Small Vendor Supply Chain Management

Construction of horizontal utility and network infrastructure requires massive amounts of planning, engineering, materials and equipment mobilization and distribution as well as the orchestrated efforts of large, conglomerate general contractors. Often, municipal mandates to include smaller, community-centric contractors and suppliers often gets pushed to the side as large contractor's own archaic construction inspection and payment processing makes it financially impossible to participate.

To overcome this burden, municipal leaders are turning to multi-national design/build firms who are sensitive to this dilemma and most important are open to leveraging technology to help streamline its contractor management process in order to improve efficiency while reducing payment cycles below net 30.

As a fiber carrier who is responsible for building hundreds of miles of underground infrastructure across multiple cities and states, we are effectively leveraging technology by equipping our field contractors with GPS enabled smart devices that are tied to our work order, project, and asset management systems.

The net result is our construction management teams are able to a) track the location and performance of each contractor in real-time; b) our infrastructure design team are able to update our as-build documents in real-time to upload into the national 811 (call before you dig system); and c) reconcile inventory, construction, inspection and accounting records to ensure small contractors and vendors are paid within net 30 payment terms.

From a supply chain management standpoint, by cross referencing construction activity with inventory, we are able to use big data analytics to determine the perfect time to order material, when it will arrive, and what contractors are to receive it based on field performance trends. Simply reducing the amount of material and equipment that is stored on site helps lower overall project overhead cost.

In utility construction, there are few differences between installing underground water/sewer service pipe and telecom conduit. As a result, A2D is now offering our Small/Minority Contractor Management and Material Logistics Process as a service.

A2D is prepared to establish a turnkey integrated information sharing and exchange ecosystem that allows our field inventory management and inspection teams to coordinate with the municipality's chosen design/build firm. Our goal is to help them keep track of the construction efforts of multiple small to medium size contractors in real-time. Our process will help ensure that municipalities will be able to sustain the participation of minority and small construction contractors and vendors by removing the burden of micro-workorder management in which large general contractors are simply not equipped to oversee. By working with A2D, municipal projects of the future can be implemented on time and on budget while also including small business and local citizens.

To learn more about A2D’s supply management and utility construction support services, contact is at smartcities@a2dinc.com