Who are design consultants?
Consultants are experts or teams of experts who give their insights to clients using their knowledge, expertise and experience. Industrial infrastructure design consultants provide their expertise in designing facilities to suit the client’s requirements. Design consultants also offer their expertise in assessing the factory for consulting. Some of the services they offer are:
- Design, detailed engineering for the project
- Consulting services
- Assessment services
- Procurement support services
When is a design consultant needed?
Industrial infrastructure design consultants become a part of industrial projects due to their expertise in putting up projects. Clients look for consultants when:
- The company lacks the expertise and experience provided by the design consultant.
- They do not have the full-time resource to design the facility.
- Previous projects designed in-house were not successful.
- The company has a policy to involve a consultant for projects.
- Design consultants often have a pool of multi-disciplinary experts for designing the entire project. The client may not have the whole set of resources.
- The project has constraints on time, budget and cost.
- The consultants have a time-tested process for industrial projects. The in-house team may lack the same.
- Consultants anticipate issues and bottlenecks and try to resolve them.
What should clients look for?
While selecting industrial infrastructure design consultants, there must be clarity on the scope, battery limits and time period. Some of the points which must be in place before a consultant is selected are:
- The scope of the consultant: A clear battery limit on the consultant’s scope is essential.
- Unanimity in the consultant’s scope: The in-house project team should agree on the scope, roles, and responsibilities.
- Technical competence of the consultant’s team
- References of previous companies
- Quality of deliverables
- Effective communication
- The consultants should be capable of understanding the client’s needs.
Which is the best time for consultants to be onboard?
Typically, the conceptual stage is when clients select consultants for a project. In this case, the land has been procured by the client. However, some companies hire consultants even before site selection. In such projects, the consultants help in site selection also. The sites are given a rating based on the land development, cost and space optimisation.
What are the benefits the consultants bring to a project?
Industrial infrastructure design consultants bring a lot more than just expertise.
- Green and sustainable concepts: Design consultants incorporate small design concepts that help the facility work more environmentally friendly.
- They provide the facility with the latest technology available in the market.
- Professional consultants help the project stay on track by giving quality and timely deliverables.
- The consultants remove things/ systems that do not benefit the project and add value to the project.
To conclude, industrial infrastructure design consultants bring value addition to the project. This value addition is through their experience, knowledge, and updated information on the latest technologies.
