The Client:

A U.S. office supply company with an installation contract for the headquarters of a civil engineering response force squadron, located at a military airfield on Guam .

Project Summary

DeWitt Guam was hired as a subcontractor by a U.S. office supply company to install office furniture in a newly renovated facility on a military airfield on Guam. The office supply company provided all the furniture and the layouts.  

The DeWitt Guam team was tasked with unpacking, assembling, and installing all the furnishings in four separate buildings, which are used as the headquarters for a squadron providing heavy construction support and repair in high threat, remote locations.  

The client required that the DeWitt Guam team complete the installation in 10 days. 

Additionally, the DeWitt Guam team was asked to pack furnishings that would be sent to DLA Disposition Services (also known as DRMO) for reutilization. The team was responsible for putting the furniture on pallets, shrink-wrapping it, and delivering it to the DLA Disposition Center on Guam. 

The Challenge

The timeline was one of the most important elements of this project. DeWitt Guam was given 10 days to execute a four-building office installation. Several elements challenged this schedule: 

• The buildings were undergoing renovation at the same time as the installation. This meant that the DeWitt Guam Team Lead had to work closely with the point of contact on site to ensure the two teams would not get in each other’s way.  

• Security protocols required the team to wait in the inspection line each morning at the main base gate, then proceed to a separate location to start work. This shaved time off each day’s timeline. 

• When the team first arrived at the job site, they discovered limited room to stage furniture, as well as construction equipment and materials they had to work around. 

The Solution

Communication was the main key to keeping this project on track. This was especially critical since several outside factors impacted the timeline: 

• The simultaneous renovation of the buildings meant a change in the team’s original plans. Additionally, DeWitt Guam’s on-site Team Lead knew careful coordination with the renovation team would be critical. He met with the renovation team’s leader every morning to come up with a daily plan so the two teams could work in lockstep.  

• Next, the squadron’s on-site construction equipment and materials created some physical obstacles. They also prevented the team from staging items for optimal efficiency. However, communication between on-site personnel and the DeWitt Guam team enabled them to create a solution that gave the DeWitt team more room to work—and allowed them to continue to move the job forward on its prescribed timeline. 

• Finally, daily security protocols meant that the DeWitt Guam team had to clear their truck every morning before heading to the job site. Since the length of the inspection line varied daily, this added significant uncertainty to the project. However, the DeWitt Team Lead and veteran installers rallied the team to leverage their previous experience and complete the project within the 10-day window—with a few hours to spare.  

The Results

On the strength of the on-time completion of this project—and the positive relationships the DeWitt Guam team created on-site—DeWitt Guam has continued to build a strong, long-term partnership with the office supply client, with future projects already on the calendar.