What Happens During Procurement?
Procurement is all the work that needs to be done to get all the approved cabinetry, fixtures, materials, finishes and furniture to the job site. It requires collaboration between many people, managing of various lead times, and handling the unexpected. If anything goes wrong, it can influence other parts of the project and the overall completion date of your renovation.
There are processes in place to make procurement run as smoothly as possible, but that does not mean that things won’t go wrong. It means that when things do go wrong, we’re more equipped to troubleshoot so that the design intent is maintained and we can make every effort to stay on schedule.
Place + Track Orders
After the final design presentation, the focus is on preparing for construction. Once payment is received for any approved product, orders get placed with various vendors—we could easily be working with over a dozen different companies for just one room! Some of these orders are placed on a website, while other orders involve reviewing and signing off on a custom quote.
Once orders are placed, we regularly check on the progress of the order. We’re keep an eye on the following:
Has the lead time changed?
If the item is semi-custom or custom has it gone into production?
Is the item in transit?
Receiving
Items are either shipped directly to site, to a receiving warehouse, or to our design studio. The receiving decision for each product isn’t arbitrary—we’re thoughtful about the best option given the timeline, the product itself, and feasibility. The goal is for everything to get to site on time without getting damaged.
Heavier items, like appliances, cabinetry and tubs get delivered directly to site. Smaller items like light fixtures and cabinet hardware get shipped to our design studio so that we can inspect them as soon as they arrive.
Furniture and rugs get delivered to a receiving warehouse and don’t get delivered to the job site until construction is complete because we don’t want anything to get damaged. The receivers we work with inspect items, document and notify us of any damage, deliver the items to the job site and unpack and place everything in the space. They also take any packing materials with them—it’s kind of crazy how full the truck is after delivery!
Damages
If we discover that an item is damaged it’s our job to document what’s wrong with the product and contact customer service. This is why working with preferred vendors is so important. A good vendor is less likely to send out damaged product and if they do, they’re more willing to troubleshoot and remedy the problem so that the project can stay on track. Working with a bad vendor can be a real nightmare.
Damages are avoided by being strategic about when product is delivered to site. For example, we don’t have appliances delivered to site at least until cabinetry is about to be installed. The longer appliances are onsite, the more likely they are to get damaged. Also, in many cases, the appliance warranty starts once the item has been delivered.
Deliveries
We need to make sure that everything is onsite with the contractor needs it, but isn’t delivered so early that boxes are in their way or items are at risk of getting damaged. That means we need to constantly keep referring back to the construction schedule to calender major deliveries and installations accordingly. If the construction changes, we need to shift around deliveries. Some are easier to change than others.
Some of this coordination get’s tricky especially when working in the city or with notably heavy items. We’re had a sofa hoisted to a 2nd floor deck, we’ve specified some pretty heavy sinks, and we’re had sofa beds partially disassembled to make a tight corner.
Procurement is Moving Target
The thing that’s so challenging about procurement is that so may factors have the possibility of changing any time—lead times and damages tend to be the most disruptive to the process. Even the things that don’t change, like small doorways, can make a project more complex.