Making budgets and work quality

[haynewp]

Where I work, it seems to be more important to make budget than to produce quality drawings. I think it is kind of unfortunate that we have to lower fees so much, that I have to feel like I am throwing something together as fast as I can everytime. The only good part is we seem to keep work coming in by this philosophy.
I am somewhat scared of this, being in structures I would like to have a chance to double check everything but I just can't.Anyone else share these feelings?

 

[Qshake]

While I can appreciate your feelings, my company stresses a systematic quality check which must be included in the fee estimate. This doesn't mean, however, that plans go out of our office without a lot of stress at the last minute. But I am comfortable when they do go out that they are sound.

Many of our clients expect this and will often ask for a copy of our quality assurance qualilty control program.

I recommend that you start something like this. And perhaps you do already to some extent. We find that the check will go pretty quick and doesn't eat up too much budget. Of course, the reward is not seeing the plans or plan sheets for a second, third or even greater times.

It reduces contractor complaints and if you've been in the business long you'll agree that the one person an owner listens to is the person building the job. All he has to do is say "Oh crap, these guys made another mistake - that's gonna cost you!". And the next thing you know, that owner is off down the street at the next firm.

Good Luck.

 

[haynewp]

That sounds great, how large of a company do you work for?

 

[bridgebuster]

heynewp,

You're not alone. It seems like most offices operate the same way. Sometimes I think there's too much importance placed on "managing" a project rather than "engineering" a project. I hate to say how much crap goes out of my office. When I started 20+ years ago things WERE different. Nothing left the office unchecked but that's not to say that everything was perfect. With all the emphasis placed these days on "project management" and "quality control" it looks like we've lulled ourselves into a false sense of security. Anyway, time to get off my soapbox.

 

[Qshake]

haynewp,

I work for a large company of about 30K plus workers around the world.

We simply include a check as part of our estimate and as I said, since a check requires an experienced person, not only are the numbers checked but the methodology is too. An experienced person should be able to do that efficiency. Younger engineers are constantly mentored and an eye kept on them to avoid designs going astray.

We have a sheet that sits atop any set of design computations that shows who originated, checked, updated and backchecked those documents.

It is a way of life for our people. Its also very similar to the old "two sets of eyes will review every document that leaves this office" mandate that I was used to many, many years ago as a new engineer. The only exception is that we are forced to document that process.