Projects that are abundant in detail call for high collaboration and coordination — a theme that has been articulated by two Colorado-based projects: the Children’s Hospital Colorado Southeast Aurora Clinic and the West Pines Behavioral Center. These two projects, won by the Healthcare team, called for collaborative problem-solving due to the complexity in scope of work. Using internal Self Perform teams and sub-brand Aptitude: Intelligent Integration™ seemed the most efficient for JE Dunn’s and the clients’ schedule goals, sparking collaboration between these three groups.
While Healthcare pursued the projects, they needed a workforce. Because of the projects’ location in Denver along with the amount of scope work, there was no need to search for the perfect subcontractor: The Denver Self Perform group had already been well established. The team played a crucial role in enhancing project safety, quality, value, budget, and schedule certainty.
“With Aptitude involved from the start, it makes for a smoother, more efficient process.”
Aptitude stepped in for the implementation of the low voltage and technology side of things, coordinating the owner’s technical teams and managing the trade partners for the install.
Healthcare is a vertical that relies heavily on IT and technology. Andrew Gates, Senior Project Manager for Aptitude, explained that his team’s job was to look at each project holistically from the cabling to system set-up; giving the project teams an “easy button to press” for technology coordination.
“Technology is so engrained in modern buildings, whether during construction or after,” Gates said. “IT may seem like a small part of a project, but it affects many scopes of work including electrical, mechanical, life safety systems, and if it’s not managed effectively can slow turnover dates at the end of projects. With Aptitude involved from the start, it makes for a smoother, more efficient process.”
Rocky Mountain Self Perform Lead Matt Aschermann explained the well-established Self Perform team in Colorado helped JE Dunn’s healthcare experts, providing a labor and knowledge pool where they could align around a combined vision on these projects.
“It creates a good type of synergy,” Aschermann said. “Healthcare is getting the benefit of Self Perform revenue with the expectations set on them. It helps us keep our field craft employees working, and JE Dunn is benefitting from all the advantages that Self Perform offers a project, such as increased accountability, flexibility, and enhanced partnership.”
For West Pines, the value of this project is all in the concrete, as the Self Perform team competitively bid and won that scope over the subcontractor competition. With the structural concrete package awarded to JE Dunn Self Perform, the team was able to execute the structural concrete package for the client, providing cost efficiency and aid in mitigating permitting impacts experienced early in the project.
The children’s hospital planned out a remodel that entailed demolishing the interior of an existing medical office building and a complete tenant interior rebuild.
The demo, concrete, framing, and drywall were all done under integrated project delivery (IPD) contract negotiation. The team realized significant savings for both JE Dunn and the client with the IPD being from the general contractor’s scope of work. This boosted the client experience and internal morale. With JE Dunn serving as the general contractor, they could more easily accommodate delays without having excessive change orders and impacts to the project owner — helping the shared revenue pool between all parties on the project as well.
“We get paid for changes that we need to get paid for, but we do not pursue costs opportunistically or unfairly like a subcontractor might,” Ascherman said.
While trade partners are still needed to complete some projects, by increasing the amount of Self Perform work done, the company can enhance the certainty of results through streamlined communication and consistency. Another benefit: doing scope work provides a guaranteed workforce for a project instead of a search for the perfect subcontractor.
“The project wouldn’t have made it without our Self Perform group coming through.”
“From a Healthcare perspective, it was great being able to rely on our own crews on both these projects for our schedule assurance,” Vice President and Group Manager of Healthcare Brandon Moore said. “The Denver Self Perform group worked hand in hand with our superintendents and Project Management staff to get our scopes of work done with high quality and on time per the owner’s schedule. The project wouldn’t have made it without our Self Perform group coming through because of the amount scope they completed.”
