Akron Children's Hospital Utilizes Performance-Based Bidding Process

Posted on 11/25/2013

Akron Children's Hospital, ranked Best Children’s Hospital in 7 of 10 specialties by US News and World Report, is constructing a new 368,735 ft2 Critical Care Tower to meet current and future healthcare needs and to accommodate the changing face of healthcare delivery. A non-traditional approach to the design and construction, called Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), is being utilized.  IPD fully integrates project teams in order to take advantage of the knowledge of all team members to maximize the project outcome.

As part of the process three IPD teams; the owner, the architect team and the construction team, collectively, The Team, developed a performance-based bidding process for the building automation system.   Understanding the impact the building automation system has on the life-cycle cost of the building, which includes first cost, maintenance costs, operating costs, and equipment replacement costs, the Team strayed from the traditional low first-cost selection process.   In addition to first cost, and weighing heavily on the decision-making process, are the reputation and credentials of the vendors along with recommendations from existing customers.

Key in the evaluations is an interview process that includes the prospective vendors logging into existing customers building automation systems and taking the Team on a tour of an operational system.  Many questions can be answered without even being asked with a visual tour.  The commitment of the vendor to comfort, to energy management, to fine-tuning of systems, to customer training, to ease-of-use, among many others, can be determined during the tour.

After interviews with CCG and three other large, well-known building automation suppliers, CCG was notified that we were selected to provide and install Automated Logic’s WebCTRL® Building Automation System in the new Critical Care Tower.    We are excited to be part of a revolutionary process being implemented in the expansion at Akron Children’s Hospital.

“Building automation systems have been turned into price-based commodities when, in fact, they are central to proper occupant comfort, reduced utility consumption, reduced maintenance costs, increased equipment and building life, and general building systems performance,” said Brian Wagner, President of CCG Automation.  “Having a group of experienced individuals who are very knowledgeable in the construction industry choose CCG for their building automation needs confirms our commitment to high performance buildings.”

To learn on the expansion at Akron Children’s Hospital go to http://building.akronchildrens.org.

Company News

» View Archived News