Our firm believes that quality is measurable; and because industry competition is great and client expectations high, we will employ a quality control program which centers on our people. By reinforcing pride in performance, we have successfully maintained our reputation for efficiency and quality.

Our emphasis on quality control is part of our firm's operational philosophy. Our commitment to quality extends from each department to every individual on the team. Effective management and high professional standards are just a part of our continuous commitment to excellence.

A quality control team composed of senior members of our firm - not associated with the project - will be assigned to your project. These individuals will review the project on a regular basis to insure a high level of quality. This offers the added advantage of having additional individuals available who are completely familiar with your project should some unfortunate circumstance remove a primary team member. The process also allows us to take maximum advantage of the planning, technical and design expertise of our staffs.

LIFE CYCLE COSTING AND VALUE ENGINEERING

Teamwork is basic to the concept of value engineering. Today planners, architects, engineers and owners must work together efficiently to achieve a cost-effective, technically sound design. The goal of value engineering is to reduce not only capital costs but also operations, maintenance and replacement costs. Through life cycle cost analysis of alternatives, a value engineering study can significantly reduce overall project costs. Our professionals will work directly with your staff to optimize life cycle costs.

Our approach to value engineering consists of a systemic procedure that enables value engineering teams to focus on the costs of fundamental and secondary functions of a particular plan or design. The objective is to revise, combine, or eliminate functions to find innovative solutions. A design engineer not using value engineering methods will usually think in terms of the costs of alternative HVAC systems; a value engineering team will analyze many creative means of accomplishing the function "control temperature". This functional analysis technique allows the value engineering team to think in broad terms and consider such alternatives as building orientation, reflective roofing and landscaping.

The value engineering team spends most of its time examining basic functions that have a high "cost-to-worth" ratio. The team uses a formalized, creative process to brainstorm alternative methods for achieving those functions adequately but more economically than the original plan. The apparent viability of these ideas is tested by economic and technical feasibility calculations. Those ideas showing the most potential for meeting functional needs and resulting in cost savings are then developed and presented as alternative proposals along with a breakdown of life cycle costs showing both capital and future savings.