Construction materials management (CMM) involves ensuring that all the construction materials essential to project delivery are met. These objectives and requirements include:
- Sourcing and purchasing construction materials
- Assessing the quality of construction materials
- Ensuring the lowest cost while retaining quality
- Storing and using materials efficiently
- Regulating the flow of construction materials
In a nutshell, CMM encompasses all activities related to construction materials, including equipment and machinery. CMM is a critical component of all construction projects. It affects the project’s overall cost, quality, and schedule. Having reliable construction material management software is often required to run effectively.
Components of material management in construction
The key components of construction material management are:
Planning construction requirements
CMM requires a great deal of planning. Careful planning directly affects profit, as it helps ensure that materials aren’t wasted—and that everything is produced on time. With the right materials and planning, construction firms enjoy lower production costs and faster delivery times. This is also why practices like prefabrication have gained traction in the construction industry.
Purchasing construction materials
As mentioned earlier, purchasing is a crucial component of CMM and involves assessing product quality, ensuring optimal costing, and checking for adequate inventory levels.
Construction material management software allows procurement managers to leverage automation to ensure that workflows are done as efficiently and economically as possible. Automating CMM workflows also ensures that materials are ordered in time and in adequate amounts.
Warehouse and inventory control
This component involves controlling the flow of all materials, including raw materials, finished parts, and purchased goods. This ensures that everything is running smoothly within a construction firm and that all materials ready to be used for production or sold are kept track of.
This also involves gauging supply and demand, which is essential to accurate project delivery. Construction material management software is invaluable here as it streamlines procuring materials, keeping track of suppliers, and reordering everything beforehand.
Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management ensures that materials and products are distributed on time to respective job sites and production centers. Without efficient supply chain management, production schedules can suffer delays, and construction firms can take financial losses.
Among the common problems that may cause material disruptions are:
- Poor storage
- Supply shortages
- Improper tracking
- Mismanagement of materials
However, with the right construction material management software, firms can ensure that everything is in order with regard to purchasing and material management.
Why having the right software matters
Construction materials management has numerous components that require close monitoring and efficiency. Relying on traditional methods like pen and paper or Excel spreadsheets can often cause errors in tracking and result in project delays.
The right software can significantly improve productivity and efficiency in construction materials management by increasing order accuracy, improving the scheduling of material delivery, tracking materials in real time, and more.
As such, CMM software is a wise investment for any construction firm looking to streamline its operations and improve project delivery timelines.
If you are interested in learning how Fishbowl’s flexible inventory management solution can help your business now, you can book a demo.