Metallbau can show your building team how our unique combination of consulting, value engineering, and specialized drawing methods can reduce the hidden costs that creep into most projects and affect the cost of non-steel items.

1. Hidden Cost Savings: The savings gained by using MG's value engineering "VE50+" system can usually exceed the total amount of the entire Metallbau consulting fee.

2. Scope of work: MG can assist A&E and general contractors with preparation of a comprehensive scope of work document-one that is specifically designed for LGSF projects. 'Off the shelf' LGSF specifications may omit many of the key details that we've found necessary for building real world LGSF projects. MG can also point out potential problems with the scope of work-especially where careful attention is often needed to define a clean interface between the LGSF subcontractor and other subcontractors.

3. Structural engineering: MG saves money for your engineering design team. Extra, unnecessary costs tend to creep into the design of steel framing, not only in the cost of the4. steel materials, but in the cost of performing the structural engineering design. MG can show the A&E team how they can save money for themselves, and the building's owner, by preparing plans in a manner that will reduce the number and cost of expensive requests for information. This will save the entire construction team the cost of shipping, extra printing, revised details from the structural engineer, bulletins prepared by the architect, confusion on the job site, lost instructions, tear-out of previously completed work, and many other negative impacts of imprecise or incomplete bid documents.

5. Wall, Floor, and Roof Assemblies: MG brings extensive experience gained by building a wide variety of assemblies.

6. Connections and detailing: MG maintains a library of hundreds of proven details that we have personally built under field conditions. MG can show your design team which details work best in real world construction situations, but we must do so before the engineering details have been completed.

7. Fabrication: MG can identify which cutting tolerances work best under various fabrication conditions. Our specialized software includes design criteria for real-world wall panels that are not available in off-the-shelf commercial software.

8. Labor Availability: MG can save money for your fabricators and assemblers by showing them how to use special techniques to accelerate the production of wall panels and trusses.

9. Site Logistics: MG can save money for all subcontractors by improving site logistics. MG has experimented with many different logistics approaches and can suggest the best combination of material delivery, storage, on-site assembly methods, and installation procedures. Special attention must be paid to access to lifting capability, where problems typically appear later in a project when many subcontractors are all vying for the same lifting resources.

10. Delivery Methods: MG saves money for the building owner and general contractor. A building's site location relative to the closest qualified component manufacturer will affect the cost of delivering LGSF components. MG can design the right mix of 'knock-down' or panelized components that will provide the owner with the lowest overall price. On multi-story buildings the GC saves money by minimizing logistics problems and maximizing crane time availability-a continuing challenge on most multi-story projects.

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