Recap: Using Credible Data for Life Cycle Costing & Budgeting

Two of the biggest challenges facing facility owners, design consultants and construction teams include predicting accurate budgets for future new builds and forecasting the impact design decisions and value engineering will have on downstream maintenance costs. To overcome those challenges, credible data offers ample opportunity to better understand today’s costs and predict future life cycle costs of facilities as it is related to preventative and deferred maintenance impacts.

At last month’s World Workplace 2017 Conference and Expo hosted by International Facility Management Association (IFMA), Gordian took a look at cost estimating challenges and presented solutions for improved life cycle costing and budgeting. Below are a few key takeaways from the presentation.

Presenter

Dave Lewek, Principal RSMeans data Consulting Engineer, Gordian

Facilities cost data may be simple in theory, but in reality many factors influence future cost estimates. Some of these factors include location, contracting method, global commodity price influences and projected dates. While there are several options for cost data, access to a comprehensive, credible cost database is key in building truly reliable estimates.

With accurate construction cost data, users are able to:

• Forecast life cycle costs
• Quantify existing deferred maintenance liabilities
• Provide a basis for efficiently modeling Current Value Replacement
• Provide a pricing mechanism for efficient execution

Since different cost data types can serve different purposes, RSMeans data from Gordian offers a variety of options. The database is developed by engineers from a compilation of thousands of information sources for materials, equipment, trades and locations. The continuously updated raw data provides the basis for credible, predictive cost estimating for units, assemblies and square foot models, localized to more than 900 North American locations. 

The benefits of using accurate cost data reverberate throughout the facility's lifecycle:

• Business Planning – Enhance business cases, site selection and budgeting
• Estimating – Custom data catered to save you time and money with more accurate estimates up to three years in advance
• Design and Construction – Be able to “manage to the budget” with a better knowledge of accurate costs
• Continuous Improvement – Real benchmarking to help achieve goals with industry best practices and the use of a Facility Condition Index

RSMeans data from Gordian specializes in understanding the cyclical aspects of the construction market, factoring in commodity-driven prices, slowly increasing labor costs and staying current on technology innovations to forecast credible construction cost data.

With up-to-date, comprehensive cost data, the door is open to new possibilities for business planning and estimating.

View the full presentation here.