You’ve spent the time and resources to develop a project from design through requesting offers. Don’t squander those efforts by shorting yourself during the proposal review process. Contractors have taken the time to carefully read your request for offers (RFO) and to put together a package that details how they are the best fit for your project.

Substitution requests can occur for multiple reasons on a project, often adding workload at a time when the project team is already stretched thin. While some requests ultimately benefit the project, others can lead to delays, extra costs, and even approval of inferior products to avoid delaying the project.  

Good communication is often a topic of discussion when it comes to safety and/or quality, as poor or insufficient communication can lead to serious problems. When performing a root cause analysis for a safety incident or non-conformance item discovered during a quality inspection, it’s not unusual to discover poor communication as a root cause or contributing factor.

A contractor’s track record of performance on a project in the area of quality is a huge factor in their success. Not only in earning repeat business, but also in attracting new customers. It’s inevitable that a contractor will experience at least some failure in the form of non-conformance items (services or constructed/installed items that do not meet specified requirements). What separates the successful contractor from the rest is their ability to learn from these mistakes as well as calculate the cost of these failures or mistakes.