Every contractor knows the feeling… the crew is ready to get to work, but the job comes to a stop because materials needed by the team aren't there.

After more than 30 years in the building materials industry, I have seen that the difference between a job that runs smoothly and one that limps along, often comes down to how early, and how well, material planning happens. 

According to a recent survey, a staggering 78 percent of US construction firms experienced at least one project delay in the past 12 months. The same research found that 41 percent of contractors accelerated purchases after winning work, 32 percent turned to alternative suppliers, and a quarter shifted to alternative materials or products to manage supply‑chain disruptions.

In a worker shortage, that makes every productive hour count and means suppliers need to help crews make fewer decisions, not give them more SKUs to sort through.

Here are six ways contractors and their suppliers can use that planning time to protect productivity and keep work moving.

1. Plan Materials and Labor as One Workflow 

Material planning is often treated as a procurement task; determine what is needed, place the order, and get it delivered. But on a labor-constrained construction site, the more useful question is: How much field labor does it take to turn that delivery into installed work?

A product that arrives on time but needs sorting, assembling, pairing with accessories or moving repeatedly around the site can still consume valuable labour, whereas a coordinated package delivered in the right sequence with exactly what the crew needs can dramatically reduce time spent on everything around the installation. 

That same principle applies long before materials reach the jobsite. We have an app called MyFBM, using this, contractors can upload the PO they’ve already created, whether a PDF, spreadsheet, Word document, image or even a photo, and have it converted into line‑item SKUs and quantities, cutting out unnecessary re‑keying and keeping the job moving. 

The connection between material planning and labor productivity is becoming increasingly important as the industry faces persistent workforce shortages. Recent US Bureau of Labor Statistics data has identified 871,000 job openings across the broader built environment, including 390,000 openings in high-skilled trades. These figures show just how essential material planning is to labour productivity; the two are intrinsically linked.

2. Identify the Materials That Can Stop the Job 

Not every material deserves the same level of attention. A project may contain thousands of individual material requirements, but only a portion is likely to sit directly on the critical path. Those are the materials contractors need to identify early. 

Current market conditions make that particularly important. Skanska's Fall 2025 construction market report, for example, noted structural steel lead times of 14 to 18 weeks, paired with increased demand from data centers, semiconductor facilities, and other high-tech projects. If a material has a 16-week lead time, discovering that fact when the schedule says it is needed in six weeks is not a procurement problem anymore; it is a project problem, and a big one at that.

The key is knowing which materials (and how much of them) the project will need before they become a constraint. 

3. Reduce Decisions, Not Just Delivery Times 

The traditional measure of material planning is often whether the product arrived when it was supposed to. But there is another measure worth considering: how much decision-making did the delivery remove from the field?

This matters because decisions made late in the process can quickly become reworked. Recent research found that actual pre-completion rework costs averaged 0.38 percent of contract value, rising to 0.76 percent when post-completion corrections were included. The researchers also found that rework costs were underreported by 300 percent.

For repeat work, the same principle can apply to the ordering process itself. Digital tools can allow contractors to save frequently used material lists and reload them for a new job. Instead of starting the search from scratch, teams can begin with a list that already reflects what the project requires.

4. Plan the Last 100 Feet 

Getting materials to the site is only half the coordination problem; the material still must get from the truck to the point of installation.

Site access, laydown space, loading zones, hoist availability, floor-by-floor sequencing, and protection of finished work all need to be considered. A delivery that arrives three days early may be less useful than one that arrives at the right time, in the right sequence, and close to where it will be installed. 

This is also where digital efficiency needs to be paired with human coordination. Regardless of how an order is placed, a branch representative can follow up to confirm delivery timing, site access, and any special equipment requirements. Digital tools can make the routine part of ordering more efficient, while the rep can focus on the job-specific details that can't always be captured on a screen.

5. Build Flexibility Into the Plan 

Anyone who works in the construction industry will know that no matter how carefully a project is planned, something will change. Specifications are revised. The scope shifts. A product becomes unavailable. Construction is full of variables, so material plans need enough flexibility to adapt.

I saw this first-hand on the Adobe North Tower project in San Jose, where we supported a highly customized ceiling package. The building called for several different ceiling systems, including Armstrong® Custom MetalWorks™ Blades, Arktura® Vapor® panels and custom Turf® grid cloud systems. Each had to be specifically designed and manufactured for the space.

Projects like this require more than getting the right materials to the site. The architect, manufacturers, ProjectWorks® team, installers and Foundation Building Materials (FBM) had to coordinate early to understand the requirements, work through the details and address challenges before they could affect installation. 

6. Use Material Planning to Eliminate Work, Not Just Delays 

The best material plan doesn't just prevent late delivery, it removes work from the field. I've seen this become increasingly important as crews get stretched thinner. If an installer must unpack a delivery, sort components, find missing accessories, make a trip back to the truck or work out which products go together, that's time that isn't being spent installing.  

Digital job-management tools are removing a lot of the guesswork that used to slow jobs down by bringing material quantities, order status and invoice information into one place, making it easier to see what a job has, and what it still needs.

Associated Builders and Contractors estimates the US construction industry will need to bring in 456,000 new workers to meet demand. Deloitte estimates that if the labor gap persists, the industry could lose nearly $124 billion in construction output.

After 30 years in this business, I have learned that every hour a crew spends solving a material problem is an hour they're not installing. The earlier those problems are addressed, the more time crews can spend doing what matters most: moving the job forward