Send material straight to site when it is bulky, cheap for its weight and bought for one site: cement, steel, blocks, sand, ready-mix concrete. Run it through a central warehouse when it is small, costly, easy to carry away, shared by several sites or in need of a check before use: cable and copper wire, sanitary ware, fittings, small tools. Most construction companies need both routes, decided material by material.
The two routes
Straight to site. The supplier delivers to the site and the site counts at the gate. The material is handled once and needs no warehouse space. The price: each site orders for itself, so orders are smaller and prices weaker; quality is checked at the gate, often in a hurry; and leftovers stay scattered across sites.
Through the central warehouse. The supplier delivers to your warehouse, which checks, stores and sends to sites as they ask. You buy in bulk for all sites, check quality in one place, keep tight control of items that walk away, and bring leftovers back to one place. The price: a second truck run, a storekeeper and space, and a day or two between a site's request and the delivery.
Five questions for each material
- Is it bulky or heavy for its value? Cement, blocks, steel and aggregates cost more to move twice than any bulk price saves. Straight to site.
- Is it small and valuable, or easy to carry away? Copper wire, fittings, sanitary ware and small tools. Through the warehouse.
- Do several sites use the same item? Cable, fixings and consumables are cheaper bought once for everyone. Through the warehouse.
- Does it need checking before use? Sanitary ware cracks; electrical items arrive in the wrong rating. Through the warehouse.
- Is it made or cut for one site? Ready-mix concrete, cut-and-bent steel, made-to-measure joinery. Straight to site, always.
Material | Route | Why |
Cement | Straight to site | Bulky, used within weeks |
Reinforcement steel | Straight to site | Heavy, often cut and bent for the site |
Blocks | Straight to site | Bulky; every extra handling breaks some |
Ready-mix concrete | Straight to site | It cannot wait |
Copper wire and cable | Central warehouse | Valuable, easy to carry away, used by every site |
Sanitary ware | Central warehouse | Breakable; checked before it leaves |
Fittings and fixings | Central warehouse | Small, many kinds, shared |
The costs people forget
Compare the routes on the full cost, not the price on the order. A truck run from the warehouse to a site, loading twice, the warehouse rent and the storekeeper's time all belong next to the bulk saving. So does the leftover material when a site finishes: on the direct route it tends to be forgotten, unless it is moved to the next site or back to the warehouse and recorded as a transfer.
Keep the route on the material
Decide the route once for each material and write it down, so purchasing orders it to the right place and everyone knows where it should be. Material sent from the warehouse to a site is a transfer, not a cost: it is still yours, now in another store, until the site uses it.
Common mistakes
- Everything through the warehouse "for control": cement travels twice and costs more for it.
- Everything straight to site: copper wire spread over five sites with nobody counting it.
- Choosing the route order by order instead of material by material.
- Moving material between sites without recording it at both ends.
How Sitely does it
When your Sitely workspace is set up, you choose whether you run a central warehouse. Each material then carries its supply mode: through the Central Warehouse or straight to site. Materials that go through the warehouse are bought into it and sent to sites with the Central WH to site operation; the others are ordered for the site and received there. Managers and the CEO can move leftovers from one site to another.
See both routes on How it works, or set up your own materials in a free 15-day trial.
Questions people ask
Does a small construction company need a central warehouse?
Not always. With one or two sites close together, a store on each site is enough. Once three or more sites share items such as cable and fittings, a small central store usually pays for itself.
Can one material use both routes?
Choose one and change it only when the reason changes. Mixing routes order by order makes it hard to know where the material should be.
Where does leftover material go when a site finishes?
To the next site or back to the warehouse, recorded as a transfer, so it never stays on the books of a finished site.