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American
performs purchasing centrally to provide control and consistency.
The
purchasing lessons we have learned during the last twenty years are
proactively available to our clients during our pre-construction
services. With our focus of bringing the maximum possible value to
our clients, we evaluate the materials, equipment and systems we
have used on each of our projects to determine if these products
performed as expected, and recommend carrying forward on future
projects only those products that provide the best value coupled
with this historic perspective. Through our continuous networking
and attendance at trade shows, we stay at the cutting edge of new
industry developments, helping our clients take appropriate
advantage of advancements in product and technology.
American
has been saving our clients a significant amount of money for eight
years through our direct factory purchase of material and products
from China. Through our contracts in China, we have directly
purchased and imported doors, windows, massive fiberglass cornice
elements, rolling stainless kitchen tables, iron balconies and other
products which have allowed our clients to incorporate higher
quality design elements at or below the pricing for lesser quality,
locally produced products.
Once
plans are complete, obtaining the right subcontractor, at the right
price, who has the proper skill and sufficient financial strength to
perform the work, is the first critical step in the subcontracting
process. Our stringent pre-qualification process was determined by
our Subguard carrier, Zurich, four years ago to meet their insurance
standards without charge. Zurich audits our qualification process
quarterly to ensure we are in fact following our own stringent
program.
The
second step is to write a complete scope and subcontract for it.
American has developed our proprietary scope templates over the
twenty years we have been building multifamily projects.
Specifications in the multifamily world are frequently not complete
or correct; we work to clarify what is required to get agreement
from all stakeholders, and to provide sufficient subcontract
direction to ensure the agreed-upon clarifications are properly and
fully subcontracted, and that the subcontractor understands their
scope.
Through
lessons learned, we have found that American’s purchasing effort
cannot stop with the subcontract; purchasing must be involved in the
processing of all changes to ensure that the agreements worked out
during the initial purchasing effort are fully upheld. Further, this
involvement during construction provides instant feedback if errors
were made, allowing immediate correction of all ongoing work that
may be affected by the same problem, and correction of our templates
to ensure future projects benefit from this lesson learned. With
twenty years of feedback, our proprietary templates are extremely
thorough. |
