Page 6 - Aviation and Aerospace Client Experience

Certainty of Outcome Case Study
When Lufthansa Technik (LTPR) selected a former Air Force base in Aguadilla, Puerto
Rico, as their heavy MRO facility location for the Americas, they arrived with very
specific operational requirements and program needs. In order to develop the facility,
they asked the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company to negotiate a long-term Certainty of
Outcome
lease for the property on the former base and to construct the facility using a variety of
local and federal government funds. Upon receiving responses to their original tender to
contractors, LTPR learned their program requirements and budget were significantly out of alignment.
Based on the quality of Haskell’s proposal and significant experience with MRO hangar
facilities design and construction, Lufthansa Technik selected Haskell as their partner, but with the
requirement that we find ways to reduce the project from the original tender offer of $51.2 million to their
target price of $40 million without changing the operational requirements of the facility. Haskell took
on the challenge of value engineering the facility and reducing the cost by 22% while remaining fully
code-compliant and “Fit for Purpose.”
Haskell employed our knowledge, skills and experience to assist the LTPR team in identifying
opportunities for cost savings and ultimately signed a Guaranteed Maximum Price contract for
$38.5 million.
Haskell created innovative design models to demonstrate how airplanes were moved into the hangar
and how tooling interacted with the building. This exercise led to a revision of the framing scheme to
“shrinkwrap” the building around the MRO process. Fortunately, the changes to the building volume
also led to a reduction of mechanical and electrical requirements, which created additional savings.
As a result of these modeling efforts, we were able to move out-buildings into the hangar spaces and
create mezzanine spaces for office and storage, thus making the building itself more efficient.
LTPR’s requirements also included an aircraft paint hangar, which required significant investment in
air handling and conditioning equipment to maintain tight temperature and humidity criteria. Haskell
developed a system that would recirculate 80% of the hangar air using fans and three stages of
filtering, which significantly reduced both Lufthansa’s initial capital investment and future
operating costs. Other opportunities for value engineering included:
‹ Changes to the construction materials to use locally available and lower cost materials
‹ Schedule acceleration and staffing changes to reduce overhead and construction costs
‹ Thorough qualification and diligent negotiation with subcontractors, vendors and suppliers
In addition to the design and construction management, Haskell self-performed all concrete, carpentry
and tilt-wall panel fabrication and erection for the project. The program was completed on budget
and on schedule. Throughout the project delivery, Haskell tracked and shared subcontractor pricing
through open-book accounting to provide assurances to LTPR that Haskell was delivering best value
solutions for each and every scope segment within the agreed upon guaranteed maximum price for
their facility.
“The work that Haskell has done for us on our project is of the highest quality that we could ask for from a design-
builder. The Haskell team worked closely with our team to find cost- effective, quality solutions to any issues that
came up during the project... Haskell’s commitment to understanding our goals for the project was an asset to
project completion.”
– Elmar Lutter, Chief Executive Officer, Lufthansa Technik Puerto Rico, LLC