5 Challenges Faced by MEP Estimators

Construction is a vast field that needs many professionals to work together for completing a project be it commercial or residential. Certain expertise and the usage of the right advanced tool is important to complete the project on time. Otherwise, you might have to face problems or delays while working.

Construction estimating is truly a science and art. There are some important facts that one should know regarding the industry. But note that the customer’s, architect’s, and engineer inputs are an important part of the process that combines them with an accurate project estimate and bid. After this, they move next to the material takeoffs that is the next step in the process.

Moving on, the technology present assists people in estimating projects that are evolving continuously. This has added a new curve that needs to be learned. According to an average, 4 to 5 bids are created for every company that wins. This clearly shows that the volume of work is increasing.

Even keeping the challenges in mind, customers are expecting to get speed, transparent, accurate, and professional behavior to present the bid. It is easy to say that the MEP estimator will face a host of challenges today irrespective of the experiences. Now, we will be looking at the five best challenges that will be faced by the MEP estimators during the estimate process:

1- Starting the Process with Less Information

Irrespective of the fact that you have been in the building estimates for years or days. This will be a daunting process and when you are going for an estimate or bid dependent on the little information. For instance, to get a conceptual estimate, the request will be depending on the loose project scope and on the initial drawing made by the architect.

Let have a look at the thought of an expert in the field of construction regarding the conceptual estimates:

But remember that doing so will not come without a cost. You might wonder that opting out at an early stage will not be inviting you back later. It is important to note that you might get disturb your reputation in a longer run. So, this will not be a no-win situation at all. Similarly, the same principle is applied irrespective of the time when you have to submit a valid estimate that is based on little information.

2- Handling Different Requirements

It is important to note that the desired end result of an appropriate estimate of time, labor, and material every time. But different contractors and customers have different expectations regarding the MEP takeoffs and they will expect out a bid or estimate. In addition to this, if anyone is searching to get the building cost estimating, the contact an experienced company to get the desired results. The experts will be using the advanced software to get the work done on time with the best results.

3- Numbers of the Bids

As mentioned earlier that the average MEP contracting company will win around 4% of the bid that they are submitting. This means that you are producing four bids for everyone that will turn into revenue. To maintain the profitability under the condition, the majority of the MEP estimators will be producing approximately 100 estimates every year. In most of the places or disciplines, the competition is tough and the number is very much high.

Now, looking at the work that is involved during the preparation of an accurate and professional bid, the completion of every two or three days is a tall order. Furthermore, if you are not approaching the estimating process in an efficient way, then you might have to face problems later.

4- Constantly Changing Orders

If you can easily move from estimate to estimate, the volume that is described above might become easier as you will gain experience. But this is not the case. By changing the repeated change orders along with the RFIs from the different projects means that you are going to spend at least a third of your working hours in handling the requests.

This might take seconds or hours depending on the specifics but they are always going to affect your thoughts and will slow down the completion of whatever you are working on when they will suddenly become the competition.

5- Revamping the Process

As you are aware of the fact that you have to face many challenges that we have discussed above. The entire volume of the work is more challenging as compared to others but when you are going to add in the change orders from left to right, then you are going to add the difficulty or multiple requirements along with the lack of vital information to work. And this will be like creating a perfect storm for yourself.

Luckily, every project estimate can and will be following the basic structure and will contain general categories of information and this will be usually approached in a similar way. As we know that every project is different, so it is not essential to start every estimate with a blank slate. But if you are not handling the estimates or bid on paper, then you can feel like that this is what you are going to do!

Now, we will be aware of the five challenges that MEP estimators have to face. But there are many others that you have to keep in mind. It is important to note that estimators have to produce a high volume of estimates that will consistently be affecting the accuracy. They have to efficiently move from one bid to another without changing the process every time without being affected by the change orders and RFIs. It is important that these challenges can be easily overcome by using technology effectively in the estimating process.

If you are in search of an accurate estimate for your commercial or residential project, then you need to get in touch with the professional electrical estimator, plumbing estimator, and other professionals for the accurate estimate of your project.