Thursday, November 16, 2023

Unlocking Design-Build Construction's Potential: Two Keys for Maximum Performance


 

Content courtesy of: WECA Utah Founding Member Contractor Hunt Electric

Getting the most from design-build delivery often depends on the quality of the electrical, mechanical, and general contractors you select. How can owners and developers identify the right design-build partners? Look for the following factors.  

Standardization: A contractor using well-documented processes will ensure a more predictable outcome. 

Trends in the AEC industry, such as employee turnover, make standardized processes critical. 

Engineers are retiring from the profession in far greater numbers than new engineers are replacing them. This imbalance, coupled with the immense demand for new construction in many markets, puts fewer engineers with less experience under greater pressure to do more work. This same trend applies to the field staff as well. 

By standardizing and fully documenting every step of the design process, a design-build partner can support its engineers with detailed documentation that provides clear guidance to help them make the best decisions in every design step. This standardization also keeps engineers on schedule. 

Hunt Electric anticipated this challenge to the industry years ago. We responded by extensively analyzing our design-build processes and standardizing them with clear documentation. This empowers us to support new members of the engineering team with the guidance they need to maximize the amount and quality of work they can accomplish with limited direct oversight. 

Our standardized and well-documented processes give you and the rest of the team a more predictable and complete electrical design. 

Constructability Reviews: Get a practical design that can be efficiently constructed in the field. 

Once the design has been completed, a good design-build partner will have a team of expert electricians with extensive field experience review and modify the drawings to ensure they can be built efficiently in the field. The constructability review forces the project team to confront and address potential conflicts with other trades and resolve them in the design phase. This process prevents costly conflicts and rework in the field by making changes when they are the easiest and most cost-effective. 

Read the rest of the article here.