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ENGINEERING YOUR SUCCESS 12 SECTION DPROJECT APPROACH & UNDERSTANDING project necessity, and identify over pricing or requesting additional fees for items included in the initial scope. One reason we may reject a change order is due to the general contractor seeking a change that is covered in the original scope and drawings but overlooked during the bidding process. We are an extension of our clients and work to protect their interest and the integrity of the project’s design. Careful systems design and study of a project’s documents is required to achieve zero change orders, errors, and omissions. Having a trusted construction administrator that is involved in the project from design to closing is one step clients can take to ensure a quality designed project. OCI is proud to be one of the few engineering firms that maintain the design engineer as the construction administrator. Being involved has allowed our engineers to grow by seeing their design go from paper to a functional building system. Keeping this in mind during the design process leads to increased field coordination with contractors and subconsultants, and a reduction in errors and omissions. SCHEDULE OCI’s Project Manager will develop the schedule once the scope is defined, the project tasks determined, and the system components identified. If there is missing project information during the schedule development process, such as the exact delivery date of critical equipment, OCI’s team make scheduling decisions based on lessons learned and experience. Long-lead items can affect the schedule and OCI’s Project Manager assists the City with procurement packages, so the equipment is competitively pre-purchased prior to design completion. The pre-purchased equipment is then interfaced into the construction schedule by coordinating with the contractor. This approach to developing the schedule allows the project to move forward and meet the City’s timeline. The City is kept abreast of information as it develops, so that any cost impact on the project are known at the earliest possible time. When budget constraints are stringent, OCI’s design team suggests reasonable alternatives to the system design that will retain the project’s overall objectives while providing cost reduction with minimal negative impact to the system’s performance. VALUE ENGINEERING, CHANGE ORDERS, ERRORS, AND OMISSIONS A unique cost control feature that our clients benefit from is our project managers involvement during design, construction administration, the final walk-through, and warranty period of every project. Our project team works to be an extension of our clients at each phase to ensure the quality value engineered designs, low instances of change orders, and to minimize oversights. Value engineering is the effort to analyze a project plan to determine if there are alternatives that result in lower life-cycle cost without compromising the project quality. A quality system is a goal of value engineering as opposed to the focus being on lower cost design. OCI practices value engineering in concert with the budget estimating, project option selection, and close work with our clients to reach decisions on the best approach that results in a quality system that operates optimally and has a low life cycle cost. This process is ongoing and begins at the project’s conception to its eventual completion. Our design team practices a collaborative approach to the construction phase by working with contractors rather than against them. This endeavor fosters a team environment acting in the owner’s best interest. Many times, this encourages contractors to bring valuable cost savings measure to the table to deliver a quality product under budget. During the Construction Administration phase of a project, our project managers review change orders for accuracy, OCI’s energy modeling and Ice Storage Thermal projects saved the School Board of St. Lucie County $3.3 Million in savings in the first 2 years. Florida Power & Light returned the savings with a check for $679,680.00 back to the School District that year. Over the last 10 years, the District has saved nearly $25 million in energy savings.