have been fortunate to experience firsthand the challenges of building a diverse team to complete a construction project. One way that I view a building project is to think—and build—outside of the box. For example, what if you think of construction like a manufac- turing process? After all, each project is really developing a team of experts to manufacture one unique unit of a complete product! Doesn’t that
process seem absurd? well-timed sequence Just to think of
hundreds of companies coming together in a hopefully
assemble
one unit of product. Then everyone leaves and goes to the next “manufacturing” event with a potentially different set of players. Successful manufacturing companies would look at this model and say “really?!” But that is why all of us
are attracted to this industry. Every day is unique and every unit we manufacture is distinctive.
IDENTIFY THE RIGHT VENDORS
When we reach the construction documents stage of the building process, we need to assemble our “manufacturing” team. For the purpose
of this article, process, let’s assume typically a the
stakeholders—owner, architect and engineer— have selected a point person to manage the manufacturing
general
contractor (GC). The GC reviews the plans and specifications trades,
and manufacturing then determines products and systems are process, which
for the unit being manufactured. Unlike a true
takes which required THE WHO’S WHO IN BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION DISCOVER MORE @ WWW.THEWHOSWHO.BUILD
