|
the association for the advancement of cost engineering |
|
North Florida Section |
|
Current Meetings 2011-2012
|
|
Regular meetings held on third Thursdays, except during summer months, unless otherwise noted. Everyone is welcome, membership is not required. |
|
Technology in Construction: The Cost Engineer’s Technology Toolkit , with speaker James Benham, President, JBKnowledge Technologies, Inc.
Today’s professional estimators and other cost engineers understand that technology has a prominent role in solving construction industry hassles and inefficiencies. This presentation shows how new technologies help reduce ITB and planroom problems, how social networking tools allow more flexibility; and where augmented reality comes into play. Finally, this talk looks at the future of estimating and cost engineering where these ground-breaking technologies are converging to change the face of the construction industry.
Topics to be discussed include:
- ITB and planroom headaches -- and solutions - Innovative Google freeware and what it can do for you - Social networking and how the construction industry can get involved - Augmented reality and the convergence of technologies
Don’t miss this special focus on cutting-edge technologies that cost engineers and their companies can use to increase efficiency and become more successful.
Speaker: James Benham, President, JBKnowledge Technologies, Inc.
James Benham is founder and president of JBKnowledge Technologies Inc. He started his company during his final year in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and a Master of Science in Management Information Systems. Established with the aim of providing high quality technology solutions to the North American marketplace, James' company has since grown to provide premier technology services to companies large and small across the Western Hemisphere, specializing in the construction, insurance, and real estate industries.
Along with software, database and web development, JBKnowledge's user-friendly software products – such as SmartBidNet and SmartCompliance – allow companies to streamline enterprise management, data interchange, compliance and document workflow processes via secure, web-based platforms. JBKnowledge has offices in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Salta, Argentina and is headquartered in Bryan/College Station, Texas where James resides with his wife and two daughters.
As an entrepreneur with expert knowledge in the past, present, and future capabilities of information technology, James has earned kudos and repeat speaking requests from scores of organizations across North America. He has discussed everything from information technology solutions, strategy and management to marketing and social media. Hosting organizations range from advertising clubs to construction industry trade shows to college classrooms. His energy, friendly nature, and ability to engage whoever he finds himself in front of has yet to go unnoticed.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
|
Accurately Pricing Projects in the Hyper-Competitive 2011 Market, with speaker Michael D. Dell'Isola, PE, CVS, FRICS, Senior Vice President, Faithful+Gould.
The construction marketplace in the US experienced dramatic changes from 2002 through the beginning of 2011. From 2002 to a peak in 2006, overall construction spending increased by 35 percent or an average of almost 7 percent per year. After the peak year of 2006, spending then decreased by almost 30 percent through the end of 2010.
The period of 2002 – 2010 has recorded the most significant upward and then downward change to have occurred in the last 40 years. As a result of the dramatic drop in construction volume, exceptional competition has dropped bid prices 10 percent, 20 percent to even 40 percent.
This presentation will address how construction volume affects competition, how competition affects price, how to react to very low bids/prices, how to properly enhance competition, how to price projects today and budget projects for the future when the market will change, and explores the reasons why construction volume expands and contracts.
Speaker: Michael D. Dell'Isola, PE, CVS, FRICS, Senior Vice President, Faithful+Gould
Michael D. Dell’Isola, Senior Vice President of Faithful+Gould, has a broad background specializing in cost management, value engineering, technical facilitation/partnering, life cycle costing, and project management. His over thirty years of experience includes assignments for public agencies, private sector owners and developers, architects/engineers and construction managers. He has consulted on a broad variety of projects in the U.S. and overseas delivered through construction management, design-build and traditional methods.
He is a professional engineer, a Certified Value Specialist and a fellow in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and has served on the boards of directors of several professional organizations, including CMAA. An internationally recognized speaker on cost, value, construction economics and project delivery, he has presented numerous papers and lectures to companies and professional societies worldwide, including the U.K., the Middle East, and Japan. He taught at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. for many years and more recently at Florida Atlantic University’s Architecture Department. His book for Wiley publishers titled, Architect’s Essentials of Cost Management, was published in March 2002.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
|
How the Bidding Process Can Sabotage Estimates with speaker Michael Doyle, Assistant Manager of Estimating Services, Camp Dresser McKee (CDM).
