Owner's Review

As a PM for an Owner, I am constantly pushing and pulling for the budget and schedule trying to balance one with the other but there comes a time for the budget to take the lead and the schedule give up time.  Such is the case for document review or quality control as the A/E when they submit their documents for approval.  This is typically a check point where there is a great opportunity to review the documents prior to bidding and permitting.  If the A/E team has been busy doing their design and documentation, it is imperative that other eyes go over the documentation with a fine tooth comb and review for completeness before these become errors and omissions.  So why should I as a PM for an Owner be concerned about potential errors and omissions, isn’t that the job of the A/E, are they not “covered” for this risk by their professional insurance?  Sure they are, but the process is costly in both time and money both of which are detrimental to fulfilling the prime objective:  Getting the job completed on time and in the budget.  How does the Owner “insure” against this risk?  Select a PM that is qualified by training and experience to conduct a thorough review.  One alternative is to include in the A/E contract the stipulation that the documents will be reviewed by a third party that is qualified by training and experience on behalf of the Owner and the A/E. 

Here are some key points that will make this happen if implemented by the Owner’s team: 

·         Schedule reviews to occur at 100% completion when bidding documents are finalized, just prior to submission for permits and advertising them for bids.  Do not release incomplete documents to bidders for “pricing”; this process is not in the best interest of the Owner.

·         The review should be conducted by “actively practicing” architects, engineers and specification writers who are NOT part of the A/E team or who have not been involved in the production of the documentation.  It has been a construction industry well known fact that the A/E team professionals can look at the same documents 10 times and miss a detail that will be discovered by a new set of eyes.  If the A/E team was selected based on low price proposal, there is probably no fee left to conduct an unbiased peer review.

·         Minimizing change orders begins during the selection process.  Select professionals who are skilled and experienced in the Owner’s facility design because they can apply specialized construction expertise to their internal document review process.  Again, the Owner’s team should avoid ANY yielding to pressure to select the lowest priced A/E; their fees are minimal compared to the total cost of facility development.

·         Have the professional peer review scope include a recommendation document that they use to track progress, verifying that all review recommendations and identified construction document gaps, inconsistencies, and ambiguities are addressed prior to bidding. 

·         Gain the support of the A/E during the selection process to acceptance of the scheduled review by peers.  Educate them before being selected that a third-party review of construction documents is an industry-recommended best practice that leads to a win-win for all concerned.

·         Develop Owner procedures to implement building information modeling (BIM) that will increase the use of current technology tools to reduce change orders by reducing construction document gaps, inconsistencies, and ambiguities that occur during coordination of the building systems.

At the end of the day, this process can become part of the Owner’s procedure to ensure that change orders are minimized from the time the A/E is selected through construction.  Why are Owners NOT doing this?  Ask them and then send them over to me.