The Design Burden

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Beck Ireland, Staff Writer

Shorter schedules and tighter budgets are forcing electrical contractors earlier into the planning and design phase — and they’re liking it

Driven by the desire for lower costs and earlier completion dates, many owners are abandoning the traditional design-bid-build project delivery method in favor of variations that emphasize teamwork at the very earliest stages of planning and design. They rely on specialty contractors to act as designers or consultants to the design. “Thirty years ago, you'd get a complete set of drawings,” says Leo Correll, executive vice president, Delta Diversified Enterprises, Inc., Tempe, Ariz. “You could make an estimate and go out and build the job. In today's industry, whether it's driven by finance, costs, or the owners not knowing exactly what they want, the engineering is far less complete than what it used to be.”

Some project delivery methods require specialty contractors to hire designers.

The main objective of total player involvement in the conceptual and planning phase is to limit expensive change orders or rework resulting from breakdowns in communication, as well as the cost of the actual communication — what economists refer to as “transaction costs” — among players. By bringing the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) firms into the process earlier, owners are able to condense building schedules by using practical strategies, such as pulling partial permits to start the underground work before the design starts.

“A lot of owners recognize they've had problems with the plan and spec delivery,” says Steve Juan, vice president of pre-construction services, Guarantee Electrical Co., St. Louis. “They want contractors that are installing the system to be more involved in the design process, making the job constructible and helping get the job in on budget earlier.”

Kick-off

Unity International Group, Flushing, N.Y., uses a sports metaphor to describe its early coordination efforts for the program management method of project delivery, which focuses on a facility's life cycle costs as early as during the construction phase.

“We have kick-off meetings,” says Peter Striano, owner and CEO. After a project is awarded to the firm — based on the estimate — the engineer, project manager, estimator who took off the job, chief estimator, field superintendent, and chief operating officer get in a “huddle” to review the profile of the job. The profile includes variables such as work to be done on overtime, work to be done on straight time, the schedule of deliveries, major purchases, and equipment to be delivered to the job site and how that all fits into the owner or general contractor's schedule.

“These are some of the interlocking phases of the job that have to be carefully measured before you release a job to full flow,” Striano says. “It's a major coordination effort at the outset of the job. It's much more emotional than it is in the written word, so to speak. It's like watching football coaches work.”

Constructibility

Far from being rattled by the pressure to acquire new project management skills, most firms have risen to the challenge. “We love being involved in design-build projects,” Juan says. “When owners and contractors have a job that's getting ready to go into the design process and we have some influence, we try to push it toward design-build or design-assist at a minimum. It lets us understand their needs so we can help guide them on what things cost and the most efficient ways to do certain things.”

In some cases, electrical contractors not only work as a specialty contractor consultant but also as the prime. “Helix is probably a little unusual in the specialty contractor arena — especially electrical — in that a lot of the work we do is as a prime,” says Brian Jordan, executive vice president, Helix Electric, Inc., San Diego. Recently, the company completed a project performing telecommunications upgrades as a prime for California State University. “We're comfortable either as a prime or a specialty.”

More work at the front end can also bring about a smoother building process at the back end. “We bring a constructibility to our design-build process,” says Juan. “It makes our field people more productive, and, in turn, makes the delivery on the job site more economical.”

This year Guarantee's design-build work (Design Build) is approaching 40% to 50% of the work the firm performs. When the company uses the design-build delivery method, it is the engineer of record. “Our constructibility group interfaces with our design-build process and even helps with our plan and spec work to take those drawings from an engineer and provide the next level of detail that allows our field crews to be productive,” Juan says. “We give them detailed drawings and blow-ups of complicated sections so they know exactly what to install and how to install it.”

Many firms are still wary of providing the actual designs so they opt for delivery methods in which they act as a guide or consultant, such as design assist (Design-Assist) or program management. “Even though we have engineers on staff, we do not do the design,” Correll says. “The engineers on staff assist and coordinate with the design firm we would contract to do the design.”

Unity is another firm that keeps a strict boundary between design and construction. “We merely respond to the design that the owner and client have put together,” says Striano. “We look for changes in the design or areas in the design that we could get to the same place that the engineer wants to but much more of an expeditious route.”

Firms are finding that more supervision and communication does not necessarily increase the cost of the project or bring additional headaches. “You're able to control your destiny a little bit better,” Correll says. “Even though you have more risk, you can have passion about what you're doing and really be a part of what's being created. Then your meetings go better, your control goes better, your schedule goes better, and that's where our company and others throughout the country that do this have really strengthened the industry.”