Commercial Steel Estimating. Kerri Olsen

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СКАЧАТЬ that is indicated in the general conditions section of the specifications or may be advised by the customer; make sure that this schedule fits within current work load requirements.

      Research past projects, especially if you are new to the shop where you are working. Get to know what jobs were successful and why. Also, get to know the jobs that were not successful and why not. Specific opinions on the good and the bad may or may not be the actual reason a project resulted in a loss for the company. There will be clues that will lead to the true answers when comparing the working file to the original quote.

      Most companies now have computer programs for their job costing. Review the historical job cost files for projects to research. Once a project is identified as interesting, get the hard copy job file, then locate and review the original steel estimate. Review the entire quote for the total labor hours and all cost information that should be there.

      If the project chosen to review was a successful project, then all too often it is automatically assumed that every element was completed under budget. However, even if the project as a whole was completed under budget, some specific fabrications may have had labor hours and costs that ran over budget, while others were under budget. Find out why. What did the job look like? Are the contract drawings still available for review? What about a set of shop drawings? Reviewing all of this information will enable you see how and why your company was successful with that work.

      The goal is to find what works best for your company and focus on those elements. Find the work that suits your shop the best and you will be more successful as an estimator for them. Once you are clear on Table 1.1’s The Elements of Project Evaluation relative to the fabrication shop, you will have better defined your direction. You will be less likely to waste time quoting projects that are not going to be beneficial for your company.

Plan Centers

      Actually travelling to a plan center or a general contractor’s plan room has become a thing of the past. Most plan centers and general contractor plan rooms are online; you can review drawings right from your desktop and print out your own drawings. Using online plan rooms takes much less time and effort than borrowing bid documents. Now you can buy a set or get one on deposit—even at night or on weekends. Online plan centers vary in costs and services. Some offer free support for the subcontractors to the general contractors that are members.

Construction Newspapers and Bid Advertisements

      Bid advertisements can be found in construction newspapers. They often can come over the fax or via email. Public works projects may also be advertised in local newspapers or posted on government web sites. These are the most common ways to find open bid construction projects.

      You may get occasional phone calls from general contractors or other customers requesting a quote on a specific project. In addition, someone from your company may drop a set of drawings on your desk. Phone calls to your favorite general contractor or past customers with an inquiry on any up and coming projects is a helpful way both to both get your name out there and to find out about any attractive opportunities.

      Most of the time, you can tell by the project’s title what type of project it is. You may also be able to tell just from the name of the job whether it is new construction or a remodel. For example (these are not actual names) “Joy Rider Middle School” might be a new school. But “Joy Rider Middle School Modernization” would be a remodel. Another example is “Big City WWTP.” This name would be a Waste Water Treatment Plant. You can never really tell exactly what a project is until you look at the drawings, but the name of the project can be a pretty good indicator of what you might find there.

      No matter what the resource, approach every job like it may be the right opportunity. Then consider The Elements of Project Evaluation while making your decision. If it passes all five, then the project may be a good opportunity for the company.

Compliance Requirements

      Never knowingly bid work that is going to get your company into trouble! Positioning your company to take a job with a specific compliance your company cannot meet or specific scheduling requirements that are unrealistic is bad business practice.

      If the project specifications indicate that structural steel fabrication is to be performed by an AISC-certified shop (see references) and pricing is provided by a shop that does not have this certification, this action may invite the opportunity for litigation should you be low bidder. Stay away from such projects. If the project schedule calls for steel delivery in six weeks and it would take your shop twelve weeks to complete, it may be best to pass on this opportunity.

Errors and Omissions

      If you are aware that you may have missed some item in your quote that has made your number too low, make this known to the manager or owner as soon as it is discovered. Moving forward with a project knowingly without disclosing such errors is a serious disservice to your company. The negative ramifications of such action will never go away.

      Exposing errors and omissions upon discovery will allow the company and the customer to process them. Errors and omissions eventually become apparent all on their own over the course of the work; they will make a bad situation worse. Steel estimators are only as good as their last job, after all. Thus, so much work is needed to cover all bases.

Bid Results

      Within a few days of bidding on a project, call the company where you submitted your bid and ask for bid results. You want to learn how your number stacked up against your competition. Knowing the pricing helps steel estimators become aware of what the current market is doing, guiding them towards efficiency in pricing. Get the names of the other companies that competed in the bidding as well as their bid price, if you can. If you can’t get exact numbers, ask for a percentage of the spread between the prices. After a few times of gathering this information, you may discover a consistency with the pricing and the companies that submitted them.

      After gathering and reviewing the historical quote information, steel estimators may be able to surmise what the market will bear with the next quote. This accumulative history of projects quoted, together with what was won and by whom, provides clues as to which shops may be getting backlogged and which ones may become more aggressive in quoting projects.

      Historical bid information helps steel estimators determine how aggressive they need to be, and whether their companies would benefit from expanding or switching markets. Check with the managers who make these types of business decisions to determine your company’s sales direction.

      The industry standard for the bids won vs. jobs quoted indicates that good steel estimators usually get one job in ten. If the steel estimators find themselves consistently or unexpectedly doing better than that, there may be concern for an error in the pricing extensions or for some other judgment error.

      The remaining chapters in this book will break down all the information needed to create a complete steel estimate. The guidance and suggestions will be specific with regards to the materials application of your estimating and, in general, the applied shop labor, painting labor, and handling time.

      By the time that steel estimators have finished СКАЧАТЬ