8 Construction Procurement Mistakes Often Made by Procurement Officers (And How to Avoid Them)

As a procurement officer, you are always faced with incredible difficult choices to make on a daily basis regarding construction procurement.

To ensure less construction procurement mistakes are made and to guarantee an effective construction procurement transaction for your company isn’t something that generally happens overnight.

While there is no magic formula for you to know how to make the best choices, it is very important for you to be aware of common construction procurement mistakes.

And by knowing what’s most likely to go wrong, you need to keep an eye out for every construction procurement mistakes that may occur and be able to fix them.

In this post, I’m going to share with you 8 construction procurement mistakes made by procurement officers and how to avoid them.

Let’s get started.

8 Construction Procurement Mistakes Often Made by Procurement Officers and How to Avoid Them

Mistakes do occur and mistakes in construction procurements can be very costly. Whether you realize you are making them or not, they can cause delays in project constructions and prevent successful construction procurement.

So, here are 8 construction procurement mistakes often made by procurement officers and how to avoid them.

• Contracting Unprofessional Construction Vendors

This among others is the first construction procurement mistakes often made by procurement officers when trying to avoid bid competition. In avoiding bid competition, you end up contracting unprofessional construction vendors.

And by so doing, the effect of this leads to an unprofessional procurement result. Avoiding such a mistake requires that you contract a professional construction vendor based on past performance on completed projects and experience in the industry.

• Procuring in a Hurry

This is a mistake that tends to make you procure in a rush. Though securing vendors on time is very important, but securing it in a hurry can lead to a bad procurement decision and ultimately affect the project outcome.

Whenever you are pressured to make big construction procurements as soon as possible, try and take a step back and assess all available options with thoroughness and not only with promptness.

• Making Decisions Alone

In order to keep things running smoothly in the procurement department, procurement officers tend to make construction procurement decisions alone without involving others in the decision making. And by so doing, they are more prone to making wrong decisions in the process.

This often leads to wasted time and resources that negatively impacts on your company. By opening the communication lines and involving others in the decision making when necessary, you can avoid the wasted resources that may arise from making wrong decisions.

• Considering Price without Other Factors

It is certain that you should consider price when procuring from a vendor. Considering price alone without other factors such as your company’s needs and goals can prevent quality construction procurements.

By making quality an integral part of your construction procurement decision and not price alone will enable you get the best value in return for your company.

• Being Rigid with Procurement Plan

It is definitely good for you to have plans in place to keep things moving as planned. But as a procurement officer, who is pressured to make big procurement on time, you tend to be rigid with your plans and fail to adapt to changing conditions that might arise.

And by being rigid to a plan can lead to the occurrence of common construction procurement mistakes and getting you stuck with a negative procurement pattern. By reviewing plans on a regular basis can enable you adapt to the changes that might occur and avoid common construction procurement mistakes in the process.

• Not Allowing Vendors to Make Alternative Suggestions

Construction vendors may know better and cheaper ways of achieving your construction procurement goals. Preventing them from making suggestions that will lead to a better procurement can result in not benefiting from third party advice.

By allowing your construction vendor to suggest better options will enable you accomplish your big procurement goals and avoid losing cost improvement opportunities.

• Assuming All Vendors Have Equal Offers

Construction vendors always strive to differentiate their goods and services. Having an assumption that all vendors have equal offers will prevent you from identifying the vendor whose offering is a best fit for the construction procurement needs and goals of your company.

By having an understanding that all construction vendors are different and what value those differences bring to your company, will enable you identify the best overall fit for your company’s construction procurement needs and goals.

• Mismanaging Vendor Relationship

A great construction vendor is difficult to come by these days. And a great vendor can become a great strategic partner on the long term. Failing to mange the relationship with the vendor you value and work with can result to non-lasting win-win relationship.

By taking the necessary steps in managing your relationship with your valuable construction vendor could lead to a beneficial [win-win] relationship. This can further result to reduction in the procurement costs of constantly changing to new vendor as well as discounts, incentives and better services.

Conclusion

It is very important for you as a procurement officer to be aware of these mistakes and keep an eye out for them. This will enable you put processes and procedures in place to avoid them, if possible, learn from them, and fix them in a timely manner.

What are other construction procurement mistakes out there that I didn’t include here? Be sure to let us know in the comment below.