Construction Urged to get Ahead on Supply
Construction and development companies are being warned not to wait until it’s too late and use business forecasting to manage the increasing unpredictability across the industry.
This article was first published on The Urban Developer.
Construction Industry Solutions (COINS) Australia managing director Jim Farrer said business forecasting tools could prove more important than ever in managing constraints in labour and material supplies, price rises and supply chain issues.
“We’re at a fork in the road with issues like Covid-19 lockdowns and trade tensions, and I think construction businesses who are smart enough to see the nuances will be the ones who get the advantage in the market,” Farrer said.
“It can be very easy to say this is just another set of challenges, and in construction we hit challenges in every project.
“But that’s possibly a convenient way of writing it off and saying the old tricks work in the new world.
“But maybe they won’t. The game is changing, and maybe new tricks and approaches are required.”
Recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics echo the challenges being seen across the construction and development sector.
The value of residential construction dropped 0.1 per cent, or $18.9 million in June, with Covid-19 lockdowns contributing to significant project delays and cost overruns.
Farrer said business managers and construction companies had a dual responsibility to keep an eye on the transactional side of the business but also to look at the cumulative, bird’s-eye point-of-view of problems before they happen.
“We’ve got a perfect storm at the moment, where supply lines are impacted by either government or practical reasons,” he said.
“And it’s amplified by lockdowns, competition, by stimulus, and even trade tensions.
“By using a software system to get an early view of problems through real-time property stock levels, business management and forecasting, a business leader could say ‘I see an emerging trend here; if we had a supplier outage here when we require that particular product or equipment or subcontractor, we’d have a problem’.
“All projects, regardless of what they are, tend to run over cost and over time. It’s the ongoing challenge in our industry.
“Our cloud-based enterprise resource planning software helps combat that.
We help save money and time on projects, so scarce dollars are really well spent.
Jim Farrer, Managing Director, COINS Australia
“COINS allows data to be captured on-site and be viewed in real-time from any device, whether it’s back in the office or from a remote location.”
COINS has two decades experience in the construction industry, providing developers and contractors with software at the forefront of industry business systems.
Contact COINS for a free demo of the cloud-based ERP solution.
SHARE