Where the gap is
On a large project, the material take-off comes out of the 3D model, requisitions become purchase orders, expediting chases them, inspection releases them and shipping brings them to site. Systems such as SmartPlant Materials, AVEVA ERM and SAP handle most of that chain well, because it happens in offices, against documents, with good connectivity.
The chain weakens at the site gate. Receiving happens in a yard, often in poor weather, against packing lists that do not match the PO line by line. Items are put down wherever there is room. Preservation is due on a schedule nobody sees. A crew asks for a spool, and someone walks the rows. Surplus is discovered at close-out. The materials system still says received, which is true and not enough.
What the yard and the site warehouse actually need
- 01
Receiving that matches reality
Receive against the PO and the packing list together, record shortages and damage with photos, and attach heat numbers and MTR certificates to the items as they arrive, not later in an office.
- 02
A location for every item
Rows, bays and warehouse bins as real places in the system, so an item's last known location is a fact, not a memory.
- 03
Preservation on a schedule
Motors, valves and instruments have preservation tasks. The system should know which are due, by location, and record that they were done.
- 04
Issue to construction against work packages
Materials issued against the work package that needs them, so the trace runs from MTO line to installed location.
- 05
Surplus while it can still be used
What is left over, known during the project rather than at the end, when it can still be moved to another area.
RFID, GPS or barcodes
Most yards end up with all three, each where it fits. The choice is made per material and per area after a site survey, not once for the whole project.
| Material | Usually tracked by | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pipe spools, structural steel | Passive UHF RFID on metal | Read in bulk at a gate or with a handheld, without line of sight |
| Modules, large equipment, containers | GPS trackers | Located anywhere on a large site, and their moves recorded |
| Boxed bulk, consumables, warehouse bins | QR codes and barcodes | Cheap, reliable, printed on site |
| Instruments and small valves in crates | Barcodes on the crate, RFID where crates are many | One scan per crate, not per item |
Designing for the far end of the site
A yard app that needs a good connection will not be used at the far end of a mine or a pipeline spread. Devices should store everything and sync when they can. On remote sites, an edge box per area keeps the local record and syncs with head office when the link allows, so receiving and issue never wait for the network.
Conflicts are rare but real: two people moving the same crate while both are offline. They should be shown to a supervisor to resolve, never silently overwritten.
Integrate, do not replace
The materials system remains the record of what was ordered and received. The yard app integrates with it through its API: it reads POs and items, and writes back receipts, locations and issues. The same goes for SAP or Oracle for receipts and costs, and for the schedule, so issues line up with the work packages planned in Primavera P6 or InEight.
- Your firm supplies the API access and the licences under its own agreements with each vendor.
- Access requests and test environments often take longer than the build. Plan for them from the start.
- Large firms run an IT security review and vendor onboarding before anything connects to their systems. The estimate below shows it as a lead time.
Heat numbers, certificates, preservation
Traceability is only as good as the moment it is captured. If heat numbers are typed into a spreadsheet in the site office at the end of the day, a share of them will be wrong or missing, and nobody will know which. The receiving screen should ask for the heat number while the item is in front of the receiver, read it from the tag or the label where it can, and refuse to close the receipt while a certificate the PO requires is missing.
The same goes for preservation. A motor that needs its shaft turned every few weeks, or an instrument that needs desiccant changed, should appear on a list for the person responsible for that row, with the last time it was done and a photo as proof. When the item is issued, its preservation history goes with it, which is what the commissioning team will ask for later.
None of this needs a new materials system. It needs the yard to have tools as good as the office has, and those tools to write back what they learn.
What it costs, worked out now
The worked example below is a yard and site warehouse app on rugged Android devices, with RFID, GPS and barcodes, two remote areas with edge boxes, integration with the materials system and the ERP, and hosting in the client's Azure tenant. It is priced by our estimator from the rate card in force when you open this page, including the tracking hardware and an indicative range for installation by a local contractor.
Worked example, priced now
Laydown yard and site warehouse app with RFID and GPS
Two remote areas, rugged devices, on-metal RFID, GPS on large items, and integrations with the materials system and the ERP.
- Build
- ≈ US$207,000 to US$317,000, delivered within 42 weeksCAD 295,100 to 451,300
Prices in your currency are estimates from today's Bank of Canada rate. All invoicing is in CAD or USD.
Estimated effort by role
- Development
- 1201 to 1837 h
- Backend developer
- 182 to 278 h
- Senior backend developer
- 181 to 277 h
- Project manager
- 152 to 232 h
- QA engineer
- 149 to 227 h
- Product designer
- 140 to 215 h
- Frontend developer
- 100 to 154 h
- Senior product designer
- 94 to 143 h
- Junior backend developer
- 91 to 139 h
- Software architect
- 91 to 138 h
- Senior engineer
- 90 to 138 h
- Senior frontend developer
- 60 to 92 h
- DevOps engineer
- 53 to 81 h
- Mobile developer
- 45 to 69 h
- Junior frontend developer
- 40 to 61 h
- Senior mobile developer
- 35 to 53 h
- Technical writer
- 26 to 40 h
- Junior mobile developer
- 20 to 30 h
How it is paid
- Deposit 20%
- CAD 59,020 to 90,260
- Discovery 3.5%
- CAD 10,328.50 to 15,795.50
- Discovery and site walk-through 4.7%
- CAD 13,869.70 to 21,211.10
- Design approved 8.3%
- CAD 24,493.30 to 37,457.90
- Core features 3.6%
- CAD 10,623.60 to 16,246.80
- Full build 2.4%
- CAD 7,082.40 to 10,831.20
- First build on devices 7%
- CAD 20,657 to 31,591
- Stock, receiving and transfers 14.2%
- CAD 41,904.20 to 64,084.60
- Tracking and devices working 9.4%
- CAD 27,739.40 to 42,422.20
- Testing and fixes 1.2%
- CAD 3,541.20 to 5,415.60
- Store submission 2.3%
- CAD 6,787.30 to 10,379.90
- Pilot site live 4.7%
- CAD 13,869.70 to 21,211.10
- Launch 3.5%
- CAD 10,328.50 to 15,795.50
- Rollout 5.2%
- CAD 15,345.20 to 23,467.60
- Holdback, 30 days after launch (10%)
- CAD 29,510 to 45,130
Running it
- Hosting
- ≈ US$874 a monthCAD 1,245 a month
- Support
- ≈ US$2,500 a monthCAD 3,565 a month
Where to start
- 01
Pick one yard
Start where the pain is greatest, usually the main laydown yard, and prove the flow from receiving to issue there.
- 02
Survey before you buy
Walk the yard with the materials lead, decide tracking per material, and only then order readers and tags.
- 03
Integrate read-only first
Read POs and items from the materials system, then add write-back once the yard team trusts the app.
- 04
Add the next system once this one is used
Completions, vendor data or progress, in the order your project feels most.