PandL

[mannyb]

A little background before question. The Company I work for is GC that has inhouse licensed electytrical team for projects. The electrical team was added so company can perform more as a turn key operation during construction. As the electrical field ops manager I deal with the electrical portion side of projects. I dont perform any sales or estimates. Im only involved once projects are awarded and manage the schedules and where resources are needed for each project invvolving electrical . I struggle with management because either the materials or labors numbers are off once bid is awarded. Im being asked to do take off on materials once awarded and provide input on labor hours once awarded and handle a lot of items usually take place during preconstruction Our Contruction PM team dont have experience in managing electrical and most of the time are trying to appease the customer on items not in our SOW and we end up giving work away. Ive only operated as sub constractor being in electrical trade. Most of the items I would generally ask the GC and for them to know is now up to electrical team. Now Im being asked to participate in project summary reviews on why we didnt reach our margins.

Most Electrical contractors are independent and primarily operate as sub contractors. My question is has anyone ever operated under these circumstance and how did you handle the electrical projects from start to finish and also to be accountable for projects you had no input on bidding or sales? Sorry if my Post runs on but its Sunday and I wanted to get back to watching sports. Enjpy rest of weekend

 

[letgomywago]

Who is head of the electrical department for the company. It should be the master or signing electrician who should be able to help you break things down for bids. A lot of GC software lacks good info for current code for Electrical estimates and those use either specific software or the person running the job will provide a best guess of an estimate for time and material.

 

[drcampbell]

... I dont perform any sales or estimates. ... Now Im being asked to participate in project summary reviews on why we didnt reach our margins.

Gotta love Corporate America and the MBAs that run it.

The obvious answer is "Because the original estimates were unrealistic", followed with progressively-detailed assessments of why they went wrong. Unfortunately, the obvious answer is likely to get you branded "Not A Team Player" and fired.

Discovered that the hard way in the avionics biz. The company I worked for was big on writing five-year and ten-year plans, but more than a little negligent about updating them to reflect reality. With no advance notice, I was called into a meeting with the CEO and the executive staff, told that my project was two and a half years late getting launched into the market, and asked to explain myself. "Maybe you should have hired me more than five moths ago to get started on it" wasn't what they wanted to hear.

 

[brantmacga]

If that’s not your area of expertise, then it’s a waste of your time and theirs. I would suggest to your employer that they outsource it to a 3rd party bid service and just see where the numbers come back at. I assume this is a fueling station? If so, I’ve got some pretty recent bids on large travel centers I’ve been working on, and if you want me to take a quick glance and give you my WAG opinion, i don’t mind.

 

[letgomywago]

If that’s not your area of expertise, then it’s a waste of your time and theirs. I would suggest to your employer that they outsource it to a 3rd party bid service and just see where the numbers come back at. I assume this is a fueling station? If so, I’ve got some pretty recent bids on large travel centers I’ve been working on, and if you want me to take a quick glance and give you my WAG opinion, i don’t mind.

Make sure it's a reputable place. Not one of the emails you get in your spam.

 

[mannyb]

Thanks for replies... I like hearing different prospectives. BY the time I receive projects its already been awarded and ready to start. Electrical has little to no input into estimatres. I get the job then get told make the budget fit the bid. PNL show materials at good at 20% but our labor -30%. We travel a lot and 1/3 of our cost is OT not to mention perdiem for these projects. Again our estimators do quote without input from electrical. ANother thing to consider is that its a fairly new shop, 2 years, and most of the guys live and work as satelite. The projects are new to them and for some guys they arent familiar with running a project from start to finish even small projects. Im also learning to manage from afar and giving the guys in the field a lot of trust. We have come a long way. It just takes time. These guys work really hard and sometimes under unrealistic expectation because of resources.... Todays labor market isnt what it use to be. I do my best to manuevuer guys around to help each other and to keep projects in budget but I have noticed I loose productivity and that leads to pour craftsmanship. We have different factors happening and management isnt considering anything other than how can we go faster...

 

[petersonra]

There is not much you can do to make a project come under budget that was not quoted correctly.

Having said that, I have been told that usually the electrical portion of a job hovers pretty consistently in certain ranges (I have heard 10% used as this value), so if they are just adding 10% to the job to cover electrical maybe it is because that actually works pretty well, or at least has in the past.

It seems to me that if 1/3 of your labor cost is OT, if you are not a union shop you will make more money than if you had no OT at all due to not having to pay for any benefits on the OT. Unfortunately, in union shops my understanding is you have to pay health and welfare for all hours, so you don't gain all that much by using OT. if OT is a problem for you, probably your best bet is to figure out how to reduce it. It would reduce a big chunk of the 30% overrun on labor (for a union shop).