Construction procurement software is considered one of the most effective ways to combat productivity killers that have long plagued the industry. Ask any project executive where productivity slips away, and you’ll hear familiar culprits: labor shortages, change orders, and weather delays. However, if you trace most schedule disruptions back to their root cause, you’ll find that they often stem from building materials.
Material procurement is the quiet system that underpins every project. When that system slows down, miscommunicates, or lacks visibility, crews wait, schedules slip, and budgets leak. With ERP for the construction industry, contractors can finally improve productivity through material management, rather than deal with bottlenecks.
The Productivity Problem in Construction
Productivity and efficiency have long been challenges for the construction industry. While other sectors have adopted technology to drive gains, construction productivity has just recently risen, except in roads and bridges, where it has nosedived. Crews continue to face mounting pressure to deliver more with the same resources, while material costs, volatility, and customer expectations continue to rise.
Research continues to demonstrate that inefficient material management and procurement processes are a significant contributor to the productivity problem. Every delayed RFI, missing approval, or unclear spec creates downtime and rework, the hidden drains on productivity that erode profitability. Without connected systems or clear communication, projects lose valuable time before work even begins.
This is where ERP for the construction industry makes a measurable difference. With digital procurement tools that centralize communication, automate documentation, and integrate scheduling, contractors gain the real-time insight needed to improve productivity across the job site.
Why Material Management Is a Hidden Productivity Killer
Procurement touches every phase of a construction project, from design to installation. When material management systems fail, the impact ripples across every department. Three major factors make procurement such a critical challenge:
1. Administrative Red Tape
Procurement isn’t a single transaction but a chain of dependencies that often begins in design and runs to the job site. Every RFI that lingers, every submittal that bounces between teams, and every vague spec adds days to the schedule and interrupts crew productivity.
Construction procurement software helps eliminate this friction by automating submittal tracking, linking related documents, and flagging bottlenecks early. When approval cycles are visible to all stakeholders, response times shorten and field teams stay on track.
2. Market Volatility
Even after the extreme material price swings of 2021–2022, market volatility persists in unpredictable cycles. Metals, lumber, and mechanical components continue to fluctuate due to tariffs, creating uncertainty for contractors. Without a procurement plan that captures varying lead times and aligns pricing with the project schedule, teams often face last-minute sourcing challenges or costly rework.
An ERP brings real-time supplier data and pricing visibility into one platform, helping teams forecast needs, lock in contracts, and adjust purchasing strategies before additional production disruptions.
3. Fragmentation Creates Waste
Procurement touches design, estimating, project management, field supervision, accounting, and suppliers. Yet too often, each department works from separate spreadsheets or systems, creating data silos. The result is duplication, miscommunication, and material waste.
Procurement software unifies these processes, ensuring every stakeholder works from the same source of truth. Centralized material tracking and inventory data reduce over-ordering and eliminate costly surprises at the end of a project.
How Frontier ERP Helps Improve Productivity
Frontier ERP is built to address these exact challenges for the construction industry. As part of the Supply Chain Management module, integrated procurement and material management tools give contractors a complete view of their material lifecycle, from specification to on-site delivery.
Here’s how Frontier ERP helps teams stay productive and profitable:
Automated Procurement Scheduling
Automated Procurement SchedulingFrontier ERP allows project managers to create a live procurement log that runs parallel to the master schedule. Users can track long-lead items, submittal due dates, fabrication durations, shipping timelines, and on-site delivery windows. This ensures the right materials arrive at the right time, minimizing idle labor and sequencing disruptions.
Centralized, Real-time Data
With Frontier’s Material Requirements Planning, contractors can standardize their top recurring materials into a shared catalog that includes approved alternates and related documentation. This reduces repetitive data entry, shortens approval times, and improves communication between project teams and suppliers.
KPI Tracking and Reporting
The system measures essential productivity metrics such as PO-to-dock lead time, submittal cycle times, and the percentage of tasks started with complete material kits. This transparency gives managers a clear view of where delays occur and where improvements can be made.
Distribution Planning and Visibility
Frontier ERP integrates material scheduling with logistics and shipping coordination. Delivery sequencing, laydown area planning, and inspection tracking are all managed from a single platform. This coordination minimizes material handling, reduces damage, and prevents rework.
Conclusion
The construction industry can no longer afford to treat procurement as a back-office task. With margins tightening and expectations rising, material management has become the most direct lever for improving productivity. Episodic price spikes, tariff uncertainties, and supply disruptions still occur. When procurement isn’t coordinated, these fluctuations ripple through projects in the form of delays, wasted materials, and lost labor hours.
Procurement isn’t just paperwork; it’s the production system of every construction project. When it’s slow, opaque, or fragmented, productivity falters. But when procurement is transparent, connected, and technology-driven, every trade, team, and timeline benefits.
Investing in ERP for the construction industry is one of the fastest and most effective ways to improve productivity. Frontier ERP gives contractors the tools they need to make procurement measurable, predictable, and aligned with project goals, ensuring materials move as efficiently as the crews that depend on them.
If your construction projects are losing valuable time to procurement bottlenecks, it’s time to modernize. Contact us today by clicking below to learn how Frontier can transform your material management process.
