Job Order Contracts

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Author Message Brett M. Wilbur Senior Member Username: brett Post Number: 20 Registered: 12-2004 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 09:48 am:    I'm not sure what category to place this. I'll try here. We have recently been asked to work on a project for a school district on the Texas Gulf Coast which requires a Job Order Contract (JOC) delivery method. I could use some help to understand the method and also how it might influence the way we would write the front end requirements. I'm not sure if this is a generic term, or district specific. Even the project manager is scratching his head. It does have to do with issuance of purchase orders to the contractor using bond money during the course of construction which is outside of the initial contract for work that may or may not have to do with the contract. (??) Can anyone help? George A. Everding, AIA, CCS, CSI Senior Member Username: geverding Post Number: 21 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 09:53 am:    Brett- Try this link to start: http://construction.asu.edu/ace/CJE.htm Ronald L. Geren, RA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: specman Post Number: 101 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 11:05 am:    I spent over two years developing a job order contract (JOC) for ASU when I worked there as a PM. Unfortunately at the time, state law wasn't open to unique delivery methods, so it died on the vine. I don't believe they ever resurrected it. It any case, JOC is like having a contractor on call. They can handle routine maintenance issues, full renovation, or new construction projects. The key is the unit cost price book (typically R.S. Means). All contractors submit a proposal based on the price book with a markup factor. A JOC contractor is then selected based on the mark-up and/or past performance. The costs in the price book remain constant throughout the duration of the JOC contract unless an annual escalation factor, or something similar, is made part of the contract. Typically, the contractor has an office on the property with a staff. Work is issued through a work order. The owner may hire an architect or engineer to prepare plans from which the JOC prepares an proposal, or the JOC (if an A/E is not necessary IAW licensing laws) may prepare a design, or hire an A/E directly. Drawings by A/E's are usually limited to 35% CD level, unless more detail is required for any building permits. The military is a big user of JOC (I think the Army can be credited with starting it), as well as large school districts, universities, and other private and public entities. If permits are not required, you can keep the documentation somewhat limited. This type of contract is something along the lines of CM at Risk and Design-Build, depending on who the A/E works for. Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 107 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 12:38 pm:    Sounds like what some federal agencies call Indefinite Quantity Contracts (IQC) Anonymous   Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 12:50 pm:    Yes - also called "IDIQ" ("Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity") contracts (or should that be "indefinite design/indefinite quality"?) So, what's a ballpark unit price for design services? for "quality" in construction? How does one quantify those in a price list? Some things are commodities, some aren't. John Regener, AIA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: john_regener Post Number: 205 Registered: 04-2002 Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 11:05 am:    In my opinion, Job Order Contracting is a big deal that we should consider as we develop document formats. It's very important to facilities managers and includes tenant space improvements as well as micro projects for such entities as university campuses. A great deal of construction is done using job order contracting ... lot of stuff that is identified as maintenance and restoration in MasterFormat 04. The issue as I see it is that the quality of construction needs to be just as good as for a major capital improvement project. Yet, the lack of sophistication of the construction contractor and the necessity for brevity in the documentation (the single page job order) mean the traditional construction specification format is inappropriate ... or so it would seem. I've been mulling over the idea that "standard" specifications need to be produced for the facility and then referenced in the job order. For example, the job order could say "install sheet carpet Type 2" and reference Section 09-6816 in the standard specifications for what is "Type 2" and how to layout and install the carpet. Am I on the right track here? Ronald L. Geren, RA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: specman Post Number: 103 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 11:22 am:    Great idea, John! The JOC "Project Manual" could be considered along with the price book when contractors prepare their proposals. For most entities, public or private, they already have an expected standard of quality in their projects, and will likely want to see that continue in their JOC contracts. A variation on that theme is to do something along the lines of a mix between a performance and descriptive specification (something like that used in Design-Build; ref. PerSpective by BSD). Where specific items are selected by the owner, the descriptive requirements take priority. Where things are left open to the designer (whether it be the JOC or an A/E) then the performance requirements would prevail, unless they utilize a material that is explicitly covered in the descriptive specifications. Robert E. Woodburn Advanced Member Username: bwoodburn Post Number: 5 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 11:34 am:    I was involved in a similar experiment several years ago (although it was for conventional design-bid-build), working with an architect whose main client was a major chemical company, with a steady volume of small to medium-sized projects, all of them bid conventionally by the same five local contractors. I edited the office master down into a Standard Specification designed to cover typical office, industrial and lab construction and Owner preferences, which we printed on the drawings (six sheets, as I recall); these remained unchanged from one job to the next. For each job, we amended those Standard Specifications with Supplemental Specifications, also on the drawings, in much the same way that we add to or delete from General Conditions with Supplemental Conditions, or revise all documents with addenda. The contractors and subs became familiar enough with the standard specs that they just had to look at the supplemental items.