Manage FF&E specification, procurement, and product data at scale. Take on bigger projects with confidence and grow your firm with Fohlio. Schedule a demo or book a consultation with one of our account managers to explore these features today.
Between design and procurement, things have always been pretty old school.
For as long as design and procurement co-existed, things have been done pretty much the same way: Each step is done independently and separately, then afterwards, passed on to the next person or team. This is actually a high risk procedure because it entails that the person or team in the next step will absorb all of the errors from the first. This in turn causes time spent on re-doing errors (which takes hours normally) and then trying chase the time to do the actual work for the actual step that they’re in.
For design and procurement, here’s how it normally goes down: Design takes the process from concept building, down to specification writing -> passes it on to the client for approval -> procurement. In most cases, design teams overlook the fact that the procurement team can sometimes struggle with the next steps because of hiccups in sourcing the specified materials. This, in turn, can cause major delays in delivery and can negatively impact the expected date of turn-over for a project.
While some might say that the linear workflow has worked in the past, we can’t say for sure whether this can still be considered the most effective way of doing things. It’s frustrating for companies who still use this linear method of work because it puts a lot of factors in the project at risk, but it’s also difficult to find a new way of doing things because the traditional method is the only thing they’ve known to do for so long. Don’t get us wrong, we aren’t putting the blame on anyone. It’s actually quite the contrary because we have something worth bringing to the table: The concept of designing for procurement.
In simple terms: designing for procurement means working backward and involving procurement during the early design phases.
Since most companies don’t reach out to procurement until they’re ready to purchase, they tend to miss out on some big wins: involving procurement early on can give high-value input for your overall design process. Here are a couple of practices and their benefits to give you a head start on learning how to design for procurement.
Learn more on: How to Measure Construction Procurement Success: Basic Key Performance Metrics
Value engineering is a skill very much worth knowing and is definitely a skill that those in procurement know a thing or two about. Value engineering is the method of eliminating project waste and increasing quality to elevate the value of your project at the lowest cost possible. This includes considerations such as material availability, building methods, transportation challenges, site limitations or restrictions, planning and organization, expenses, and profits. By teaching designers about the impact their design specifications make on project value, they can make the procurement process easier when they become value-minded when writing their specifications.
Read: How to Use Design Standards to Improve Project Success
Manage FF&E specification, procurement, and product data at scale. Take on bigger projects with confidence and grow your firm with Fohlio. Schedule a demo or book a consultation with one of our account managers to explore these features today.