Whether you’re an estimator, planner/scheduler or cost control manager, the bidding process is the crucial point at which a job may be won or lost. However, all your hard work leading up to the bid may go astray, sometimes by events beyond your control.
The reason? Cost estimators and contractors look at the final pricing of a project from different points of view. And, the available resources and information that each side has may also differ considerably.
Mr. Doyle will look at these differences and also track a typical bid day process which defines the final price of a project. Learning about the bidding process and what may go wrong can possibly minimize the differences and help bring more success in winning that important project.
Speaker:
Michael Doyle, Assistant Manager of Estimating Services, Camp Dresser McKee (CDM).
Mike graduated from Purdue University in 1965 and obtained a Professional Engineers license from the State of Ohio in 1973 (No. 37496). He worked as a project engineer on a number projects early in his career. He started Estimating in earnest in 1968. In 1990 he became the Vice President of Estimating at Danis Environmental Industries. For the next 12 years he oversaw the estimating of 600 million to 900 million dollars worth of water and wastewater treatment plant work annually. Currently as Assistant Manager of Estimating Services at CDM, he oversees approximately 35 estimators in 4 locations throughout the United States. CDM estimating performs all types of estimating from Engineer’s Opinion of Probable Cost of Construction to Design-Build Estimates, to Hard-Bid Estimates.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
|
The Great Divorce: Cost Loaded Schedule Updating, with speaker John P. Orr, PSP, Senior Scheduling Engineer, URS Corporation
Of value to all cost engineers including schedulers/planners, estimators and cost control managers, this program will increase your understanding of the essential relationship between project cost control and scheduling.
Cost and resource loaded CPM network schedules provide detailed planning information to the owner’s project management team. Cost curve projections from the baseline schedule graphically depict the planned rate of project expenditures. Resource loading provides evidence that the contractor has planned thoroughly, identifying all resources and equipment required to complete the project. There is no downside to a cost and resource loaded baseline schedule, which is why many owners require them for projects above a certain size.
But network schedules are designed to measure and manage time, not dollars. During the course of construction, resource or cost drivers can make CPM schedule calculations invalid. Unpaid remnants of activities in progress (paid to 97% and holding) can distort the schedule by increasing “out-of sequence” reporting. Schedule updates must provide valid projections of completion in order to support the management team.
This presentation will evaluate the problems inherent in using cost-loaded schedule updates as the basis for progress payments. It will also recommend steps toward a “divorce” of the cost tracking from the schedule tracking during the course of construction.
Speaker: John P. Orr, PSP, Senior Scheduling Engineer, URS Corporation
John P. Orr, PSP is a Senior Scheduling Engineer with more than 29 years of construction management experience with URS Corporation (formerly O’Brien Kreitzberg & Associates.) His scheduling experience goes back to the days of IBM punch cards and JCL. He is currently working as a consultant to the US State Department providing scheduling support including progress schedule update reviews, claim and time extension analysis, and project management procedures and scheduling specifications for US embassy construction overseas. He is certified as a Planning & Scheduling Professional by AACE International and holds EIT registration from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He presented two papers at the 2010 AACEi Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, and another paper at the recent 2011 AACEi Annual meeting in Anaheim, CA. His article Timely Time Extensions: The Owner’s Duty was published in the May 2011 issue of AACE International's COST Engineering journal.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
|
5D Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Cost Engineers, with speaker Ian Turner, Technical Sales Manager, Vico Software.
Whether you work under the pressure of hard bids or alternative contract types like design-build or IPD, using a BIM model for estimating is a unique advantage in today’s commercial construction market. With a 5D model, cost engineers including estimators, planners/schedulers, and cost control managers can guide the Owner through budget impacts:
· What would happen to the cost and the schedule if we added a 5-floor parking garage? · Determine the correct mix of retail and residential in mixed-use buildings. · Compare green materials in terms of installation time, cost, and projected energy savings. · Pinpoint which decisions have the greatest impact on the budget.
Whether your team works with Tekla, ArchiCAD, or Revit models, we’ll show your team how to derive construction-caliber quantities from the model geometry. We’ll also demonstrate how to edit formulas for model-based and non-model-based quantities.
