What Difference Does Choosing TechSpan Actually Make to My Project?
Author: David Ovenden
If you’re considering TechSpan for a project, you probably don’t need me to tell you that we can design, engineer and manufacture a large steel building.
What you really need to know is whether choosing us will make any difference to you when you’re trying to deliver the job.
I believe it should.
You’ve already got enough to manage. You’ve got your client, your programme, subcontractors, other trades, site conditions and a hundred decisions that need to come together at the right time.
Our job is to take responsibility for our part of that and make it easier for you to deliver yours.
That starts well before we manufacture any steel.
We want to understand what you’re building
When you bring us a project, we’re not just looking for a span, length and height so we can put a price against it.
We want to understand the job.
What does your client need the building to do? How will it be used? Are there large openings or specialist requirements? What are you working around? Is future expansion likely? Are there parts of the design that haven’t been resolved yet?
The earlier we understand those things, the more useful we can be to you.
We’ve been doing this for more than 25 years, and you start to recognise where problems can occur.
If we can see something that might cause you grief later, we’ll raise it.
It’s much easier to have that conversation while you’re looking at drawings than when you’re standing on site trying to fix it.
If we think there’s a better way, we’ll tell you
You know your project. We know large steel buildings.
That’s how I think the relationship should work.
We’re not here to tell you how to do your job, but I do expect our team to speak up when our experience can help.
There might be an opportunity to simplify the structure. A detail might be difficult to manufacture or erect. Something might need better coordination with another part of the building. Or there may simply be a more practical way to achieve what your client wants.
Sometimes the original approach will be exactly right.
Sometimes it won’t.
Either way, you’ll get a straight answer from us.
We try to solve the difficult questions before they reach your site
Once you’re on site, changes cost time and money.
You’ve got people booked, equipment arriving, and other trades relying on things happening in the right order.
That’s why we put so much emphasis on what happens before construction.
Our 3C Advantage process gives us a way to work through the project with you.
First, we understand what you need.
Then we configure and engineer the building around those requirements.
By the time we’re manufacturing and you’re preparing to construct it, we want the major questions answered.
It doesn’t mean nothing will ever change. Construction doesn’t work like that.
It means we’ve done the work early to reduce the number of things you’re having to sort out later.
You can get an answer when you need one
This is something I think matters more than people realise when they’re choosing a supplier.
When you have a question, how hard is it to get to someone who can actually answer it?
Our engineering, detailing and manufacturing teams work closely together, and our manufacturing facility is here in Armidale.
So, if you call us about a detail, we can get the people who understand that part of your building involved.
You shouldn’t have to chase your question through three different companies to work out who is responsible.
If it sits with us, we need to deal with it.
Your client stays your client
This is particularly important when you work with us as a builder partner.
You’ve built the relationship with your client. You’ve won the project. You’re responsible for delivering it.
We respect that and are ready to help you support and strengthen that relationship.
Our role is to give you specialist steel building capability that you can bring into your project when you need it.
If we are often a big help when we are called in early while you’re still working through the design. You might already have a developed concept and need us to take it through engineering and manufacture.
Either way, we’re there to support you.
You stay in control of your project and your client relationship.
If something changes, pick up the phone
Projects change. That’s construction.
A dimension gets revised. Your client changes something. Another trade needs a detail moved. Something on site isn’t quite what everyone expected.
When that happens, I’d rather you pick up the phone.
We’ll work out what has changed, get the right people involved and find the most practical way forward.
If we’ve overlooked something, we will own it.
If it’s something neither of us could have anticipated, we need to work through it together.
If you need information from us to keep your project moving, we need to get it to you.
Pointing fingers doesn’t get your building finished. Solving the problem does.
So, what difference should TechSpan make to your project?
You will notice it in the way the job runs.
You will have fewer unanswered questions going into construction.
You will have someone to call when you need an answer.
You will have people looking at the steel building package who understand what you’re trying to achieve, not just what they’re supplying.
And you should feel confident that we’re working with you, not simply completing an order and moving on to the next one.
That’s what Build Smarter means to me.
We make big sheds simple. It’s not about making a simple job complicated.
It’s about putting the right thinking in early, working with good people and making better decisions before they become expensive ones.
At the end of the project, I want you to feel that having TechSpan involved made your job easier and more profitable.
If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.
If you’ve got a project you’re working through, give us a call or send us your plans. Bring us in early, and we’ll sit down with you, look at what you need to deliver and work out where we can help.