Anyone who has been involved with a museum exhibit design-build project knows that this process can take many months or, more likely, even years to complete.  During this time, numerous items can delay the installation of an exhibit.  There can be building delays, renovation delays, funding delays, contractual negotiating delays, bureaucratic paperwork delays, approval process delays, or even delays caused by Mother Nature herself.  These delays could be days, months, or sometimes years.  When items like these do happen, the project manager negotiates a new schedule.   However, dates are not the only thing that might change.

Delays can also lead to increased fabrication cost.  Costs of important materials such as lumber, acrylic, and graphic substrates fluctuate with the price of fuel and other economic factors.   Labor cost can also increase.  An exhibit scheduled to be fabricated in 2013 could costs less than an exhibit fabricated 2014.  Shipping and travel expenses can change rapidly as well.  Delaying an installation trip from mid October to around Thanksgiving can increase costs by thousands of dollars.  If a project is delayed and a new grand opening date is set, but the number of days to complete the project is less than what was originally scheduled, there can be increased costs due to mandatory overtime to complete the job in less time.  Subcontractor costs can also increase over the period of the delay due to their own labor and material costs increases.

Delays in the design process can also lead to increased costs.  If the design is delayed and members of the client’s team turnover or new board members are elected there are many times requests for additional face to face meetings to get the new team up to speed.  The additional trips increase costs.  Many times when new team members are added there are requests for additional review periods or rounds of revisions which can also add costs.

Mitigating delays allows each client to keep cost in check and get the most bangs for their buck.