Engineering VS Engineering Consulting
In general, the difference is simple.
- Generally engineering firms will give you an engineered product based on your requirements.
- An engineering and consulting firm will do this, but we also use our experience to give you advice.
The Return on Investment (ROI) of using an engineering consulting firm is generally in the form of a better final product. In our case, we focus on reducing project cost and project schedule. A small investment up-front results in potentially millions of dollars of savings on project cost, and reduced project schedule.
Independent Third Party Reviews
If failure is not an option, then neither are third party reviews.
For years, the Nuclear Industry has been using independent third party reviews. These reviews eliminate group think, and make sure that the engineered product is safe. The Nuclear Industry is where XCEED started, and we’ve gained a strong respect for third party reviews.
Third party reviews also have an added benefit. Hiring a consulting firm to do a third-party review can help cut cost and risk.. Here are some of the things we look at doing third party reviews.
- Safety
- Constructability
- Cost Savings
- Potential Design Efficiencies
If you’d like to talk more about independent reviews, give us a call or send us a message.
Compliance Matrices
Compliance Matrices are commonly used in many industries to make sure the requirements are met. In its most basic form, it’s a simple Excel spreadsheet outlining the following:
- The requirement
- The source of the Requirement
- If compliance was achieved
- How Compliance was achieved
Who uses these?
Compliance matrices are somewhat ubiquitous. One of the more prominent users of compliance matrices is NASA. Imagine the number of requirements that need to be tracked for a project as big as a space station. It would be easy to lose track without a proper matrix.
We’ve honed the compliance matrix process based on our work in the Nuclear Industry. We use a proprietary software program that we developed to help track requirements and their compliance for each alternative. If you’d like to discuss compliance matrices in more detail, give us a call or send us a message.
Alternatives Evaluations
One of the number one drivers for project cost and scope is poor alternatives evaluation.
Assessing alternatives should be more than merely filling out the alternatives section of a project management form. And a thorough evaluation of alternatives doesn’t have to take a lot of time, yet it’s almost always one of the primary causes of over-spending.
We have a structured process that helps guide you through alternative evaluations rapidly and efficiently. We use the compliance matrix process to distill requirements to their most basic form. From there, we look at how compliance with the requirements is gained for each evaluated alternative.
The result is a document that will give you and your team a solid basis that the chosen design is the most optimal. If you’d like to discuss more about the compliance matrix, give us a call or send us a message.
