Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | B | Builder

End game: when materials hit the end of the supply chain--the jobsite--it's the last chance to catch any problems or make changes.

Article Excerpt
IT'S A COOL, BREEZY DAY IN THE heart of a Las Vegas winter, and Ken Paulson, a site superintendent for Astoria Homes in Las Vegas, leads a short tour of this, the Veranda community, where a half-dozen homes have reached various stages of completion. Paulson oversees as many as 75 homes under construction at one time. Sure, he has help from two other supers who report to him, but he still faces a daunting challenge. How do you make sure that tons of lumber, windows, frame systems, and roof tiles arrive at the site in the right amounts, colors, and condition, so they don't slow the rapid pace of production? This is the final phase of the purchasing chain, where decisions that affect quality and maintenance must be made carefully.

"We handle each material differently," Paulson explains. "Windows, for example, we try to install them the day they arrive. That means less chance of them being damaged, and they're less likely to walk off the jobsite. The windows are actually dropped in the garage of each house."

>From Paulson's point of view, the most critical point in the purchasing loop is the moment when materials arrive on the jobsite, because that's the point...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!