A Procurement Log You Can Track From Abroad: A Worked Example

Long lead items decide completion dates more often than site productivity does. A worked example of building the log and reading what it tells you.

A procurement log lists every item that cannot be bought locally the week it is needed, and works backwards from the date it must be on site through delivery, shipping, production, order and approval. It is the most useful single document an overseas owner can read, because it predicts delay months before the site feels it.

The situation

A mixed use building needs a passenger lift, switchgear, curtain walling and sanitaryware. Site work is at month four of an eighteen month programme, and the owner wants to know which items are already at risk.

Assumptions (illustrative)

• Lift required on site at month twelve. Approval two weeks, production sixteen weeks, shipping six weeks, clearance two weeks.
• Switchgear required at month thirteen. Approval three weeks, production twenty weeks, shipping five weeks, clearance two weeks.
• Curtain walling required at month nine. Approval four weeks, survey and shop drawings six weeks, production ten weeks, shipping four weeks.
• Sanitaryware required at month fifteen. Approval two weeks, production six weeks, shipping four weeks.
• Assume four weeks to a month for the arithmetic.
• All durations are illustrative assumptions used to show the method.

Step 1: Total the lead time for each item

Lift: 2 plus 16 plus 6 plus 2 equals 26 weeks, or 6.5 months. Switchgear: 30 weeks, or 7.5 months. Curtain walling: 24 weeks, or 6 months. Sanitaryware: 12 weeks, or 3 months.

Each item has a different total, and the order in which they must be started bears no relation to the order in which they are installed.

Step 2: Work backwards to the order date

Lift: month 12 minus 6.5 equals month 5.5. Switchgear: month 13 minus 7.5 equals month 5.5. Curtain walling: month 9 minus 6 equals month 3. Sanitaryware: month 15 minus 3 equals month 12.

The curtain walling should have been ordered a month ago. At month four, it is already late and nobody on site has noticed.

Step 3: Identify the immediate risk

Curtain walling order date of month 3 against today at month 4 means a one month slip, which pushes the required on site date from month 9 to month 10.

A month lost in an office at month three becomes a month lost on site at month nine, by which time the cause is invisible.

Step 4: Check what the slip hits

If curtain walling encloses the building and internal finishes cannot start until enclosure, the whole finishing sequence moves by the same month.

Enclosure items sit upstream of everything, which is why they deserve the earliest attention despite being installed in the middle.

Step 5: Test the recovery options

Air freight might save four of the shipping weeks at a premium, and splitting the order into two shipments could allow the first elevation to start on time.

Procurement delay usually has purchasable remedies, unlike site delay, but only while the item is still in production.

Step 6: Set the log review discipline

Four items with order dates at months 3, 5.5, 5.5 and 12 means two review moments in the next eight weeks and one much later.

The log converts a vague worry about materials into two specific dates to watch, which is exactly what remote management needs.

What changes the answer

• If approval of shop drawings takes longer than assumed, every downstream date moves with it, and approval time is usually the owner side risk.
• If clearance or inspection at import takes longer than planned, the buffer disappears, so confirm requirements for each product category before ordering.
• If a supplier requires a deposit before production starts, the order date is really the payment date, which may be earlier still.
• If an item is available from a regional source, total lead time can fall sharply even at a higher unit price.

What the numbers tell you

• Build the log at mobilisation, not when an item is first missed.
• Work backwards from the required on site date, since forward planning always understates the total.
• Treat your own approval time as part of the lead time, because it usually is.
• Watch enclosure items hardest, as they sit upstream of every internal activity.

Limits of this example

Every figure above is an illustrative assumption used to show the method, not a quote, valuation or market rate. Costs, rates, fees and regulations change and must be confirmed with the relevant authority, lender or supplier before you commit.

Domira designs, builds and manages projects across Saudi Arabia for owners who are based abroad: land appraisal, feasibility, design, construction, handover and asset management under one accountable contract. Send us the plot or the brief and Domira will put the numbers in front of you before you commit.