“We’ve always done it that way…”

And guess what, it didn’t work. The outcome was unsatisfactory, cost the owner more than planned and frankly, more than it should have cost.

You’ve had your problems with Lump Sum or Guaranteed Maximum Price projects and it’s time to try a new approach that has a proven track record of success.

You’re interested… so what happens now?

The ideal situation is for the owner to entertain Design Assist at the earliest stage possible, usually at the same time he/she is building the design team.  Projects that reach for Design Assist at 25-30% design benefit greatly.

The best approach is to introduce Design Assist when the project pivots from SD to CD (Schematic Design to Construction Drawings).  It’s at this point that the process becomes “real world” and tackles what’s actually going to be built. This is when things are most complex, therefore providing the biggest opportunity to give input on efficiencies, cost savings and timetables.

Even late into the final drawings ..  Design Assist can minimize the risks and meet with designers to see what’s missing from drawings and find issues yet to materialize.  At this point, it becomes a risk mitigation tool.  Overall, Design Assist can greatly benefit a project at almost any phase, but the point is to de-risk the project for the owner from the beginning. Design Assist anticipates and avoids problems, cost risks and potential delays.

Design Assist is all about starting early and gaining stakeholder buy-in to the process and its outcomes.  The first step is to transfer information by having team members review drawings and site location or potential site locations in order to identify potential pitfalls.  From this point on, the successful process relies on structured collaboration and communication.

Teams need to truly be working together and it is imperative to put into place the forums and formats for regular team interactions, escalations and resolutions rather than relying on ad-hoc methods that can cause misalignment and a failure to realize the very best outcomes of the process.

We have resources and perspective to share so please reach out to learn more about how and when to start.

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