WallsandCeilings December 2011 : Page 6

up FRONT BY MARK FOWLER Good, Fast and Cheap I recently was sent an e-mail by a contractor who said he lives by a simple rule: All customers want him to be good, fast and cheap, and that is just not realistic. All contractors bid work, which is an offer to do the work for a customer. The general contractor selects a subcontractor’s offer and prepares a contract, which has the addi-tional terms the subcontractor must abide by beyond plans and specs. Many subcontractors are roped into signing a contract with terms and conditions that bear no resem-blance to what he was envision-ing during the bid and preparing the bid number. The subcontractor may agree to a timeline, sequence of scheduling, production rate and pay schedule, which in no fashion resembled what he was thinking. Many times the schedule is acceler-ated and there is little to no lead time, little tolerance and the pay schedule is set at a glacial pace. This where my friend’s rule comes into play. While the general con-tractor or owner wants all three, it is not possible to get all of them. My friend’s reply is, “Pick any two but you can’t have all three.” Now we must discuss the “how good” and “how fast.” Consider that there are usually some severe penal-ties for not adhering to quality stan-dards and schedule. When reviewing the contract, you should consider my friend’s advice that has become his company’s motto: 1. If you want good and fast, it won’t be cheap. 2. If you want good and cheap, it won’t be fast. 3. If you want fast and cheap, it won’t be good. GET REAL I believe most subcontractors know they can meet only two of the big three. It is that third piece that ruins all the best laid plans. If the client wants fast, he can get that by hiring more qualified people, accelerating the schedule, putting an extra supervisor on site and you have fast. But it does cost more money to do it good at that speed, so it won’t be cheap. If the client wants cheap, crews can be told to speed up produc-tion, relax tolerances and make the work of passable quality. This is where tract homes come from. Faster production and lower qual-ity—it is not wrong or improper as long as it meets code and is within the realm of what will sell. I did it for years. We were low cost and fast; but the quality was not what we were able to deliver on custom homes or commercial work. This is also where tract style subcontrac-tors get hit. They produce work they consider passable and the owner or developer comes out with a straight edge or powerful light to shine on walls and then quote standards, some from their own manual that they made up. Some general contractors have an “accelerated schedule” and require workers to stand around and wait for an area to work on. This is not cheap for the subcontractor who pays by the hour and is also why piece rate workers are preferred. In either case, the result is workers climbing over each other to get their jobs done. It is called poor schedul-ing and bad supervision, and the end result is the “good” vanishes as they try to stay on budget. Remember these rules when you bid work and more importantly remind the client when they send you the contract, pick any two but only two. If you push for good, fast and cheap, you will probably only get one. YOU CAN’T HAVE EVERYTHING The problem is that when you push for all three, you typically only get one and, thanks to reality televi-sion, the myth that all three are possible is streng thened. T hese rea l it y shows have a g roup of people build a home in only a few days. That is television and cer-tainly not reality in the construc-tion world. I have a good friend who worked on one of these shows where the home is gutted and re-built in only five days. He is a craftsman and noticed that crews were constantly directed to cov-er up work that was anything but good. It was also not cheap work. If not for volunteers and donated products, the cost of the project would be staggering. While the television show makes it seems like good, fast and cheap are possible, by pushing hard for all three, in “reality,” they got only one—fast. DO A GOOD JOB The good is inherently most desir-able. Everyone wants to do a good job and it’s not likely that they will give in on the good unless they use quality only as a sales slogan and are happy to write cheap bids, know-ing quality is irrelevant. I believe that most subcontractors want to do good work. Fast is relative. Is “fast” a reasonable, well-scheduled pace or accelerated with people climbing over each other? Cheap is typically why the general contractor selected your offer—you were the low bidder. 6 | Walls & Ceilings | December 2011

Up Front

Mark Fowler

Good, Fast and Cheap I recently was sent an e-mail by a contractor who said he lives by a simple rule: All customers want him to be good, fast and cheap, and that is just not realistic. All contractors bid work, which is an offer to do the work for a customer. The general contractor selects a subcontractor’s offer and prepares a contract, which has the additional terms the subcontractor must abide by beyond plans and specs.Many subcontractors are roped into signing a contract with terms and conditions that bear no resemblance to what he was envisioning during the bid and preparing the bid number. The subcontractor may agree to a timeline, sequence of scheduling, production rate and pay schedule, which in no fashion resembled what he was thinking.Many times the schedule is accelerated and there is little to no lead time, little tolerance and the pay schedule is set at a glacial pace.This where my friend’s rule comes into play. While the general contractor or owner wants all three, it is not possible to get all of them.My friend’s reply is, “Pick any two but you can’t have all three.” DO A GOOD JOB The good is inherently most desirable.Everyone wants to do a good job and it’s not likely that they will give in on the good unless they use quality only as a sales slogan and are happy to write cheap bids, knowing quality is irrelevant. I believe that most subcontractors want to do good work. Fast is relative. Is “fast” a reasonable, well-scheduled pace or accelerated with people climbing over each other? Cheap is typically why the general contractor selected your offer—you were the low bidder. Now we must discuss the “how good” and “how fast.” Consider that there are usually some severe penalties for not adhering to quality standards and schedule. When reviewing the contract, you should consider my friend’s advice that has become his company’s motto: 1. If you want good and fast, it won’t be cheap. 2. If you want good and cheap, it won’t be fast. 3. If you want fast and cheap, it won’t be good. YOU CAN’T HAVE EVERYTHING The problem is that when you push for all three, you typically only get one and, thanks to reality television, the myth that all three are possible is strengthened. These real ity shows have a group of people build a home in only a few days. That is television and certainly not reality in the construction world. I have a good friend who worked on one of these shows where the home is gutted and rebuilt in only five days. He is a craftsman and noticed that crews were constantly directed to cover up work that was anything but good. It was also not cheap work.If not for volunteers and donated products, the cost of the project would be staggering. While the television show makes it seems like good, fast and cheap are possible, by pushing hard for all three, in “reality,” they got only one—fast. GET REAL I believe most subcontractors know they can meet only two of the big three. It is that third piece that ruins all the best laid plans. If the client wants fast, he can get that by hiring more qualified people, accelerating the schedule, putting an extra supervisor on site and you have fast. But it does cost more money to do it good at that speed, so it won’t be cheap. If the client wants cheap, crews can be told to speed up production, relax tolerances and make the work of passable quality. This is where tract homes come from.Faster production and lower quality— it is not wrong or improper as long as it meets code and is within the realm of what will sell. I did it for years. We were low cost and fast; but the quality was not what we were able to deliver on custom homes or commercial work. This is also where tract style subcontractors get hit. They produce work they consider passable and the owner or developer comes out with a straight edge or powerful light to shine on walls and then quote standards, some from their own manual that they made up. Some general contractors have an “accelerated schedule” and require workers to stand around and wait for an area to work on. This is not cheap for the subcontractor who pays by the hour and is also why piece rate workers are preferred.In either case, the result is workers climbing over each other to get their jobs done. It is called poor scheduling and bad supervision, and the end result is the “good” vanishes as they try to stay on budget. Remember these rules when you bid work and more importantly remind the client when they send you the contract, pick any two but only two. If you push for good, fast and cheap, you will probably only get one.

Previous Page Next Page

Publication List
Using a screen reader? Click Here