Estimating and Purchasing

Good estimating and purchasing is critical to obtaining superior profitability. Your company needs the systems in place to produce accurate purchase orders, measure and control variances, and generate accurate accounts payable reports. By doing this, you can increase your profits by as much as 5%.

  • Assessment and implementation of purchasing systems – Most builders do not have adequate systems in place, which is typically the root cause for low profitability. Shinn Consulting strongly supports the implementation of a reliable purchasing system and assists you in assessing and implementing a system that is right for your company. By managing and tracking costs using purchase orders, it is much easier to control costs and increase profitability.
  • Variance control – Variances are a fact of life, but if you can control them, you can greatly increase your efficiency and cut costs. Shinn Consulting assists your team with evaluating variances to determine the best way to manage them. We help your company implement a variance control system, which will significantly reduce the number of variances flowing through your organization.
  • Material take-offs and as-built audits – One of the largest pitfalls for builders is that we tend to design a house that we would like, rather than a home for our customers. As such, we tend to add features that do not add value for our customers. Shinn Consulting works with your team to evaluate your plans, and conduct as-built audits to find cost savings in your designs.
  • Value engineering – With our hands–on experience and breadth of knowledge gained by working with builders throughout the country, our consultants can help you cut costs and realize substantial savings, while increasing the quality of construction, through the use of value engineering.
  • Departmental policies and procedures – Estimating and purchasing departments have a great influence on the profitability, pricing, and quality of your homes. Shinn Consulting can assist you to ensure standard policies and procedures are in place to give you control and efficiency in this area.