A Systems Approach to Construction of Recreational Area Facilities. Volume I. Program Methodology.

摘要

This report describes a program conducted by this laboratory in conjunction with the U.S. Army Engineer Division, Ohio River, for procurement of 78 industrialized sanitary facilities. Performance specifications and two-step formal advertising procedures were used to obtain the desired facilities. The low bid price was 53% of the conventional construction government estimate. The cost savings did not result from a particular design for sanitary facilities, but from the definition of the project and the manner in which the facilities were procured. Given a sufficient number of facilities within a particular geographic region, builders can reduce material costs through bulk purchasing, and labor costs through the learning-curve phenomenon. The labor cost savings, which is the significant one, can only be achieved if the builder is performing in its area of specialization; a sizable part of the builder's savings will be passed on to the purchaser only if other builders who are also permitted to achieve such savings are in competition. The key to the approach is performance specifications, which describe the facility requirements so that builders can propose individualized solutions suited to their particular skills; thus, performance specifications put other builders in competition on the same basis. Volume I describes the methodology followed during this program and includes detailed documentation of each stage, procurement guidelines and program implementation procedures.