JOB ORDER CONTRACTING Solutions

JOB ORDER CONTRACTING Solutions should be designed for Owners and Contractors to drive the best possible outcomes and assure compliance.   As such, they must be independent, objective, fully transparent and NOT linked to a JOC consultant if the later is being paid a percentage fee and managing the JOC Program.

Job Order Contracting, or a JOC Program is NOT simply a procurement method that public and/or other organizations use to complete renovation, repair, and minor new construction projects.  A JOC Program is a LEAN Collaborative Construction Delivery Method.

As such, the JOC Program MUST be directly managed by the real property owner to achieve optimal results and NOT managed by third party.  Outsourcing a JOC program to a third party may be an excellent method (if the program is designed and managed properly),  for an Owner to learn JOC and/or for Owners with total annual JOC construction values under $2M, but otherwise, Owners should provide direct leadership and support.

Independent, best value JOC Programs and associated JOB ORDER CONTRACTING Solutions are capable of delivering more than 90% of projects on-time, on-budget, and to the satisfaction of all participants.

Job order contracts are awarded to a contractor(s) based upon BEST VALUE.   Selection criteria generally include technical qualifications, past experience and or demonstrated ability to perform requisite tasks,  small business/WBE, MBE status, and the associated co-efficient(s) bid by the contractor.

JOC Programs, contract documents should address and/or include the following:

• Maximum and minimum construction values in dollars for year and any associated option years (generally up to a maximum of four (4) option years.
• Maximum and minimum construction value for individual JOC projects/task orders.
• Required annual training (introductory and advanced) for ALL participants (including training for the owner BEFORE the JOC Program is designed)
• A unit price book, UPB, consisting of locally research construction cost data in the form of unit price line items of sufficient quantity to address a minimum of 90% (dollar value) of the total construction cost of each JOC project/task order.   Generally a UPB  of 30,000-60,000 line items is sufficient. (Note: an excessive number of line items can create confusion, cause errors, and delay proper program implementation).   Each line time should be include a description in plain English using common terms as well as labor, material, and equipment cost details as appropriate.   Separate demolition line items as well as line item modifiers should also be provided.   Modifiers apply to the parent line items and address applicable variable such as cost, access, construction methods.  All line items should be organized by CSI MasterFormat and updated annually. (Note: a “national average” price book, even if used with “localization factors” will not provide sufficient information for JOC Programs to assure the best possible outcomes for all parties.)
• Written JOC Operations Manual / Execution Guide as part of the Job Order Contract.
• All requisite forms.
• Specialized JOC technical specifications are generally NOT REQUIRED unless construction means and methods do not follow commercial construction standards for the area/region.  The Owners current technical specifications should be referenced and required via the contract.  Should the Owner not have technical specification, sources such as Masterspec and BSD Speclink are generally more than sufficient and can be modified per owner requirements.
• Key performance indicators and other metrics to monitor JOC Program success must be part of the contract.
• JOC specific Cloud Cost Estimating Software that is capable of noting priced (UPB) and non-prepriced line items within each JOC project/task order and reporting same in detail.

 Process involved when using JOB ORDER CONTRACTING Solutions

Requests for projects are made but the customer/building user(s) per the pre-approved forms and generally via the electronic cloud JOC cost estimating/management software.    The owner technical and procurement team reviews and clarifies the request (JOC RFP).   The owner forwards the request to the approved JOC contractor(s) and schedules a site visit and scoping meeting among all participants in which they will discuss the requirements, goals and further define the scope of work.  The owner (technical and procurement team) reviews the detailed line item estimate and if the proposal is above a set threshold compare the estimate to the internal owner estimate / internal government estimate, IGE.   The owner and contractor enter in negotiations and/or discussions as needed and the owner approves the JOC project/task order, or cancels the request.   On average, there should be no more than one or two iterations when reviewing the taks order.  If there are more, there is likely something wrong with the JOC process and/or JOC tools.

If approved, the contractor sets up a JOC kick-off meeting mobilized for the project.   The owners should visit and review progress regularly (daily in most cases).  Once completed the owner does and inspection and signs off on the project and the contractor provide the requisite final JOC package as required, or the owner provides a punch list for the contractor to address any issues.

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