The submittal sat in someone’s inbox. Now the crew’s on site—and nothing’s cleared to install.
Late approvals are silent killers in refractory and glass installs. Because the delay doesn’t show up in early tracking. It shows up when:
A truck is held at the gate
A crew burns a full shift waiting
QA flags “no stamp” on the only version on file
The cost? It’s not just hours. It’s schedule erosion and reputational fallout.
Most RFPs won’t mention:
Approval lead times
Escalation chains
Who owns the risk of idle labor
Smart suppliers now address this proactively:
They provide approval calendars during precon
They chase signatures, not just send submittals
They build in float buffers for QA review—and escalate at 48 hours, not 8
Distributors who treat approvals like a critical path item become trusted operators. Because once the crew is standing there with no go-ahead, everyone starts asking why you didn’t speak up sooner.
