Interview of MDCSystems® by – Marc Kramer, Author of Five Books
Columnist for Forbes and SmartCEO magazine
Entrepreneurial Contributor KYW News Radio 1060 AM
Executive Director of Private Investors Forum/Angel Venture Fair

Why did you start MDCSystems®?

McCue: “I joined MDC® as a project manager in November of 1987 when the office was in Center City and MDC® was a division of Day and Zimmermann, an engineering company. I bought the company from them in 1997 and have been running it since with my partner Mitch Swann after he joined in 2001. The MDC Systems name has been in business in essentially the same way since 1967.”

Swann: “Bob and I previously worked together in the mid 80’s at another well-known area design firm. We worked together on several projects, including a couple with some groundbreaking approaches to system configuration, technology and reliability. I worked with Bob while he was at MDC® as a consultant on first a laboratory fume hood project and then a large pharmaceutical plant project in Singapore. We’ve always had a good working relationship and after a couple of assignments as a consultant to MDC®, Bob asked me to join the firm full time.”

The name sounds more like an IT firm. What was the thinking behind the name?

McCue: “It once was in the data business and the name originally was Management Data Corporation. At one time the business was developing CPM scheduling software and selling the software along with the mini-computers that were needed to run the program. This was the early product of the company and it led directly to expert analysis of schedules (Time Impact Analysis®), and engineering systems which was the main business when I joined the company.”

Swann: “It does. I sometimes add that ’we don’t do IT -- networks or hardware’ when I introduce the firm.”

What is your mission?

McCue: “MDC® provides Forensic Engineering, Forensic Architecture and Forensic Project Management® for capital projects around the world. We investigate and analyze failures in systems and recommend corrective action and also serve as Expert Witnesses when requested to do so.”

Swann: “Bob covers the forensic part, but given our team’s experience in design, construction and project management, we can also bring those skills to the table before you are in the ‘forensic’ situation. We provide Consulting Services, Peer Reviews, Feasibility Studies and Due Diligence Analyses as well.”

What services do you offer?

McCue: “Architecture, Engineering, Cost Analysis and Scheduling Services, Construction Management, Litigation Support and Courtroom Exhibit Development as required by the assignment.”

Swann: “We also offer ‘Green Building’ Consulting and Sustainability Strategy Consulting, ‘Peer Review’ and Constructability Review Services, Feasibility Studies and similar project consulting which is not necessarily linked to a conflict, dispute or litigation.”

Most of your work appears to be on the litigation side. Why did you choose this as your focus?

McCue: “Although much of our work involves actual or potential litigation, we often solve problems and avoid litigation for our clients when we are called in early on the project. In one recent project we were engaged and involved in resolving an HVAC problem at a casino when we received a call from another parties counsel asking for our help to certify an affidavit of merit to support a lawsuit on the same project. After explaining to the interested attorney that we were currently resolving the HVAC problems and would have the system working properly in two weeks, litigation was avoided. Many times our reputation alone is enough to prevent time-consuming and expensive litigation efforts if we can have time to correct defects in either design or construction.”

Swann: “Bob has shown the impact that early intervention can have. On another assignment we were called in by the CM who then recommended to the Owner that they retain us to provide peer review services to their existing A/E team. There were some scope changes planned and the design strategies suggested would have led to much higher costs and a schedule delay. We consulted with the A/E design team and managed to satisfy the owner’s new project requirements while holding to the schedule and offered design solutions which saved over six figures in cost due to the scope change order.”

Do you have a specific methodology that you follow for each project and if so what is it?

McCue: “We follow a deliberate reasoned evaluation approach with the early identification of the root cause of the underlying problem. We start at the beginning of the project with the data and information available at initiation. We seek to itemize the explicit and implicit assumptions made for the project and test these against the developing knowledge and understanding of the project objectives as the work takes shape, in design and then construction. We call the process Forensic Project Management® and as specific failures are identified then Forensic Engineering or Architecture processes begin. This often times involves modeling schedules, mechanical or electrical systems, building enclosure systems or process systems inside a facility.”

Swann: “Another key feature of the MDC® approach is that we challenge our interpretation of and solution to any problem. Sometimes the answer can appear ‘obvious’ – and that is when you should be the most worried.”

What industries do you focus on and why?

McCue: “We are especially qualified to undertake the more complex industrial projects such as Power Plants, Refineries, Water and Sewage Plants and all types of institutional and commercial projects. We have successfully investigated and analyzed failures on projects as diverse as Nuclear Power Plants and Pharmaceutical Plants in the international market.”

Swann: “We have worked on almost every conceivable type of project; from a microelectronics research and production facility in Colorado to a fish hatchery in Alaska to a high rise office tower in Manhattan. The application of sound engineering principles and our system-based analysis approach helps us to quickly assimilate and evaluate projects of almost any nature.”

What are the commonalities in terms of services that go across all industries that you offer?

McCue: “Mechanical, Electrical, Architectural and Process System insight as to how things are supposed to work and the actual workings of the real system. Our extensive experience with all types of engineering investigations along with our knowledge of Systems Thinking concepts allows us to synthesize raw data and analysis into discernable patterns and develop problem dissolving approaches to each challenge.”

