QBS Saves Money

Key data: 

• Hiring the most experienced and qualified design team reduces project schedule growth as compared to the national average (7 percent versus 10 percent).
• Specifically, 48%, or about half of the QBS projects met all construction milestones with no adjustment in schedule required. Conversely, only 32% of non-QBS projects had the same performance. This is a 50% increase in the number of projects that met all schedules. From this result, it can be seen that the experience brought forward in QBS has an impact on the construction process.  
• The teams with the greater experience working together, and in that sector, consistently produced documents that resulted in fewer delays during the construction process. 
  

Key data: 

• There is a strong link between the level of complexity, the project outcomes, and the use of QBS as the procurement method. As the complexity of the project grows, the positive impact of using QBS grows along with it. 
• Projects with community involvement, social components, and additional community features require design firms with broader knowledge and understanding. This brings QBS into a positive position.  Less qualified and experienced firms might have a harder time balancing these complicated social factors, [thus elevating] the benefits of using QBS procurement to select more qualified, experienced, and ultimately successful design firms. 
• QBS can encourage engineering firms to team in ways that provide the owner with the greatest set of qualifications to successfully complete the project. 

Key data: 

• When QBS was the procurement method used, projects that mentioned complexity either in terms of physical challenges or in terms of social or political challenges were consistently higher in terms of innovations.
• Direct cost and schedule benefits, indirect benefits of reduced management issues, and increased innovation are why QBS demonstrates a clear benefit when applied across a series of project types and geographic regions. 
• Innovation is an indirect measure of project complexity as more complex projects often require more innovative solutions to address those specific project challenges. Second, innovation is a measure of how design firms approach a project in terms of the flexibility of solutions they may bring to the project. 

Key data:

• Counties, municipalities, school districts, and other agencies are found to be using QBS closer to the 41-60% range. While this remains strong, it illustrates a gap that need to be bridged.  
• Turnover in procurement departments has been increasing over the last decade with long-term civil servants retiring and procurement turning over to less experienced individuals in a number of areas. Concurrent with this turnover has been a significant increase in the level of advocacy from alternative procurement groups. In this combination, the level of knowledge concerning the core benefits of utilizing QBS has dropped amongst some local jurisdictions. 
• There are many smaller jurisdictions where procurement responsibilities do not fall to a dedicated staff. Rather, procurement is part of a larger set of responsibilities that a single individual may have. In these cases, individuals have reported that they believe QBS may take longer up front and this presents a capacity issue.