Job Order Contracting (JOC) 101

A Highly Effective Tool for Accomplishing Facility Construction, Repair and Maintenance

The Military developed "Job Order Contracting" to simplify the accomplishment of numerous projects. Utilizing an on-call General Contractor, JOC assisted the customer in converting work requests and maintenance needs into a well planned and fairly priced project, including appropriate levels of design. JOC is an effective tool for property owners who serve multiple tenants or customers and have several million square feet of property that requires regular renovation, change of occupancy, major maintenance and new construction additions.

JOC was originally developed to support the project needs of military bases where multiple individual tenants had recurring and on-going needs for facilities modification and repair to support their mission objectives. These needs traditionally were met using a design-bid-build approach which required from 6 months to 5 years to undertake, plus administrative and design cost to support project solicitation packages, even with little required technical developmented upon project complexity. Using pre-established, pre-competed unit prices, projects were scheduled consideration of the customers' operational needs. The pre-established unit prices served as the basis of all contract cost for the project. Upon approval of a work request work plan, the General Contractor executed the work within days.

A benefit of an on-going service relationship with the owner was the Contractor became an extension of the customers workforce and a highly familiar team member able to solve facilities problems. As Military personnel left the service and entered the public sector, they found that the facilities needs of public sector owners were the same as that of federal reservation. School districts, universities, public works departments, municipals and the highway department, anyone with multi-million SF of facilities needed cost effective, reliable and responsive services like the military.

The district typically predicts a reasonable work volume to be accomplished during the term of the contract. Smaller districts may estimate less work than a large one but if it is trying to execute a bond issue to catch up on deferred maintenance, it may have a much greater need than a larger one.

The JOC contractor furnishes a project manager, a group of construction managers, superintendents, and quality control personnel to plan, estimate and execute projects assigned by the district. These people are furnished without cost to the district. Their cost is recovered through the execution of discrete projects assigned through the JOC. As facility needs are identified, projects are assigned. The JOC contractor then investigates, plans, estimates, and schedules the work to be accomplished. The customer participates in this process by reviewing and approving the Contractor's proposed method of work accomplishment and cost estimates. A single project could be as simple as the addition of a handicapped entrance ramp to a school, or involve assembly of all the deferred work requests into a comprehensive single maintenance project to be accomplished in one summer. If design services are required, the Contractor can deliver that faster and possibly at a significantly reduced cost to the district.

JOC is adaptable and may be organized to meet the customer's needs rapidly and reliably. If the customer needs work accomplished that is maintenance related, the contractor can furnish mechanical personnel to undertake those services. JOC is not a replacement for the customer's basic organizational staff, but is instead a tool to make that staff more effective and responsive to its customers.


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