Practical project management lessons from environmental, demolition, remediation, and industrial work. For project engineers, developing PMs, and field professionals. Delivered every Friday.
Friday Field Notes #12: Submittals Protect the Work
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FRIDAY FIELD NOTES #12 Submittals Protect the Work Good morning team, This week’s topic: submittals. 1. From the Field Submittals are sometimes treated as an administrative requirement that must be cleared before the work can begin. In practice, they serve a much more important purpose. A submittal gives the project team an opportunity to confirm that a proposed material, procedure, supplier, plan, or piece of equipment meets the contract requirements before it is incorporated into the work. That review can prevent rework, procurement delays, rejected materials, and disagreements about what the project expected. I’ve seen teams lose time because they ordered material before approval, relied on a verbal acceptance, or assumed a previous project’s requirements would apply again. Submittals slow the work down when they are handled late. When they are planned early, they help protect the work. 2. Leadership Perspective Good leaders look ahead far enough to give others time to review and respond. Submitting information at the last minute may technically meet an internal deadline, but it transfers unnecessary pressure to the rest of the team. 3. Field Observation A submittal log is most useful when it is connected to procurement and the project schedule. Knowing that a submittal is “open” is not enough. The team should understand when approval is needed, how long procurement will take, and what activity depends on the item. That connection is where a PE can provide real value. By following the submittal through review, approval, purchasing, delivery, and field use, the PE helps prevent an administrative item from becoming a production delay. 4. Spreadsheet Tip This week’s formula: WORKDAY Use this formula to calculate a future working-day deadline. =WORKDAY(B2,C2) If Cell B2 contains the submittal date and Cell C2 contains the allowed review duration in working days, Excel returns the expected response date. To exclude company holidays listed in Cells H2 through H15, use: =WORKDAY(B2,C2,$H$2:$H$15) This can be useful for submittal reviews, RFI responses, procurement follow-up dates, and other deadlines based on working days rather than calendar days. 5. Question for the Week Which upcoming activity on your project depends on a submittal that should be moving now? Have a great weekend, Dan |
Friday Field Notes
Practical project management lessons from environmental, demolition, remediation, and industrial work. For project engineers, developing PMs, and field professionals. Delivered every Friday.
Good morning team, This week’s topic: small tools and consumables. 1. From the Field Nobody calls an emergency meeting because the project bought another box of cutting wheels. Small purchases rarely look concerning one at a time. Over several months, though, the job may go through far more blades, filters, hoses, batteries, PPE, and other consumables than the estimate allowed. Some small tools will also disappear into gang boxes, service trucks, and whatever mysterious place tape measures go...
Good morning team, This week’s topic: equipment cost exposure. 1. From the Field Equipment costs don’t wait for someone to notice them. A rented excavator can be fueled, inspected, parked in exactly the right spot, and accomplish absolutely nothing while the rental clock keeps running. Sometimes the delay can’t be avoided. An approval may still be pending, the work area might not be ready, or the sequence may have changed. The trouble starts when “we’ll probably need it later” becomes the...
Good morning team, This week’s topic: labor hours. 1. From the Field Knowing that a project used 500 labor hours does not tell you much by itself. You need to know what those hours accomplished. That is where labor tracking becomes more useful. If 500 hours produced 1,000 units one week and the same 500 hours produced 650 the next, something changed. The reason could be completely legitimate, but the project team should understand it. I’ve found that labor discussions become much more useful...