Next we have the option to access the information from past projects, or even go out to estimating systems like Timberline. We explore the benefits of creating iterative cost plans as more and more detail is known about the project. These cost plans are presented in an easy-to-read Excel-like interface, and clicking on any of the line items highlights the components contained in the model. This way, estimators can always determine if the estimate is missing any scope... and add it back in quickly.
With the model and cost plan in place, the estimating team can work with the owner to examine budget. With a simple stoplight color scheme, the estimator can quickly determine which building elements are causing a budget overrun, or perhaps have not been calculated properly.
We’ll end the session with a thorough questions and answers session. With all the buzz in the marketplace about BIM, many estimators wonder if this means the end of their job. Model-based estimating is no different than the paper-based processes in place now – there are just different inputs. The session will be presented by an estimator with 17 years of field experience and he will share his initial trepidations, learnings, and successes. Join us for this educational session and learn what advantages 5D BIM can bring to your firm.
Speaker: Ian Turner, Technical Sales Manager, Vico Software
Ian Turner holds the distinction of being one of Vico Software’s first employees. Now serving as a Technical Sales Manager, Ian has been instrumental in 5D projects on four continents: from South Africa to the Dubai and Qatar in the Middle East, to his native England, and now in the USA. Ian began his career as an estimator and specialized in procurement. With over seventeen years’ experience under his belt at firms like Kajima, Orange, Shepherd, and Thompson, he earned the position of Senior Estimator.
With numerous degrees in Construction and Management, Ian not only serves as Vico’s resident estimating expert, but he also leads clients through the change management necessary to transition from a 2D paper-based estimating process to a 5D model-based workflow. Ian’s expertise is well-documented in his blog, The Project Doctor and the video, BIM-Based Estimating for Dummies.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org.
|
|
The Construction Estimate and Cost Controls: From Formulation to Project Closeout— A Help or a Hindrance in Litigation?, with speaker Gregory S. Martin, Attorney at Law, Gregory S. Martin & Associates, P.A.
Intended as an interactive discussion between the presenter and participants, this seminar is designed to explore how construction estimates are viewed and used in dispute resolution. From formulation and bidding through project closeout, the estimate is more than a set of numbers against a quantity takeoff. The estimate represents the culmination of a review, evaluation, and development of a plan on how best to succeed on the project (or, at least it should). Thus, the estimate forms the foundation of any successful project. Further, the estimate, together with responsible project cost controls, necessarily form the center piece of any successful request for additional compensation.
This seminar will address common pitfalls in the estimating and cost control process which can doom recovery in litigation (or any other dispute resolution format).
Speaker: Gregory Martin, Attorney at Law, Gregory S. Martin & Associates, P.A.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Meeting is free and guests are welcome. Optional dinners at $10.00 per person with advance reservations. For details and to register, see meeting notice. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
|
The Psychology of Estimating (working title), with speaker Glenn C. Butts, CCC, Cost Analysis Officer, NASA. Watch for details coming soon. |
|
Home | Meetings | News | Certification | Scholarships | Employment | Resources | Listings | About Us |
|
© Copyright 2007-2011 North Florida Section of AACE® International, Inc. All rights reserved. |
|
© 2011 AACE® International, Inc. and its official professional certifications are trademarks of the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved. |
|
This meeting will also feature our Special Holiday Celebration, including a gourmet meal, holiday decorations, music, door prizes and more! Our North Florida AACEi “You’re a Star” Award will be presented as well. Invite your spouse, friends or colleagues to join us for the fun, festivities and fellowship. |
|
Note: The May meeting concludes our 2011-2012 program year. After the summer break, be sure to join us again in September for a new series of quality educational presentations. Watch this page for upcoming programs for the fall and beyond, and visit our Web site often for the latest Section news and activities. We welcome your ideas and suggestions on possible topics and speakers. Please send them to programs@nflaace.org.
|
|
Special Joint Meeting! |
|
This will be a special joint meeting of the North Florida Section of the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International (AACEi) and the Orlando Chapter of the American Society of Professional Estimators (ASPE). Join us for this excellent professional networking opportunity! |
