be set properly.
For example: Consider a high-rise building that features an all-glass curtainwall. That curtainwall system won’t even BEGIN to arrive onsite for several months after a Purchase Order is signed, shop drawings are approved and a deposit is paid – it must be ordered well in advance.
Owner and Designer expectations must align with this from the get-go.
Read Next: What Should A Project Manager Do If The Customer Delays A Project?
Long Lead Items During Estimating & Bidding Stages
When contractors assemble a bid for a project, they must consider several variables. This includes the overall timeframe of a project, but also the ebb and flow of how the work will proceed:
- Do they need to frequently mobilize and demobilize?
- Will there be a bit of work up front, then six months of silence before the project resumes?
- How long with the project take overall?
- Which items fall on the critical path?
As you can imagine, the lead time of labor, equipment, materials, etc. all affect the answers to these questions.
Continuing our high rise curtainwall example from above, that contractor may be required to mobilize, take dimensions of the concrete or steel structure, supply them to the curtainwall manufacturer, then demobilize for several months until the curtainwall deliveries start arriving.
This means the contractor will need to mobilize multiple times and find other work to do in between.
A different example: say a particular type of specialty paint takes four weeks to get. A contractor may elect to purchase a large amount of the paint all at one time, rather than in small batches. They may also elect to purchase a lot more of it to cover waste and mistakes than they otherwise would’ve.
This is simply because it takes so long for the paint to arrive that it’s best not to take the chance of ever running out.
These concerns of the contractor will manifest themselves at the time of bid via higher pricing, requesting an up-front deposit for the paint and other general approaches to the project too.
Read Next: How To Estimate Construction Costs: Our Comprehensive Guide
Long Lead Item Coordination
Projects with long lead items can quickly slam to a stop when all parties aren’t on the same page as to how these items must be handled. While it’s about as simple as that, here’s an example.
Suppose a project requires a specialty subcontractor to remove hazardous materials from the site. This company requires 30 days’ notice before they can start onsite to prepare, get permits, etc.. In this scenario:
The Owner must anticipate this amount of lead time in their expectations of overall project timeframes.
Design Professionals must understand what this contractor will require from them in the way of direction, information, impact to the rest of the structure, etc. Designers / Construction Managers must have this information available in the proper timeframe.
Other Contractors onsite – be they a General Contractor hiring the hazmat company or other contractors working alongside them – must know how this hazmat company will affect their work. All parties must also understand schedules, onsite storage, access to work and other coordination-related information. Contractors must anticipate the impact they’ll experience well before the hazmat company arrives onsite.
The flip side of the coin? Imagine if the client, designers, managers and general contractor don’t know that the hazmat contractor needs 30 days’ notice before the work will begin, or fully understand how their own work will affect the jobsite – they’re in for a rude awakening!
Read Next: How Do You Manage Subcontractors? 7 Essential Tips
Long Lead Item Procurement Risk Analysis
All construction projects carry risks.
Risk of not finishing on time, of being improperly built, of contractors going bankrupt, etc. are just a couple examples.
When a portion of work with a long lead time goes south, these effects are felt tenfold down the chain. It may delay the project by weeks or even months!
When procuring a long lead time item, it’s essential that owners, designers and contractors alike perform a risk analysis for that item.
A risk analysis in this context is more or less drafting a list of everything that could possibly go wrong with that particular item of work, and what will be done to address it.
Here are some good questions to ask when procuring a long lead item on a construction project:
- Where does this item fit in the sequence of construction?
- How will work that’s adjacent, on top of or underneath this particular item be affected?
- What payments are needed to get this item onsite? When are payments needed?
- Which parties need to coordinate and contribute to the procurement of this item?
- What approvals are required for this item to move forward?
- Drawings?
- Samples?
- Permits?
- Mockups?
- Inspections?
- Can any aspects of a custom-made component be field-modified in the event of an issue? What field modifications may be required?
Preparedness is one of the most important aspects of completing a construction project successfully.
Thoroughly vetting and planning the procurement of long lead items is one way to avoid costly mistakes.
Read Next: What Are The Basics Of Project Scheduling? 9 Essential CPM Steps
Long Lead Item Execution & Monitoring
Last but not least, it’s vital that all long lead items are executed properly and monitored to completion.
Until a long lead item is completely done, it must be monitored closely – the risks surrounding items like these are so plentiful that one misstep could derail the whole item of work.
When procuring long lead items in construction, one must establish milestones throughout the process. This allows all parties involved to understand what needs to happen one step at a time.
Here’s an example. Suppose a new bridge deck is going to be pre-fabricated in a shop setting [a la Fast 14 in Boston].
Imagine that the concrete substructure will be built in the field, whereas the bridge deck will be transported onto the roadway and set into place by crane.
The fabrication for this bridge will begin two months before it will arrive onsite.
Here are some typical milestones for a project like this:
- Achieve A Final Engineered Design
- Consider Means & Methods Of Installation:
- Type Of Truck To Transport
- Type Of Crane To Set The New Deck
- Commence Fabrication, Including Deposits, Signing A Contract, Etc.
- Construct The Concrete Substructure & Ensure It’s Built To Tolerance
- Procure Hardware & Materials Required To Set The Deck, Like Bolts, Anchors, Bearing Pads, Etc.
- Achieve Adequate 28-Day Concrete Strength Of The Substructure
- Achieve Adequate 28-Day Concrete Strength Of The Bridge Deck
- Bridge Deck Is 100% Complete For Installation
- Schedule Trucking & Crane/Hoisting Services For Install
- All Material Is Procured & Onsite
- Bridge Deck Is Transported, Hoisted & Set Into Place
- Bridge Deck Is 100% Installed
Just like managing a large, complex project, setting intermittent milestones is essential to keeping long lead items on track!
Read Next: Avoiding Rework In Construction: 10 Common Causes & Solutions
Procurement Strategy For Long Lead Items In Construction: In Summary
While long lead items carry many types of inherent risk, there’s plenty we can do as Contractors, Design Professionals and even Owners to mitigate these risks on our projects. Most importantly – the more that can be done BEFORE any contracts are signed or work takes place, the better! I hope you’ve found this article helpful and informative. Thanks for reading.
