Suffolk’s Plan-and-Control Model Builds on Design-Build Strategy

Builders are heeding the call from developers to find ways to reduce construction costs through a more systemized approach. The collaborative design-build model has helped to reduce costs by bringing designers and builders to the table in the pre-construction phase to reduce changes and expedite processes. Now, contractor Suffolk is building on that trend with its plan-and-control model, which brings together more stakeholders early in the process to, as the name implies, plan and control the construction process.

“Suffolk’s plan and control process is a response to burgeoning standards in the industry to blend boundaries of design and construction. It addresses the need to bring forward more constructability aspects into the design process and is broken up into four components,” Steve Tetens, project executive at Suffolk San Diego, tells GlobeSt.com. “Our process builds upon the industry’s Collaborative Design-Build approach, which helps streamline procurement and increases owner input over the design process. It’s complementary to our plan and control process as both approaches are rooted in collaboration with several partners aligning on the same goal.”

The process starts with aligning expectations and design collaboration. “This component employs a method of pull planning by identifying a needs list so that everyone is involved. Pull planning applies to design itself,” says Tetens. “It takes away the subjectivity of the level of completeness of design as it objectively defines the level of development at any given stage of design. What was previously a subjective area now becomes objective and gets a level of development (LoD) value assigned to it so that everyone is on the same page.”

Next Suffolk focuses on building the model, pulling together trade partners to collaborate with the builders, architects and owners. Here also comes materials selection, which has an impact on budgeting. Once the model is set, the next step is coordinating with trade partners. “By coordinating with trade partners earlier on, we’re solving the issues that arise in a single model that everyone uses,” says Tetens. “A coordinated layout makes it so that questions are asked much earlier in the process so that they get designed in and there are less steps. Because the architect is involved throughout the whole process, they can sign off faster, maintain authority in the design process and be held accountable along with the rest of the parties.”

Finally, Suffolk executes the plan. With the planning stages, this step should be seamless. “Because everyone is on this coordinated layout, mechanism that holds everyone accountable, we use total station devices to track points across all floors and trades, ensuring everything is in the right place on every floor and every level, which can accelerate schedules and increase quality and trade flow,” says Tetens.

While this seems like an industry trend, it has become an industry standard. “This has become Suffolk’s standard for the way we build and we’ve seen great results from this method,” says Tetens. “We look forward to providing this value add to our clients across all projects and continue offering increased levels of predictability and reliability that are unique in our industry.”