Standardized cost data that reflects current local market conditions is critical to improving both cost visibility and cost management.
Reliance upon historical data and economic indexes, or national average cost data with cost indexes or area location factors are no longer sufficient to ensure optimal use of financial resources.
The Importance of Standardization
Building collaboration, ownership, and accountability across diverse teams are fundamental prerequisites to performance improvement. In this regard standardization is an important component to enabling improved information use and sharing.
The creation and communication of a detailed Scope of Work are areas that can be greatly improved through standardization. The use of industry standard terms and definitions as well as standardized data architecture play key roles in ensuring clear and detailed understanding of both technical and cost requirements.
Improved Cost Visibility and Cost Management
Below is an example of an estimated using granular Standardized Cost Data and a well-known data architecture (CSI Masterformat). Current, LOCAL MARKET, labor, material, and equipment costs to detail line-item construction tasks provide the highest possible level of cost visualization. As demonstrated by multiple independents sources, this form of standardized cost data improves cost visualization by 30%-40% or greater.
Information sharing, use, and reuse can all be optimized using standardized data sets and architectures.
Purposed Built
Standardization, however, does not limit purpose built information to meet user requirements or specialized tasks. In this case, virtually any construction task line-item can be built within a common data format. Altering labor, material, or equipment costs and storing it under a new line-item number and description can easily be accomplished. Furthermore, line-items, both “standard” and “custom built” can be grouped into assemblies and saved accordingly.
Improve Productivity and Reduce Waste
The cause of the majority of “project failures” can be tracked to preconstruction and the associated failure to create a well defined and well communicated detailed scope of work as well as failure to adopt and manage activities using robust processes.
The use of Standardized Cost Data for Construction can play an important role in improving productivity and reducing waste.
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