Mr. Hill

Architecture & Design

Combining Design & Procurement with Ease and Value

By Roger G. Hill , Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, The Gettys Group Inc.

It's no secret that the most successful projects consist of teams that communicate well and work seamlessly together. Having a clear vision for a project is critical for success. It is vitally important that the design and procurement professionals work in a collaborative manner to ensure design continuity. When the design and procurement aspects of a given project are combined under one umbrella, you create a synergy in achieving the right design at the right cost.

There are many advantages to combining design and procurement for a project. A design and procurement team, working in unity, will be will be able to maintain design integrity throughout a project. Buying the project and keeping the design intent can be a great challenge. The design professionals will more clearly understand the budget parameters since the procurement professionals will be working along side them through the design process. By providing real world pricing during the design exercise, there is less redesigning to work within a budget and the team is more efficient. Work does not have to be completed and redone to meet pre-established budgets.

When design and procurement services are separated, there is often tension between the parties. Typically, once the design is complete, the procurement team starts their pricing exercise. It is not until this point that the team finds out if it is truly working within the budget parameters or if they will need to re-design or value engineer portions of the project. Often the value engineered product, or replacement product selected to save money, looses the original design intent. This can lead to a disjointed design and unhappy client.

It is also important to understand that having the design and procurement team as one does not mean that transparency to the client is compromised. It is important to ensure collaboration but not to forget the "checks and balances" of the project. Open book procurement is simply providing access to any and all design and procurement documentation to the client at any time and is vital to the relationship between the client and the team

Successful projects let the designer focus on the creative element of the project and the procurement agent on establishing and maintaining budgets. The procurement agent should, early on in the project, qualify potential manufacturers not only based on the designer's direction, but also with project location, manufacturing capabilities, quality, reliability and financial stability in mind. The design team should enlist the procurement team in specification writing. This is often a defined design task, but a procurement agent with experience and industry knowledge can be a valuable asset in writing thorough specifications.

A combined design and procurement team can be especially efficient when working on international projects whereby the extended team might be located in different parts of the world. Determining how to document units of measurement, for example metric vs. imperial, can generate differing opinions and should not be left for discussion late into the project. It is important to hold regular team and client meetings to support open communication to make sure everyone is on track or to quickly be able to change course, should it be necessary. The design team establishes tagged schematic floor plans, rooms and initial FF&E quantity matrixes. The procurement agent, while working on a preliminary budget, can help the process by acting as the quality control agent for these documents. There is no waiting for one task to be completed and sent for comment or input. All work can be done in real time greatly expediting the project.

It is also important to note that in the current difficult economic times, one should not underestimate the importance of early pre-qualifying the suppliers' financial strength. Think of the complication of dealing with a situation where a supplier goes out of business right before scheduled deliveries. The time and consequently the monetary damage that is being caused by having to start over, can be significant. In better times, a manufacturer might not be financially challenged, but may have to fulfill orders beyond their capabilities. The result on a project timeline and product quality impacts the owner's cost in a different way but is no less noteworthy. A seasoned procurement agent will have the market intelligence and will be able to work effectively with a designer from project inception to target the appropriate sources of supply.

Combining design and procurement should not mean that FF&E specifications are not competitively bid. Having procurement on the team from the beginning, allows for preliminary bidding relatively early, especially if timelines are tight. However, there is no reason to skip a formal bidding exercise once FF&E specifications have been finalized. Besides the client, the designer should play a role in determining which suppliers qualify to bid on FF&E. Should bidding not be an option due to time limitations, suggest select categories to be bid. Alternatively, negotiate with specified sources, especially if a lot of time and effort was spent on creating a custom design. Most likely this would apply, but is not limited to, custom carpets wall coverings, or fabrics. Design and procurement collaboration again becomes crucial should the result of bidding present the team with more favorable conditions offered by non-specified sources. In a design and procurement team environment, re-selections or approvals of alternates will be a time sensitive and efficient and shared exercise.

Final budgets can be generated quickly and issued to the client for approval. Having approved FF&E specifications already in a shared system, as well as an owner approved final budget, allows for speedy issuance of purchase orders and tracking of manufacturers' deposits. Status reports are easily available and accessible to all parties involved. Maintaining files and processing cuttings for approval ("CFAs") as well as shop drawings should be part of the procurement agent's agenda and takes some responsibility off the designer. A well coordinated design and procurement team will also share quality control responsibilities once goods are being produced. Depending on circumstances, the best qualified person from a team will be able to visit a manufacturer's facility to do either pre-production sample inspections, or inspections during or after production to ensure quality of the shipment before its release to a freight forwarder.

If done right and approached as a true team effort, combining design and procurement benefits all parties involved. Timelines can be shortened significantly by having a procurement agent being able to do a lot of leg work weeks before they typically would receive design specifications. Ownership benefits from up-to-date budgets being developed from the start of the design process. Making adjustments or changing course due to changing factors will be fairly easy and reduces the "wasted" time effect. A supplier benefits from working with a team that has a common goal. Even though there are never any guarantees, a supplier's representative, putting a lot of time and effort in helping to design a custom product, should be part of the team and have enough background information in regard to budgets and quality requirements to competitively price their product. Having team members be available for inspections before, during, or after production, helps the manufacturer avoid costly mistakes that may otherwise not be uncovered until the goods are ready to be installed at the job site. The owner's on-site project managers benefit from dealing with one single design and procurement team. There should always be one person at all times who is able to answer questions or make decisions. Most importantly, once things go wrong, whether it is minor or major, a well functioning combined design and procurement team should be able to quickly and efficiently resolve any problems without pointing fingers.

Combining design and procurement can save time, money and address problems before they affect a project. Having a unified team working on a project from inception provides a more cohesive work experience not just for the project team but for the client as well. In today's marketplace, with projects pushing for low cost alternatives, there is no better way to provide aggressive pricing yet keep the design intent than with a combined team approach

Nearly 25 years ago, Roger Hill co-founded Gettys, a Top 10 hospitality interior design, procurement and development firm. Under his leadership, Gettys has grown to a global team of business-minded professionals who specialize in hotels, resorts, spas, casinos and mixed-used developments the world over. A respected industry veteran, he is frequently called upon by hospitality and business media outlets to provide insight into the redevelopment, renovation, and repositioning of hotels. A graduate of Cornell University, Roger has served as an appointed delegate for the White House Conference on Small Business, and is a member of ULI, YPO and ISHC. Mr. Hill can be contacted at 312-836-1111 or info@gettys.com Extended Bio...

HotelExecutive.com retains the copyright to the articles published in the Hotel Business Review. Articles cannot be republished without prior written consent by HotelExecutive.com.