FPO

Quality Assurance

Ambia has consistently been at the forefront of firms emphasizing quality improvement. In 2002, the Company initiated the Ambia Quality Program. This program of systems & processes has resulted in the production of higher quality Construction Documents and has shown to dramatically reduce Change Orders and RFI's on projects resulting in several percentage point savings of total construction costs. It has also reduced the time required of the A/E and the Owner during Construction Administration and has improved efficiency dramatically within the Company. In addition, contractors have reported that the improved drawing accuracy improves bids, thus lowering initial construction costs. Also, our Client Satisfaction Program ensures that we are having on-going communication with our Clients and continually getting feedback on how we’re doing with the goal of always working to improve our Delivery System and provide the highest quality service. Having seen that the application of our proprietary review system significantly reduces change orders, RFI's and construction costs, we offer our industry-leading quality assurance and constructability review program to others.

Key elements of Ambia Constructability Services include:  

  • Formal, tested and established process
  • Proven Design Quality Control/Constructability checklists with over 1500 checkpoints
  • Checklist items based on real design and construction problems
  • Emphasis is on interdisciplinary coordination, often the source of problems
  • Teams composed of management level architects, engineers and contractors *
  • Use of light table overlay system for engineering coordination and dimension checks
  • Back-checks to confirm Review Comment compliance
  • Multi-Check© System adopted by Washington as its Constructability Model

Results have been impressive. Typical A/E caused change orders for all Ambia projects have been reduced from a mean of 2.6% in 2002 (slightly lower than industry average) to an extremely low 0.89%; a 200% reduction! In addition, projects experience an increase in the number of bidders per project, narrower bid ranges and lower bids.

  • NW architectural firm average is approximately 2.9% on 'new' public bid work
  • NW architectural firm average is approximately 4.9% on 'renovation' public bid work

Ambia's Quality Assurance Program is led by James Replogle, Principal and Studio Leader of Ambia's Specialties Studio. Jim has over 30 years of construction and design experience and was instrumental in developing the Company's "Project Management Guidelines" and “Multi-Check Quality Assurance and Constructability Checklists" which are updated regularly.

* Team members can be from Ambia’s experienced group or may be qualified personnel provided by the A/E or Owner