FDC continues its stakeholder insights effort to shape Ohio State’s construction management organization for the future. Work has begun on 18 of the 24 insights initiatives. Below is an update on recent progress:
Transparent Selection Criteria of Design Professionals and Construction Managers
FDC has conducted workshops with design professionals and contractors. The sessions were informative for our industry partners but also allowed FDC to receive feedback and guidance on how our partners perceive the selection process. The FDC team is assembling internal training and guidelines on how to modify this process going forward to select the best possible teams. FDC is a few months away from rolling out the final documents and providing training to its team.
Project Financial Reporting
FDC is finalizing the report details with a target to have consistent financial reporting rolled out to customers by the first quarter of 2023.
Relations with Division of Industrial Compliance (DIC)
FDC has completed its guidance document and conducted training sessions for project managers on working with DIC. DIC reviews building plans and issues permits for construction and renovation of commercial and public building projects and conducts inspections on all projects that receive a permit. The guide reviews the standard processes and shines light on some new processes that will help everyone work efficiently. Working sessions were performed internally and with industry partners, including both design professionals and FDC construction partners, to understand how Ohio State and DIC can work better together. This resulted in multiple work and training sessions that have already made an impact with the team by improving communication and efficiency in permitting.
Project Health Dashboard
FDC is working on creating a tool that it can use to better predict and resolve the inherit risks possible to hinder project performance. FDC has conducted several work sessions within its own department, across the university and with external vendors. These working sessions helped craft the right questions and triggers to track critical aspects like cost and schedule but also what contributes to scope, decision-making and several other key indicators. The health dashboard tool is currently in beta-testing mode with several project managers within FDC and being refined so that it can be rolled out smoothly and best serve the needs of the projects long-term. FDC expects to roll out the new tool to customers in the first quarter of 2023.
Cost Estimating
To create more accurate and more reliable cost estimates for projects, a better cost estimating tool and a more robust cost database is needed. This multistep process to enhance FDC estimating started with a new interim estimating used on a select group of projects with budgets of $4 million or more. FDC project managers are currently utilizing the interim tool for better cost estimates where it applies while work occurs to define and build a new, customized cost estimating software tailored to Ohio State’s needs. FDC will continue building this customized tool throughout 2023 while simultaneously providing more detailed information and data for better decision making.
To view the full list of 24 stakeholder insights themes, visit the FDC website.