At Soben, our aim is to maximise contractor profitability. One of the main ways we do so is to create the most accurate Bills of Quantities possible for our contractors to ensure their tender bids are as precise as possible.
However, it is not unusual for there to be a number of changes to drawings between the tender, contract, and construction phases of a project. Contractors prepare a tender from Tender Drawings, sign a contract based on Contract Drawings, and construct the project from Construction Drawings. At each stage, design changes may have been incorporated into the drawings, some of which may be significant.
Given that contractors are often under pressure to get the project started, it is not unusual for these changes to be picked up and costed much later in the construction process. By this time, it is too late for the additional items to be properly considered, and for the client to be made aware of the additional costs and programme implications. This approach benefits no one and contributes to the adversarial nature of the construction industry.
In order to tackle this issue, Soben offer a Design Change Management Service. When instructed, we appoint a dedicated team to quantify and optionally cost the design changes. Our proprietary software allows us to quantify the change within a short timescale and provide a detailed add/omit report for discussion with the design team and the employer.
This service offers huge benefits to the design team and employer. Following receipt of the report, they have the option to:
· ensure budget provision is made for the design changes
· design the changes back out
· identify savings elsewhere to ensure that the final cost for the project does not increase
The report offers full transparency of the quantity changes, with dynamic links between the amended quantities and the marked up drawings. The information we provide also allows the contractor’s commercial team to remain focused on their core role at the start of the project i.e. procurement and appointment of sub-contractors
This is a hugely cost effective process, and depending on the conditions of contract, there is the possibility that our fee for this design change analysis to be recovered through the valuation of the variations.
To find out more about Soben’s Design Change Management Service, please contact Scott Smyth on 0141 297 1322 or [email protected].
