Labour is the lead time

Everyone plans around the delivery date of the big equipment. Fewer plan around the date the crew shows up.

On a project, lead time is the gap between deciding and having. We talk about it for steel, transformers and trucks. People have lead times too.

A crew is not a switch. To staff a job properly you have to find people, qualify them, certify them, move them and get them to site. Each step takes time, and the hardest ones are the skilled trades that every other project is also trying to hire.

The firms that handle this well tend to do the same few things:

• they start hiring before the award, not after it
• they keep a bench of people who have worked for them before
• they train for the next job as well as the current one
• they tell the truth about the schedule, because crews can tell when it is not real

A project can be on time on paper and a month late on the ground.

If you are bidding, ask what your plan is for the crew, not just the kit. If you are hiring, the best time to be known is before the posting goes up.

We keep an eye on where the work is heading so you can see the hiring before it happens.