In the world of construction and contracting, selection of the right subcontractors or suppliers is paramount for the safe and successful completion of any given project.

For complex projects, choosing even one wrong subcontractor or supplier can cause catastrophic impact to both project completion and the overall budget.

Why Partnerships Matter

Partnerships play a critical role in how a project performs from start to finish. The right partners don’t just fill a need — they add value, strengthen the team, and help drive the project towards a successful outcome.

Benefits of a strong partnership can include:

• Resource sharing
• Diverse perspectives that lead to better problem-solving
• Brand credibility through trusted, established partners
• Shared vision and goals that drive overall success
• Complementary capabilities and strengths

Laying the Groundwork for Success

In life, our most valuable commodity is time. In project management, this holds true as well.

Building the right team of partners takes time but that time is well spent. By wisely using this time early on to choose the right partners, you’re setting yourself up for success. The planning phase is fundamental to the success of the entire project and is perhaps the most important step, particularly choosing your subcontractors or suppliers.

Having a list of qualified suppliers, a concise scope of work, and a clear pricing structure is also key in evaluation and selection of the right subcontractor or supplier, and ultimately to the successful completion of the project.

• An unqualified sub or supplier exposes both the “company” and project up to potential safety and quality risks.
• A clear and accurate scope of work ensures all parties understand the mission of the project and expectations.
• A well-defined pricing structure helps eliminate the need for changes or alterations during the course of the project.

While not applicable or required for every project or scope, a Payment & Performance Bond (P&P) requirement could also ensure a higher caliber of sub or supplier at the time of bidding.

Common Metrics to Evaluate a Potential Partner

Experience in project management shows that the wrong partner is often identified too late. Once issues surface, whether related to safety, performance, or capacity, the impact can be difficult and costly to correct.

The use of proper analysis upfront can considerably reduce this risk. When evaluating a potential partner, you should be asking:

• Statistical analysis of safety metrics and other relevant safety information 
  Have you reviewed the following: OSHA 300 Logs, EMR, HASP, and SWPs?
• Evaluation of past performance
  Has this subcontractor successfully completed a relevant scope of work before? Have issues occurred with previous projects?
• Financial stability
  Review D&B and Financial/Bank References. Does the sub or supplier have the financial bandwidth to complete this project? Is there the potential issue of lack of financial firepower to complete their scope?
• Estimated workload at projected start of project
  Does the sub or supplier have to “gear up” to complete this scope, or do they already have the personnel and equipment to complete? Will they be stretched thin to complete this scope?

What Failed Partnerships Teach You

Hard lessons in project management build scar tissue, and they shouldn’t be forgotten. Once trust is lost, it is very difficult to rebuild and can take years, if at all. The use of proper due diligence metrics can reduce the potential for failure.

Closing Thoughts

While there are numerous steps and processes in managing a project, these are some of the key upfront aspects that can help set a project in the right direction.

And remember, once a project starts off backwards, you will spend the remainder of that project catching up. Getting it right upfront comes down to building the right team from the start.