Long-lead item
A long-lead item is material or equipment whose manufacturing and delivery time is long enough that it must be ordered well before it is needed, or it will delay the job.
Also written as long lead time item, long-lead equipment.
Last updated
Reviewed by Eric Collin · President and Founder of Firmo Construction, 20+ years in preconstruction and bid evaluation
Switchgear, generators, elevators, air handling units, custom curtain wall, and structural steel are typical examples. Lead times are measured in months and move with market conditions, which means a duration that held last year may not hold now.
The scheduling consequence is that the order date, not the installation date, is the constraint. A twelve-month switchgear lead time on an eighteen-month project means the submittal must be approved within the first months, and any delay in that approval consumes float that cannot be recovered later.
For comparison, long-lead items are where a bidder's assumptions can be silently different. One bidder may have a current quote and a delivery slot held; another may have priced from a stale figure with no reservation. Both submit a number, and only one of them has secured the item. Asking bidders to state lead times and quote validity is the way to see the difference.
They interact with escalation clauses more than any other category. An item ordered ten months after bid is exposed to ten months of price movement, and who carries that exposure should be settled at award rather than argued about when the invoice arrives.
- Escalation clause
An escalation clause is a contract provision allowing a price to be adjusted if the cost of specified materials rises beyond an agreed threshold before they are purchased.
- Submittal
A submittal is documentation a contractor provides for review before fabrication or installation — product data, samples, or shop drawings — showing that what will be supplied meets the specification.
- Shop drawings
Shop drawings are detailed drawings prepared by a contractor, fabricator, or supplier showing how a specific element will actually be fabricated and installed.
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