Switchgear, steel and rooftop units do not care about your opening date. They arrive when the manufacturer ships them, and on a project in Casper they arrive on a truck that has a long way to go. We manage long-lead procurement so the building does not wait on a box that should have been ordered months ago.
The point is easy to see on large projects. Wyoming Medical Center's West Tower topped out in June 2013 with about 750 tons of structural steel, and a steel package of that size is ordered, detailed, fabricated and shipped well before the first column goes up. The air traffic control tower at the Casper airport, a 157-foot structure replacing a 50-foot tower built in 1954, is expected to finish in early 2028. Projects like these are scheduled backward from delivery dates, and so are ours.
Our role is to identify long-lead items at the start, build their release into the schedule, track shop drawings and approvals, and warn the owner when a date is slipping. We are not selling product. We are protecting the schedule and the owner's money.
Electrical gear such as switchgear, transformers and generators is the usual culprit. Structural steel, joists and deck, rooftop and process equipment, elevators, overhead doors, dock equipment, specialty glazing and custom millwork follow. Anything that is engineered, fabricated or tied to a manufacturer's production queue deserves a hard look. The list shifts with supply conditions, so we check with suppliers instead of assuming.
Distance adds time. Casper sits at 5,150 feet in the middle of Wyoming, and freight arrives by truck and rail. The Wyoming Railroad yard northeast of the airport handles construction materials and a rebar project, along with wind-energy components, bentonite and fertilizer, which shows that heavy materials can reach the region by rail. We work with owners whose projects need that kind of heavy freight, including manufacturing owners with process equipment. Early purchasing usually starts during permitting and entitlements, because the review period is the cheapest time to place orders.
Material prices move. Steel, copper, wiring and petroleum-based products can swing in a few months, and a quote that is good for 30 days is useless if the permit takes 90. We talk to owners about holding prices through early purchase agreements, deposits or owner-direct purchase of key items, and we explain the tradeoff: buying early locks cost but ties up cash and storage.
Storage matters in this climate. Gear that sits outside in a Casper winter needs protection from cold, snow and wind, and sensitive equipment needs heated storage. We include receiving, inspection and storage in our plan, because damage to a late-arriving item can cost another round of lead time. Our preconstruction estimating work puts these carrying costs in the budget before they become a surprise.
We keep a simple log: item, supplier, submittal date, approval date, release date, ship date, delivery date and the date the item is needed on site. The log is shared with the owner and the design team, and we review it every week. The point is visibility. When a date moves, everyone sees it that day, and nobody learns about a slipped transformer at the monthly meeting.
Submittals are where time disappears. We review them before they go to the engineer, correct obvious errors and chase responses. An item that is approved with comments and resubmitted twice can burn a month. We also look for alternates when a supplier's queue is long, and we bring options to the owner with price and time attached. Where occupied buildings are involved, our phased construction planning ties delivery dates to the shutdown windows the owner has agreed to, since a missed delivery can cost a whole window.
Delivery has to match readiness. Steel arriving before the foundation is ready sits in a yard, and equipment arriving before the building is closed in can sit in the snow. We tie releases to schedule milestones, book cranes and rigging to match, and plan laydown space. In wind, laydown areas need securing as well.
The shipping season matters. Roads in the region can be hard in winter, and a late delivery can mean a late erection. Where a building depends on tight timing, such as a metal building kit, we confirm shipping windows and receiving plans early. If a late item cannot be recovered, we sequence other work around it and keep the crews busy.
Hospitals and clinics depend on equipment with long lead times, and healthcare systems cannot open a wing without imaging, power and life-safety systems. Public owners need bid and award timelines that account for procurement. Government and public-sector buyers also have to follow purchasing rules, which can add to the timeline.
Industrial owners care about downtime. A refinery modernization reported in October 2016 replaced crude units built in 1928, 1948 and 1955 with a new crude unit, new tanks and a gas-fired heating plant, in a two-year program of roughly $200 million. Turnarounds and tie-ins in that world are scheduled around equipment arrival, and we treat our own industrial schedules the same way.
Send the equipment schedule, the target date and any items already on order. We will build a procurement log and tell you which items need to be released first. Use the quote form or call us.
As soon as design is stable enough to buy against. For some items that means before the permit is issued. We help you decide what to release early, what risk you accept by doing so and what you give up by waiting.
It can go either way. We can purchase through the contract, or the owner can purchase directly and assign to us for installation. We explain the cost, tax, warranty and risk differences before you decide.
We tell you the same day we find out, offer alternates if any exist and resequence the work around the gap. We also document the delay so contract time and cost are handled fairly.
Yes, with a plan. We lay out laydown areas, protect gear from snow and wind and insure the stored material. Sensitive equipment goes into heated storage when needed.
It can. A City of Casper permit is good for 180 days once issued, so we try to line up orders, shop drawings and delivery so the permit does not expire before work starts or stalls.