What are some of your greatest successes?

McCue: “Management of the completion of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Barcelona, Spain for the Olympic summer games. Resolution of a $200 million delay claim on a large defense contract involving the conversion of civilian Boeing 707 aircraft for military use on the Joint Stars program. Assisting a refinery client in recovering $300 million in re-construction costs on a major loss. Identifying and correcting construction defects in a new high school in northeast Pennsylvania for both the building envelope and the Geothermal HVAC system.”

Swann: “A few projects come to mind – the first was on a pharmaceutical packaging operation where the HVAC system was woefully under designed. We analyzed and resolved the issue for our client and they have a properly functioning facility today. Helping the other pharma client I mentioned above get their project on track to meet their program needs at a lower than expected cost and within a reasonable timeframe (plus we added a radiant heating and cooling floor system) was rewarding, especially in that it avoided a potential litigation problem. There was also the in depth analysis of 10 years worth of electricity use in a one million square foot office building between the landlord and a high tech tenant in an effort to determine what was owed in overage costs.”

What don’t clients know about you that they should?

Swann: “Many clients are familiar with our schedule analyses and forensic capabilities but given our technical skill sets and backgrounds coupled with the problem solving approach, we can also support due diligence investigations; feasibility studies and other more ‘front end’ efforts. The same skills that get you out of trouble can help prevent you from getting into trouble in the first place. We know the telltale signs.”

What are the most common mistakes companies make that clients have to call you in to investigate?

McCue: “Most clients begin projects with unbridled optimism and little regard for reality in delivering modern complex projects. The relationships between scope of work, schedule for the work and the budget are not treated seriously and concurrently. Some clients allow projects to become Christmas trees on which every power center gets to hang their favorite project without regard to time and cost implications. Then all wish for a miracle but they inherit a failed project and the recriminations that go with it.”

Swann: “I think that in most of the problem situations I’ve seen there is some point where communications were not clear on the project either during conceptual design, detailed design or construction which led to a disconnect between what was expected and what was intended. Misunderstandings on performance or design criteria, misunderstandings on the downstream impacts of one choice versus another, and a project atmosphere that is not conducive to candid communications can all contribute to a problem down the road when the ‘what you said’ meets the ‘what I meant’ at project completion.
From the consulting perspective, a key challenge is getting people to get outside of their solution ‘orthodoxies’. Great innovation and opportunities can be realized in an environment where ‘conventional wisdom’ can be questioned and challenged. Too often those orthodoxies which may have been appropriate when they were developed have not kept pace with technologies or techniques which can greatly aid the project.”

How long is a typical project?

McCue: “Our typical projects move through in about a year but in the litigation world it is not uncommon for projects to be dormant for long periods of time as courts struggle with schedules for trial or arbitrators with their own schedules.”

Swann: “Bob has covered it well. The dispute or litigation world often moves in fits and starts – a flurry of activity for a few months, then back on ‘idle’, then another flurry. Our consulting assignments are typically more ‘linear’ in their execution and they may last for as little as two or three weeks to as long as the project may require us.”

What is your biggest challenge in a project?

McCue: “Typically it is gaining initial understanding to know where the likely source of trouble is emanating from.”

Swann: “On the dispute side, along with the ‘understanding’ issue Bob raised above, it can be difficult to get people who were involved in the project to step back far enough to get a less emotionally clouded picture as to what went on.”

What are the trends in your industry?

McCue: “The most recent trend is for joint ventures to undertake design-build projects to accelerate the overall delivery and reduce cost. This only works well with experienced participants and many recent attempts have failed due to the same disregard for the required linkage of scope, schedule and budget discussed above.”

Swann: “There are three big issues in the marketplace today. One is a tool, one a technique and one an objective but frequently people blur the lines between them all. The tool is BIM – Building Information Modeling which is the use of advance modeling software to better integrate the design and construction process as well as better support long term operations. The technique is IPD – Integrated Project Delivery. IPD is an execution approach that seeks to better integrate the players, designers, contractors and owners to enhance communication and optimize outcomes. The design build trend and IPD movement are related in many ways. The last is ‘green’ or sustainability objectives. Resource and energy concerns, carbon footprint and the potential for a tax on same and corporate social responsibility concerns have made ‘green’ the background color for most projects in the marketplace today.”

Are there any books you would recommend clients read to become more knowledgeable?

McCue: “Over the years, MDC® has compiled a series of newsletters, articles and seminars that are available on www.mdcsystems.com and these cover the landscape of problems that one can encounter on a capital project. I would recommend the book The Black Swan to all who think that they can understand and quantify risk and the Ackoff Center website for those who want to master Systems Thinking concepts to dissolve problems when encountered.”

Swann: “Bob mentioned Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan which does a great job of illustrating the impacts of unforeseen events and just how many of those there can be. I recently finished Strategy for Sustainability which takes a business perspective on the sustainability issue and also Flirting with Disaster by Marc Gerstein and Michael Ellsberg which, by way of drilling into some major failures, addresses some of the ‘systems based’ project management ideas Bob has mentioned above.“