I just finished with a meeting at my local chapter of ASPE. Prior to it getting started one of our members remarked on how he was designing a project for an engineering firm. I asked if this was free or a paying job. He remarked the payoff would be him getting the job at bid time since he was developing the specifications based upon his equipment.
This is not an isolated instance. This occurs on more projects than most people would believe. The suppliers are writing the specifications that give them a preference or sole source at bid time. And guess what, the architects and engineers are oblivious to this because they do not know what it takes to design the work properly!
Not only are they clueless as to what has been done, the architects and engineers are costing their clients money due to the sole sourcing. It is a sad state of the industry when the architects and engineers can’t even subcontract the work to another architect or engineer that does know how to design the work.
Oh By the Way… This same member would rather do the “free” design and take his chances than bid on a project where the architect or engineer did a “cut and paste” job to put something together that was out of date or unworkable.
