Optimizing the Choices

Comments were presented on the possibility of increasing production by optimizing the choices which arise in the building procurement process and which continue throughout the life of the facility. The ways in which a building or facility is acquired are changing and will probably continue to change and affect justifications, plans, designs, management of construction, and management of a structure once it is in use. Some of the reasons for the changes are the crisis in energy supplies and costs, materials shortages and escalating costs, and rising costs of labor. These factors exert powerful influences that point to the need for reviewing and considering changes in procurement and construction practices, in design emphasis and conception, and in occupancy and use. GAO believes that the development and refinement of computer-aided techniques will provide the designer with a wider variety of alternatives quickly and will optimize design work, while accelerating the start of construction and compressing overall time requirements. However, it believes that the greatest opportunities for increasing productivity lie close to the construction process itself. The overall high costs of construction are strong incentives for the United States to look hard at the advantages of remodeling and retrofitting older buildings instead of demolishing them and incurring the cost of rebuilding. Buildings should be designed with enough flexibility to allow them to function through changes in use because of the need to recycle the buildings and the materials in them. This country cannot afford the energy costs that would be incurred by unrestricted new construction.