MDC Systems® has recently entered the commercial drone industry with its drone for various inspection and engineering evaluation services. The future for the commercial drone industry looks very bright. In 2015 the U.S. commercial drone market size was an estimated $400 million, and by the year 2022 it is projected to grow to over $1 billion.
Articles
MDC Advisor® Expert Newsletter
Robert C. McCue and Michelle N. Delehanty
Consulting Engineers
In construction projects there are three main areas of importance to a successful project – scope, schedule, and budget. It is vital to have a clear definition of the scope of work, a defined schedule including milestones, and the cost of performance based on the scope and schedule. These “Big Three” must be in balance at bid submission time, remain in balance when the actual work starts, and continue to be balanced until project completion.
Change Orders: Maximizing Benefits for Owners
Ronald F. Parisi, P.E.
Former MDC Systems® Project Director
Owners involved in ongoing construction projects are virtually unanimous in recognizing the need to minimize the number and amount of change orders as a way to keep the project costs within budget. In viewing change orders with only this in mind, however, owners may tend to overlook the benefits that the change order process offers to owners. The primary benefits afforded by the change order process are that it allows owners the flexibility to respond quickly, to capitalize upon opportunities and to mitigate problems — both of which frequently arise during the course of construction.
Privatization of American Water Utilities
Donald R. Keer, P.E., Esq. MDC Systems® Consulting Engineer The pressure is growing on local municipalities to consider privatization of their water and wastewater systems. Both the EPA and the Bush Administration favor privatization as a way for local municipalities to meet ever tightening regulations. These systems are critical to public health and economic development.
Building Information Modeling – Boon or Bane?
MDC Systems® has recently become aware of a number of large projects exhibiting major problems despite the ‘spectacular’ abilities of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and other project technologies. Some of these projects have been highlighted in recent industry publications and legal filings. These issues often fall into several common areas which are summarized below.
Shipyard Contracts: New Construction vs. Ship Repair
Contracts for the construction of new ships have many key differences from contracts for ship repair. The most obvious difference concerns the type of work (new versus repair) but other important differences exist concerning the nature and extent of changes, scheduling, engineering and contract claims. Attorneys and others involved in contract administration and dispute resolution need to understand these important differences.
MDC Advisor® Expert Newsletter
Thomas Hundertmark, Andre Olinto do Valle Silva, and Jeff A. Shulman Suppliers of energy and energy-intensive commodities are greatly increasing their investments in power stations, chemical plants, oil rigs, steel mills, and other capital projects. By raising the cost of delay and missed opportunities, today’s supercharged environment has elevated the importance of first-rate contracting management.
Why is there a Labor Overrun?
On a large multi-million dollar project, it shows up in the cost reports. On a smaller project, the schedule may start to show specific activity schedule slippage. The same estimator developed the bid, the project scope has not changed and your most trusted foreman says he has excellent crews. You might be experiencing labor inefficiencies and probably don’t know it. The cost reports and schedules might tell you that it occurred, but it will require additional data / analysis to determine why it has occurred and who has caused it to prove entitlement and to calculate your recovery costs.
Avoiding Death by a Thousand Cuts
Cost and Schedule Issues
You are a month and a half into construction of a planned one year project. It’s a new client and if you do well, you are in line to construct his future projects. However, the Engineers’ drawings don’t quite match the existing site conditions; there is already an inordinate amount of Requests for Information (RFIs), and the Client is very involved with your construction means and methods. No change orders have been written because 1: You “worked-around” the site layout problems; 2: There is still time to resolve the unanswered RFIs and 3: The finish milestone on the project has not been affected because you used float in the schedule. In any event, you don’t want to “nickel and dime” the new client.
Sustainability – Un-Definable Success in a Defined World
E. Mitchell Swann, P.E.
MDCSystems®
Consulting Engineer
This paper was originally presented at the CIBSE/ASHRAE International Conference on Building Sustainability, Value and Profit, held in Edinburgh. It has been updated slightly since that presentation.
