10 Questions to Ask When Considering a Design-Build Partner

If you’re considering design-build for an upcoming commercial construction project, you need to first and foremost understand your core business and project vision. Then, think about how much control you want to have in the process and amount of risk you want to assume. It’s important to find a design-build partner that properly incentivizes people to do what’s best for your business and a team that has experience with your product type.

When trying to decide who that partner should be, ask the following:

1. How proceduralized is your organization?
2. What does the decision-making process look like and where would we fit in?
3. How many controls are in place and how do you manage quality? 
4. What risk does your organization assume versus ours in the design-build process?
5. What is the education and experience level of the team who will execute the project?
6. How systematic is the team at documenting lessons learned and sharing it internally and externally for continued improvement, especially on multiple location builds?
7. Where have you built locally and nationally? Where geographically can you service us?
8. What are your core project types? Do you have limitations based on project type?
9. How many direct purchasing/partner-like relationships do you have in the supply chain?
10. Where have you generated value for similar clients?

The best design-build partner for you will be well-networked, geographically diverse and have the right human capital and project experience. Remember construction is a service, not a product. In any service, your variable of cost is dependent on the delivery method of the defined plan and the individuals tasked with execution. So, it’s important to choose a partner you can trust.

One of the benefits of working with a National design-build firm is their breadth of experience delivering value to a variety of client types and the supply chain relationships they hold throughout the country. A firm like ARCO/Murray has no limitations when it comes to project type or location in addition to taking on all the risk and providing you with an upfront cost.

Looking for the right partner? Experience a better way to build: partnerwitharco@arcomurray.com