Project Planning From Both Sides of the Coin Feat. Syd Jones
The 7 P’s: Prior Planning and preparation prevents piss poor performance. This is a sentence our industry should be living by, and our guest this week would agree with us. Joining us as we dive into the world of planning a projects life cycle from start to finish with out special guest this week Syd Jones
Syd has been in the industry for over 30 years, and he brings his decades of experience to his current role where he’s dedicated to augmenting the resources of both large and small general engineering contractors across the United States.
Syd has started off his career as a field engineer at PCL Construction, where he soon after spent a large amount of time as a field estimator. In 2017, Syd opened Jones Industrial Group; a consultant estimating firm specializing in heavy civil, water and wastewater industries. He saw the need to open up this group to specifically address the growing need for quality pre-construction and project management services.
During today’s episode, we will hear from him the hard hitting issues that as an industry are not being addressed. In addition Syd will provide his insight into what it takes to become the best operator in the field and in the design office in order to achieve the most efficient project life cycle possible.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Key Takeaways
One Piece of Advice
The more detail the better. If you think the people you're working for or the client or your employer is not looking for detail, you're fooling yourself. More information's better than not enough. Just getting by is not gonna cut it. I know that utility work, infrastructure work, buried utilities, it's not very sexy, it's buried.
When you put the detail into it, it can have everything to do with the success of everything that you can see. So I would my advice for that is just more detail. Go the extra mile. I know it's a grind, but it's well worth it. I think that's going to benefit everybody in the loop from the owner to the contractor, to the engineer. Somebody's gonna ask the question sooner or later, you've gotta have the answer.
The Competitive Edge
Some of the best jobs are the ones that I really grind and get in the details so the customer knows exactly what they're getting into, especially when you don't have all the accurate data when it comes to underground infrastructure work. If you can provide all that information to a contractor, help them in the bid process, they can get an advantage over their competitor because they've got the data.
A Relationship between Engineer and Contractor is Formed
When you're employed with the engineer on a design build, you now become symbiotic in a relationship because typically, in a competitive bid market, engineers and contractors don't like each other.
So it's great because we're all on equal ground. We kind of hate each other, but in a design build, we have to put aside our differences, come together and figure out how to form this symbiotic relationship because you're both gonna live and die by your expertise. So now you've gotta figure out how to make friends and get the job done.
The Bottom Line
It's really bottom line is it's about the money. And if you can save and, and keep your budgets, and maintain your budgets, that's what it's all about. Doesn't matter if it's from the owner's standpoint, designer's standpoint, or a contractor's stand. I mean, it, it's really the bottom line dollar.
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