The average construction project has about 10% changes, so improvements of just a few percentage points in pricing can make a huge difference to contractors.
This is not about simply marking up the change more, but rather, including the many costs that are typically missed or undervalued:
- Accurate labor burden costs, including premium pay.
- Indirect labor costs, including safety equipment, consumables, small tools, etc.
- Company owned equipment rates and operating costs.
- Commodity materials that are often missed during pricing of changes.
- Field supervision and project management time.
- The right labor production units based on the conditions of the change, including impacts to other work.
- Productivity impacts for shift work, congested work areas, or overtime.
- Extended general conditions on the project if the change delays the schedule.
Beyond knowing how to include these costs into the change, it is important for the whole project team to master the art of effective negotiations to not only improve pricing, but also speed and customer satisfaction.
How much could your change management processes be improved? How much is that worth?