Compendium of Design and Construction Tactics to Minimize Total Cost of Ownership

Facilities leaders can use these proven early designand construction strategies to extend the life ofinstitutional assets.

The greatest opportunity to minimize the total cost of a building is during the design, planning, and construction phases, before decisions are literally cemented into place. Unfortunately, campuses often recognize the right (and wrong) decisions only after the fact.

Applying a total cost of ownership (TCO) mindset in capital project decisions can help reduce costs and optimize the life span of university assets. While TCO-focused decisions may lead to higher up-front costs, institutions recoup savings from lower maintenance and renewal costs.

This resource is designed to arm Facilities leaders with an anthology of proven early design and construction strategies to extend the life of institutional assets.

 

More on this topic

This resource is part of The Essential Guide to Cost Containment Strategies for Higher Education. Access this guide for 500+ critical tactics for immediate and long-term cost savings.

 

Compendium of design and construction tactics

The first section is a compendium of over 100 design and construction tactics to reduce long-term maintenance costs, as reported by Facilities leaders across higher education. Within each category, each tactic is paired with a rationale for its effect on TCO. Facilities leaders should use the tactic to jump-start TCO-informed conversations with project stakeholders and choose a handful of tactics to adopt.

Strategies for tracking design and construction lessons learned

The second section focuses on the creation of an action-oriented “Lessons Learned” document. This document captures hard-won lessons during and after capital projects. Institutions can use these documents to apply those lessons and minimize TCO for future projects.

Additional design guideline examples

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