What challenges does managing computer aided design operations within a contracting business present and how can they be overcome? Darren Vallance explains how outsourcing cad work can reduce costs and increase productivity.
If you are a contracting company with an in-house computer aided design (cad) department, then you certainly have a strong resource. You also have an overhead.

Getting the balance right between investment in the resource and financing the overhead can be challenging, if not downright tricky. For those companies that have looked at this area in detail, the solution has often been to outsource some, or all, of their cad requirements to a third party specialist.

To many people the idea of outsourcing such an integral part of the business will sound like heresy and there will certainly be concerns about losing control. Kodak Eastman provoked such a response in 1989 when it decided to outsource its entire IT operation. Yet, the firm proved it could work and many other companies have followed suit.

In the building services industry, the momentum towards outsourcing is also beginning to build up. The reasons for this often come down to the role of the cad department and the perception of its role within the company.

Some contractors view cad as integral to the day-to-day work of winning and running jobs. To many others it is perceived as an expensive add-on to the business, that's only there because the firm is expected by its customers to have some cad resource or because 'we've always had one'.

It is certainly true to say that maintaining a cad department can be an expensive business. If you are going to do everything in-house you need enough cad operators to keep up with the work. Each of them needs a workstation with peripherals such as plotters and a licence for the software they are using. Plus, when you purchase an upgrade to the software the operators have to be trained to use it. You also need to organise cover for holidays and sickness and to recruit new staff when operators leave. All of this adds up to ongoing costs that come straight off the bottom line.

At the same time, however, the use of electronic drawings is becoming more important within the building services industry generally. The ability to exchange drawings electronically via e-mail or to post them on a web site that is accessed by the whole project team is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception.

In addition, end-users frequently demand cad drawings in digital format when the project is handed over. Although we have known contractors to scan a paper drawing onto a cd as an image, that won't be acceptable to the more clued-up customer.

Further, the management of a drawing office is becoming more complex, requiring specialised skills. CAD software is evolving rapidly, with a growing range of formats in which drawings can be issued, and fast track projects require a short turnaround through the well managed control of drawing issues and delivery of the final product.

It is becoming increasingly unacceptable to undervalue the role of cad in a project. This trend will continue, with more partnering between end-users and contractors on design and build projects. Large end-users in particular are looking to work with companies that have the resources to share information quickly and efficiently with complete transparency.

Outsourcing benefits
Outsourcing cad services to a third party specialist helps to overcome these problems and make the whole business more cost-effective.

One of the problems faced by many contracting companies is coping with fluctuations in the workload during the year. One option is to have a large cad department that can handle peak workloads, but may then be working at less than full capacity during the troughs. You can work with a smaller cad department, but may end up putting projects on hold for a week or two until the pressure dies down. Or you can team up with a third party specialist and outsource the work that you can't cope with to them, so projects continue to flow smoothly through the business without bottlenecks.

Taking this concept a step further, it can be even more cost-effective to outsource all of the cad work to a third party specialist. Either way, with the use of the latest communication technologies, there is no longer any need for the cad work to be carried out in the same building; it can integrate seamlessly with the rest of your operation from any location.

This approach also brings the benefit of using experts to carry out specialised work. Your core business revolves around efficient estimating to win work and effective contract management to make a profit on it. Producing accurate drawings is an important part of that business, but it's not at the core. In contrast, specialist cad companies have made cad their core business and manage it just as tightly as you manage your core activities.

Also, the more sophisticated cad companies extend the drawing management service to incorporate the tracking of design changes and variations electronically. This enables their clients to use timely, accurate and structured information to reclaim costs on the project. Contractors and quantity surveyors report increased yields and reduced management time as a result of this service.

Outsourcing also rationalises the cost of cad to your business. You are no longer faced with the need to cover holidays and sickness in the cad department, recruit new operators, upgrade the software and hardware and manage the software licences. All of that becomes someone else's responsibility, so you can focus on what you do best, while enjoying the benefits of the latest cad technology. Also, you don't need to accommodate all of those large workstations any more, freeing up office space for other activities.

At the same time, your customers benefit from a faster, more reliable service that isn't hampered by the limitations of your in-house resources. They do not need to be aware of where the drawings were produced, as far as clients are concerned they have come from your company.

As Derek Matthews of electrical contractor George E Buxton comments: "Having been a client of CAD Services since 1996 we have used them extensively to produce and amend our electrical services design and installation drawings.

"This has enabled us to present our design to our client with maintained quality and standards, without the time and overheads associated with maintaining a cad department. Another facility we are finding increasingly useful is the ability to have drawings printed and delivered direct to the client's address as if they had been sent straight from our office."

So there are considerable benefits to outsourcing some or all of your cad needs. The optimum level of outsourcing will vary from one company to another.

Making the choice
In choosing a cad services partner it's important to look for experience and a high level of quality control. It's also important to look for a flexible approach in charging, with the choice of hourly rates or fixed project costs, so that you can budget accurately for projects and know in advance what the design costs will be.

In fact, the general principles for choosing the right partner are exactly the same as teaming up with any other supplier. If you are subcontracting bms work to a controls specialist you look for experience, quality and reliability – the same applies to outsourcing your cad needs.

CAD Services gives you More

Two recent projects where CAD Services’ electronic drawings have been applied are More London and Christ Church Court, London. The More London complex is sited by Tower Bridge, London. When complete it will provide 232 250 m2 of offices, with a hotel, shops, cafes, bars and restaurants set in landscaped public spaces. In a contract valued at £48 000, CAD Services completed over ten months the mechanical infrastructure drawings for the entire site for installation by London-based contractor Mechanical and Electrical Services. Christ Church Court was the first building on the Paternoster Square development adjacent to St Paul's. The first stage of the £74 000 contract was to develop consultant Roger Preston's design into co-ordinated drawings for the plant and riser areas to be prefabricated off site. This initially covered the shell and core installation; with two-thirds complete and a tenant identified, the fit-out services design radically changed, resulting in a full fit-out for ten levels and a tight program.

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor

Postscript

Darren Vallance is managing director of CAD Services.