This week's blog highlights from across the industry look at:
2017 Construction Productivity Survey Report Cites Poor Past Performance but Is Optimistic About the Future
An exhaustive and informative 168-page report was released last week by the McKinsey Global Institute addressing construction’s poor productivity record – averaging 1% per year vs. 3.6% for manufacturing. The report, Reinventing construction through a productivity revolution, cites ten root causes of construction’s poor productivity, including fragmentation, mismatches in contract risk sharing and rewards, heavy regulation and dependency on public-sector demand, and inexperienced owners, but is optimistic about the future. The report goes on to describe seven areas that can help revitalize productivity, four of which are directed at firm-level operational factors. Visit the McKinsey site here to learn more, which includes downloads for the complete report, an executive summary and appendix.
Read the Contract Closely: Preambles and Hidden Obligations
Two recent posts at the Sage Construction and Real Estate blog by Alexander Barthet illustrate the importance of reading contract documents closely. This includes attachments, addendums, reference documents and the preamble. A preamble is a short explanation of the contract usually, but not always, found on the document’s first page that contains a description of the work, project name, owner, design professional, price and other important items. Click on the following links to access Barthet’s posts: Preambles and Hidden Obligations.
Government Contractors – Are You Compliant with the Buy American Act and Trade Agreement Act?
Many contractors misunderstand the mechanics of completing the Buy American Act (BAA) and Trade Agreement Act (TAA) certificates. With forthcoming shakeups in trade agreements by the Trump administration, it’s time to review your processes and procedures for material supplied on your projects. For example, contractors may not realize that by leaving subsection (b) of the certificate blank they are representing that they will supply exclusively domestic end products under the BAA, or Designated Country or U.S.-made end products under the TAA. Just published at the Pepperlaw website is a complete review of the two acts. Click here to read the complete article.
