Ive got some really good contractors. The only ones that ive had any problems with is these fking painters. They suck. I know painting. I owned my own paint company for almost 30 yrs. These fkers wouldnt have lasted a day with me. Pisses me off because i cant throw the *******s off my job due to government contracts.
Because of our government contracts and good practice, we typically got three quotes, but after working with a contractor base for a few contracts, it refined down to a small group who were successful bidders, usually they ones that I worked well with and insured that they were profitable, so they didn't throw a huge fudge factor into their bids. No complicated plan survives intact, so there are always add-ons and deletions, which I administered fairly so that they grew to trust me.
The eight manufacturing facilities that I was responsible for were all in the state of Oregon, all but one in Portland or outlying communities, so I was able to refine my central contractor pool to eliminate the losers and developed some dynamite teams. It was when we brought in unknown suppliers that things sometimes got dicey, which the contractor team was sometimes called upon to save the day in the eleventh hour and always rose to the challenge.
I learned later that the contractors have a factor for each engineer or engineering program manager, depending on their experience working with him. I had the lowest contingency factor in our group because they learned my projects were well organized and knew I would treat them fairly if things went sideways.
I have to say that amongst the contractors that I worked with, the painters were the least dependable and organized. I came to believe it had something to do with the long-term effect of the fumes that they were breathing.
I also had worse luck managing programs at the out-of-town facility where I used more unknown and untried vendors. I don't envy you managing vendors spread out the way you are.............