How Well Do Your Low-Voltage System Vendors Understand Each Other’s Domains?

马修·哈珀

分享皇家88账户注册篇文章

2022年7月28日

你上一次绘制项目范围差距是什么时候, scope creep or scope overlap back to how you engaged your low-voltage system vendors? If you’re an architect or consulting engineer of commercial and residential integrated technologies, I want to bring your attention to an issue that may be of importance to you.

顺便说一下背景, 我职业生涯的大部分时间都在做工程师和顾问, 为商业架构师团队提供建议, 工程师和施工经理在低压集成. 我说的是集成安全系统, 视听, 电信, 无线接入, 对讲寻呼和分布式天线. 此时此刻, I’m seeing the market shift and encouraging our clients to recognize this change and immediately incorporate it into their architectural design and engineering work.

谁在看大局?

多年来, 在供应商中有一种趋势, 承包商, and sub承包商 in the design and construction world to remain siloed in their respective lanes and not consider how their work on a project integrates with that of other professionals. 没有人从大局出发,把各个点联系起来.

This can have disastrous consequences for you when your project suddenly goes over budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars or when part of your project needs to be redesigned and retrofitted to specifications that weren’t originally considered. That’s comparable to buying a stack of home security electronic systems - like surveillance cameras, 自动照明, 通知和访问控制系统-安装它们, and then finding out they don’t fully communicate with one another or work at maximum capability.

为什么皇家88账户注册种缺乏整合的情况持续了皇家88账户注册么长时间? One reason is that architects and engineers too often engage vendors and other specialists based on relationships (i.e., people they know and have worked with before) or other factors like seniority and expertise within their respective domains (i.e.(狭义上的专家).


三个与范围相关的挑战

当您的供应商员工是孤立的, 三个问题往往会导致成本超支, 低效率和严重的设计缺陷.

  • 范围的差距:未解决的需求,不是任何供应商合同的一部分. 皇家88账户注册导致工作质量下降.
  • 范围蠕变: A slow accumulation of additional features or functions to a project that wasn’t in the original design plan. 皇家88账户注册导致成本超过了原来的预算.
  • 范围重叠: When multiple 承包商 or sub承包商 appear to be responsible for the same component of a project. This creates confusion about accountability and drives up costs because the client is now paying multiple 承包商 or sub承包商 to do redundant work.

一个恰当的例子:一个医院项目失败了

以建造一所新医院为例. The hospital’s parent organization contracts with Company A to set up the hospital’s 电信, 包括电话, 互联网及资讯科技. 但是医院的母公司与B公司签订了合同, 电信实体, 铺设物理线路. 更复杂的情况, alarm systems must be tied into the electrical and fiber that need installation and maintenance. So, the parent organization contracts with a security company to hardwire the fire and security alarms.

但谁该对什么负责? 皇家88账户注册是一个典型的范围重叠的例子. 是A公司还是B公司安装了报警系统? 没有人在协调. The fire alarms need copper to communicate with the emergency responders, IT将需要光纤. 是否有需要达到的标准? 同样,没有人在协调. 因为每个人都局限于自己的专业领域, no one finds out until it’s too late to avoid cost overruns and construction delays.

现在是8a.m. and the 总承包商 opens the project management meeting ready to begin commissioning the hospital project on schedule. 然而,皇家88账户注册里有一个小问题. 由于范围重叠, 没有人把医院的光纤网络连接到外线, 警报系统也没有连接到应急响应系统. 医院不能运作了. Now the hospital parent organization’s C-suite is on the line wanting to know exactly what happened to cost them time and extra money.

皇家88账户注册是如何避免的呢?

One generalist project manager or small management team could have prevented this mishap. Project managers are there to manage subject matter experts, not be the subject matter experts. They are there to manage all the interlocking pieces between 承包商 and sub承包商, 根据项目中每个部分的明确定义的范围. 最终, by leveraging their experience in multiple domains across the building trades, 他们可以与工程师协同工作, 总承包商, and sub承包商 to strictly define responsibilities and scope before groundbreaking.

下次选择项目经理时,请采取以下三个步骤:

  1. 询问他们的方法. 确保它是战略驱动的,面向最终用户. Although a hospital and a prison may have similar needs for fiberoptic infrastructure, the design must be determined by how the infrastructure will be used and by whom.
  2. Make sure the project manager recognizes the value of having each subcontractor or vendor understand the project as a whole, 包括它的目标和限制.
  3. Ensure the project manager is prepared to make certain that each subcontractor or vendor is willing and able to work collaboratively with other sub承包商 in their adjacent domains to prevent missteps and missed work.

You’d be surprised how many architectural and engineering companies aren’t doing this. One thing I can tell you: Jensen Hughes’ clients are enjoying the benefits of an integrated approach to low-voltage system design for residential and commercial projects. 了解更多 about how our security design consultants can support the integration and installation of security systems in your organization.

马修·哈珀的大头照

作者简介

马修·哈珀
Matt is a Senior Technology Consultant and Registered Communication Distribution Designer with over 30 years of experience employed in all aspects of the Construction project cycle.