Consulting-Specifying Engineer - August 2007 - (Page 26)

efficiency and fuel selection,” reports Wiley & Wilson, Lynchburg, Va. “This requires, to some degree, forecasting the energy prices for 10, 20 and even 30 years. With the volatility of fuel prices that we see day-to-day, it’s of project delivery, whereby the traditional roles and responsibilities of individual disciplines are recognized for their roles in the outcome of the entire project and not just the contractual obligations of the discipline.” Combined total revenue for the 2007 CSE Giants 100 engineering firms was $12.8 billion; for MEP design billings alone, they reported earning $3.4 billion. difficult to know how accurate a forecast may be 30 years from now.” Multiple firms in last year’s Giants 100 communicated two key tactics: innovative design tools and energy expertise. Each year, we ask the Giants to identify important design and business management software applications, and needless to say, in recent years energy analysis software is on everyone’s list. To get an overall picture of how MEP engineers are doing business, we asked participating design firms to give a percentage breakdown of their businesses attributable to new construction and retrofit/renovation. Taking the averages of their responses, 60% of a typical Giant’s work is for new construction, and 40% is for retrofit projects. For the first time, we asked the firms to tell us what percent of work is for either maintenance/repair/operation, and how much is for commissioning or retro-commissioning. The average amount of work for O&M was 8%, while commissioning accounted for an additional 8% of revenue. And those last two figures will most likely grow in years to come. Multiple firms in last year’s Giants 100 communicated two key tactics for growing business: innovative design tools and energy expertise. This year we asked them a similar set of questions. Engineers from Edmonton, Alberta-based Stantec describe Integrated Design as “transforming the industry to a more holistic model Integrated Design is a process that scraps the traditional approach of engineering disciplines working separately to design specifications for individual systems and equipment. In this process, all design team members work as a group in a process that resembles value engineering—but without the negative connotations of last-minute cost-cutting that this term implies. Cost is an issue, but what is more important is owner satisfaction, as well as long-term environmental and economic performance. Firms such as Stantec and Minneapolis-based HGA have successfully used this approach on projects and swear by it. But they also indicate that it involves a complete paradigm shift—totally rethinking how to approach project design: “This will require a reassessment of the fee structure based on results rather than percentage of construction cost,” a Stantec spokesperson explained. “It will also allocate the bulk of resources spent on the project to the conceptual, schematic and design development phases of a project in order to make informed design decisions on how changes in one system will affect the others. This will also affect the liability structure of individual disciplines and the associated risk management of the integrated team.” This last issue—the changing nature of liability and risk that a new way of doing business brings—is no small matter. But these firms are committed to the integrated design approach, and it’s safe to say that this will be a growing trend. And going hand-in-hand with the integrated design approached is the new CAD design tool that everyone is talking about: building information modeling (BIM). Several of this year’s Giants report that they have made it a mission to make BIM a central part of the design process. For those not yet familiar with BIM, it is a technology that goes beyond CAD. With BIM, users can digitally build a structure from the start and all project team members can share information in a virtual environment. The building design is created as a 3-D model that is stored as data in an object-oriented database. Private Owner - direct, consulting contract Private Owner - direct, staff Government - contracts Government - staff Architects Contractors Design/Build Forensic - Legal, Insurance Other 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Number of Responses Figure 2: Sources of work or clients, based on total responses per category 26 Consulting-Specifying Engineer • AUGUST, 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Consulting-Specifying Engineer - August 2007

Contents M/E Roundtable Giants 100 Pullout Poster Giants Stand Tall: CSE Giants 100 Report Electrical Design for Tall Buildings HVAC and Fire Safety for Elevator Systems How to Beat the Codes GAS Technology Supplement Recovering Waste Heat from Boilers New Applications for Tankless Water Heating Systmes Techniques Improve for Powder Coating MDF New Tools Available for Heat Treating Steel Direct Drive Engines

Consulting-Specifying Engineer - August 2007

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