DESIGNER AND CONTRACTOR SELECTION FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES

Are you looking to build a new high-tech facility or update one you own, lease or manage? Let's address some ways to avoid pitfalls that cause production delays, cost uncertainty, schedule delays, and owner frustration for Advanced Technology and Industrial projects. Let's begin with the designer and contractor selection process.

Qualifying your design and construction team.

• Take the time to clarify their statements. It's okay to verify their experience. If the architect, engineers, or construction managers state that they have experience with projects similar to yours, ask them for details. If this is related to a SCIF or other secured spaces, they won't have photos and may be unable to give you client names. However, they should be well-versed in your most important topics. You don't have to be a design and construction expert to verify their claims. You know your industry; ask about the auxiliary components, supplies, or processes you know well. For instance, if you are concerned about their knowledge of thermal-vacuum chambers, you might ask them where they procure their vacuum jacketed piping, if they can get you up and running with dewars, and how the transition to a permanent tank might look. A knowledgeable design and contracting team should be able to understand the processes and usage your facility intends to accommodate and present this knowledge to you in a way that you understand.

• Ensure the employees you are vetting will be on your project. Designers and contractors may list projects that match the design or intent of your facility, but are the employees who managed them still with the company, and are they available to work on your project? If so, ask to meet them. Business development folks are one of the backbones of our industry, but someone else will design or build your project. You'll want to meet the Job Captain for the architectural firm, the Lead Engineers for the engineering teams, and the Project Manager (and hopefully the Superintendent) for the general contractor.

• Be wary of low bidders. Design and construction teams are used to working in an environment that rewards low bidding at the proposal stage of a project. They often feel the need to show competitive pricing even if it does not reflect the entirety of the project scope. The initial design parameters may be vague, the specifications may need to be completed, and existing conditions may be present. These and other factors allow significant leverage to add additional costs after they are contracted, via change orders. Bidders may slip these issues into their exclusion statements or ignore the abovementioned factors, knowing that costly change orders will increase the low costs they initially show. This opens you up to significant increases that can eclipse the cost delta of the qualified designers or contractor teams that may factor some of these uncertainties into their initial pricing. Even the best designers and contractors cannot correctly assume a solution to every unresolved consideration. However, they can make assumptions based on their experience, provide a rough order of magnitude for budgeting, and show the client why they made those assumptions while giving a more realistic base bid.
• Consider a third-party program manager/consultant like The CPI Group . Having a knowledgeable link between the owner, designers, GC, and trades, can pay off rapidly.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you'd like to see a related topic in a future article. You can reach me at [email protected]

*While the author has over 26 years of experience in the construction industry as a laborer, carpenter, superintendent, and project manager, many factors are integrated into your facility team selection and build process. This should not be viewed as all-inclusive or as legal or financial advice. This article was not written with AI.