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MC Industrial can implement a wide range of Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) and Small Business Enterprise (SBE) compliance programs.
M/W/DV/SBE plans and programs can take many shapes, depending on the client’s needs. A number of common elements have been identified amongst the wide variety of owner needs and programs:
- Evaluation of owner’s requirements
- Solicitation of disadvantaged business entities
- Evaluation of individual disadvantaged business enterprise capabilities
- Evaluation of proposals from disadvantaged business enterprise on a competitive level
- Reporting of attained levels of competitive DBE contracting
- Mentoring and monitoring of disadvantaged business enterprise performance
Evaluation of Owner Requirements
Owner requirements can involve mandatory and target goals. Most of the mandatory goals have been confined to the public sector however, given the recent political and subsequent regulatory changes associated with many affirmative action requirements, many of the mandatory levels of compliance have been relaxed or eliminated.
Despite this relaxation, MC Industrial recognizes the need for voluntary affirmative action plans within our industry to help foster healthy growth of M/W/DV/SBE businesses. These voluntary programs require a strong commitment on the part of the owner/client and the contractor as well as the cooperation and participation of the subcontracting community. The owner must set realistic and attainable targets in collaboration with the contracting community. These goals must be accompanied by a definitive list of compliance requirements and reporting procedures
Finally, the owner/client must decide what financial commitment (if any) they are willing to make to increase M/W/DV/SBE participation in the project.
Solicitation of M/W/DV/SBE Participation
Blanket solicitation is the first step in the development of a DBE list of contractors. Many owners and contractors have taken this step on previous projects, however, due to the relatively high rate of turnover in the subcontracting community in general and the small business M/W/DV/SBE sector in particular, it is recommended (and is sometimes mandatory in the public sector) for the contracting entity to advertise in trade journals and newspapers for bids and qualification information.
Evaluation of Individual Disadvantaged Business Entities
Success of the construction team is dependent upon the ability of a diverse group of individuals and business entities to perform the work in a coordinated and timely fashion and for that work to be of the highest quality.
MC Industrial’s role as General Contractor is to develop and maintain the framework of this team. This framework includes implementing time proven project management systems at both the pre-construction and construction phase. One of the first steps during pre-construction is to pre-qualify subcontractors for participation in the project. This pre-qualification process evaluates a subcontractor’s capability to perform on the basis of a number of criteria:
- Proposed Team
- Company Principles
- Experience in the Industry
- Safety record
- Past performance on McCarthy projects
- Past experience on projects of similar size and complexity
- Financial strength
- Bonding capacity; insurance limits
Evaluation of Proposals on a Competitive Level
MC Industrial’s policy has always been to contract with the subcontractor who can best comply with the requirements of the bid documents and demonstrate the ability to deliver performance of the highest quality in a timely fashion. When the pre-qualification process is effective, award is in most cases made to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.
MC Industrial has developed a sophisticated process of evaluating complex bid packages and presenting these evaluations. Spread sheets detail scope items and costs associated with these items. Our recommendations to the owner in a negotiated contract format can be customized to any required format.
The owner, once presented with these evaluations, can then evaluate economic factors associated with M/W/DV/SBE goals prior to final award.
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