The AEC Workflow - Adobe Acrobat and PDF for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction - page 11

The Bid Opening
The bid is developed and delivered or faxed to the bid opening. The apparent winner is often announced at
the opening. However, the winning bid is not official until the engineer reviews the bids and determines
that the apparent winner is in the owner's best interests.
The determination process usually involves manually developing a spreadsheet, adding data from
competing bids, and then comparing the bids. Often, a contractor can detect a bad assumption on the
engineer's part and load the bid to make a certain line item and the total bid low. The contractor is then in a
position for a change order and renegotiation of the line item. The engineer can catch the assumption during
the determination process, and decide the bid is not in the best interests of the owner.
The Submittal Process
Once the project is awarded, the contractor is responsible for submittals required by the contract. The
submittals assure the owner's representative that the material used is the same or equal to the specified
materials, and that choices of materials and methods will not cause problems with other parts of the project.
The submittal process is highly resource intensive. Up to six copies of each submittal are required,
including a form. The submittal form tells the engineer where the submittals originate in the project's
specification.
Once received, the copies are logged and distributed to the reviewers by the document manager, who is
usually a junior engineer. The reviewers mark up the documents and return comments to the document
manager. The document manager then forwards them to the engineer-in-charge, who reviews the comments
and approves, conditionally approves, or rejects the submittal. The submittal is returned to the document
manager again, who sends the results back to the contractor.
The Payment and Change Order Processes
Each project's documentation includes forms for payment and for change orders. Paper forms are
commonly used, and of course it is simple to make calculation errors on the forms.
The contractor fills out the forms after calculating the math, and the project engineer double-checks the
figures. According to the contract's requirements, payments are generated based on specified milestones;
change orders are processed on an ad hoc basis and subject to review and approval.
Project Wrap-up
One of the last things that is done on a project is to generate a set of redlined drawings and manuals for all
the equipment. Redlined drawings are project drawings on which the contractor identifies the changes with
a red pencil. Often, a contract requires two sets of redlines for both the owner and the engineer; the
contractor is remiss in not making a third set of redlined drawings for himself. Until recently, large-scale
color scanners were prohibitively expensive and redlining on all sets was added by hand.
In addition to redlined drawings, most contracts usually require two sets of equipment manuals. Some
contracts require that the manuals be organized in binders, while other contracts do not require that level of
organization.
Future Considerations
Suppose it is one year later, and the contractor is called back to the site to work on the equipment. He may
or may not be able to find the drawings or manuals, and even if he does, it is not necessarily the case that
the drawings will be updated based on the contractor's work, thus establishing a scenario that can lead to