What is a JOC Unit Price Book

A JOC Unit Price Book is a fixed  list of detailed construction tasks and associated pricing/costs that is used to estimate costs for individual JOC projects/job orders, associated with a JOC Program. (Note: Costs and line items are typically updated annually)

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Within a Job Order Contract, JOC,  each project/job order requires a detailed line item cost estimate (created by the contractor and reviewed by the owner).   This assures a fuller understand of project scope of work by both the owner and the contractor.  Each line item represents a discrete individual renovation, repair, or new construction task which includes a description, a unit of measure, crew information,  and associated labor, material, and equipment, detailed costs in addition to a total cost.   The fixed unit prices are for complete and in-place construction required to complete the construction task.

(Note:  It is a best management practice, and in some cases a requirement, that an Owner also create a detailed line item estimate using the approved JOC UPB for projects at, or above, a specific total dollar value.)

Awarded JOC contractors use the UPB to respond to individual Owner RFPs (Request for Proposal).  The awarded JOC contractor also multiplies an adjustment factor (also know as a JOC coefficient) times the total of the line item based estimate.  This is the factor(s) that was approved when the JOC contract was approved and typically ranges between 0.80 and 1.20 on an general basis.   Using the OpenJOC(TM) Job Order Contract Unit Price Book, factors range from 1.01 to 1.35.  The reason is that the OpenJOC UPB is locally research and does not include contractor overhead and profit.

(Note: Example of multiple JOC co-efficients-Normal work hour adjustment factor, Nighttime work adjustment factor, Weekend work adjustment factor – work conducted, Secure area adjustment factor.)

The contractor’s JOC coefficient includes overhead and profit, thus the unit price book should NOT include overhead and profit.

A JOC Unit Price Book should include repair, renovation, and construction tasks appropriate for the  the various types of work identified in the JOC agreement.   The content of the UPB should be sufficient to assure that 90% or more of the total costs associated with JOC individual projects are derived directly from the JOC UPB.

A JOC Unit Price Book should also be organized by CSI MasterFormat (50 Division) and include demolition line items and line item modifiers.

A JOC Unit Price Book should also be locally researched and not be dependent upon localization factors.  The application of location factors typically does not account for the multiple variations within each labor, equipment, and material area.  For example, using location factors can result in 30%+ error in labor costs alone.

Can an “off-the-shelf” construction cost catalog be used as  JOC Unit Price Book?  Well, they certainly have been, and still are to this day.  The real question is whether or not doing so is a JOC best management practice.  The answer is a simple, NO.

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