Large-scale industrial and construction projects can bring any number of organizational and logistical challenges. There’s the challenge of getting your designs and specifications into the hands of the onsite team, and making sure that those plans are implemented correctly. There’s the hurdle of sourcing the right materials and parts and getting them to the project location by deadline.
One major challenge is managing the flow of parts and materials as they enter the project work area. Without a system in place, material handling could devolve into a free-for-all.
Consider an incoming shipment that includes something as a simple as a bag of screws. They’re meant for workstation A. However, the team member at workstation B also has a need for screws. He sees the screws available and takes them for his work. The team at workstation A, who may be responsible for a more urgent task, is left empty-handed.
A bag of screws may seem trivial. However, extrapolate that problem out across your entire supply chain. Bearings, nuts, gears, belts, and more — if they’re not distributed properly, they could throw off your entire project timeline.
Fortunately, there’s an alternative available that can help you manage your supply chain, ensure accurate material delivery, and protect your timeline. It’s a solution that we call Onsite Insight, and it’s the process of using a third party to receive your materials at your project location and then manage their delivery to specific team members and workstations.
How can Onsite Insight help you and your team with your large-scale project? Check out the four benefits below:
1. Quality Assurance
What are the ripple effects to your process when a part is delivered to the wrong work group or workstation? Or, what happens when a part arrives with a defect that renders it unusable? Your work team is left without materials. You have to spend valuable time and energy trying to correct the problem. And in the worst case, you may have to order new parts, drastically slowing your progress.
With an Onsite Insight solution, you have a team specifically focused on managing material flow. They check the parts and materials in as they arrive, unpack them and review the materials for defects. If there’s a problem, the Onsite Insight team can contact the vendor and immediately start the process of correcting the issue.
After checking for quality, they can direct the products to the correct work team, ensuring that all parts are delivered to the right end user. You can have confidence that your parts and materials will be where you need them, when you need them.
2. Increased Efficiency
You likely have construction workers, machinists, engineers, and other skilled workers on your project. Their time is valuable, and it needs to be spent doing what they do best, not sorting through materials and containers looking for parts.
With an Onsite Insight solution, your skilled workers can have the parts they need delivered directly to their station. They don’t spend downtime wandering around the job site. They don’t sit idly while they wait for their parts to appear. They get the parts they need, when they need them, so they can focus on completing their task and moving the project forward.
3. Transparency
Your vendor says the parts have arrived, but your team can’t find them. Where are the materials? How do you track them down? Far too often, the solution is for you or other team members to physically search the job site until you locate the missing parts. That takes time and energy that could be better spent elsewhere.
Instead, what if you could jump on your computer or tablet and find the part with just a few clicks? Onsite Insight gives you that capability. Your parts and containers are scanned as they enter your project location and as they move through each step of your process. Those scans integrate seamlessly with your software, so you can find the data you need in seconds.
4. Cost Savings
Yes, there is a cost to having a third party handle your material flow. However, consider the cost of not working with a partner. You could have quality issues with incoming materials. You may need to order replacement parts, and you might have to do so with a rush delivery. You could lose valuable time while sorting through deliveries and tracking down misplaced items.
All of those items may be small costs individually. In aggregate, though, they can have a major impact on your budget.
And then there’s the more damaging cost of potentially losing a customer’s trust. If your project or install is for your customer, they’re counting on you to deliver on budget and on schedule. If time or money is lost due to supply chain and material receiving issues, that’s going to cause disruption in your customer relationship.
Regardless of who’s fault it is, your customer is looking to you for quality, budget, and schedule assurance. You can deliver those things by working with a skilled and experienced partner. How much does it cost to have an onsite insight partner? Instead you may want to ask how much it costs to not have one.
You have a job to do. You and your team don’t have time to spend tracking down materials or digging through containers. Partner with a packaging and supply chain specialist to help you with your material flow process. That way, you can focus on what you do best.
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