Design-Build Scope by Discipline

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An owner’s Design-Build Statement of Work (SOW) is organized by discipline, not by CSI division. When you estimate a manufacturing plant DB project, you are pricing a discipline structure — and missing an entire discipline’s scope (or the engineering-vs-construction split within it) is how DB estimates blow up. This page is the reusable scope spine for decomposing an owner SOW into a priceable estimate.

The core pattern: Every discipline on a manufacturing DB project carries two scopes — an Engineering deliverable (design, drawings, specs, RFQs) and a Construction deliverable (the physical work). An estimator who prices the construction and forgets the engineering — or vice versa — has a gap. Owner SOWs make this explicit by listing “Engineering” and “Construction” sub-headings under each discipline. Mirror that structure.

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The Seven Disciplines

Drawn from a real owner DB SOW (ConAgra Project Green Jay, greenfield frozen vegetable plant). The same seven appear on most F&B/CPG manufacturing DB projects.

Why Green Jay is the reference. Green Jay was a highly successful, well-executed Foth Design-Build and is treated as a gold-standard exemplar for manufacturing DB work — so its scope structure is the model to emulate, not just an arbitrary example. See foth (Documented Foth Projects).

1. Site / Civil / Environmental

Engineering: Environmental permits, surveys and title, civil/site plans (including FAA/airport approvals if applicable), stormwater analysis, process wastewater analysis (on-site and off-site), traffic impact, air permits, rezoning coordination, offsite intersection improvements. Construction: Grading, wetland remediation, stormwater drainage, on-site and offsite wastewater systems, drop lots / transportation savings infrastructure.

Cost-driver flags: process wastewater (lagoons, pre-treatment) is frequently underscoped; offsite improvements (intersections, utilities to the property line) are easy to miss; FAA/glare studies appear when the site is near an airport.

2. Architectural / Structural

Engineering: Structural drawings (plans, elevations, sections, details, schedules), foundations (footings, piers, floors), building steel (columns, beams, joists, decking, girts), miscellaneous steel (stairs, bollards, equipment platforms), room schedule/matrix, technical specs in the owner’s spec format. Construction: Footings, foundations, steel erection, interior/exterior walls, room finishes.

Cost-driver flags: the room schedule/matrix (Exhibit 10 pattern) defines wall/floor/ceiling finish, sanitation method, and refrigeration per room — it is the single most important architectural cost document. Owners often reserve shell space for future capacity (“20,000 SF building space only for future production with minimal sacrificial flooring and utilities”) — confirm whether that space is in your finish scope or just a slab.

3. Building MEP

Engineering: Mechanical (HVAC, domestic water, fire protection), electrical (power distribution through building infrastructure controls), plumbing (process and sanitary drains), specifications matrix per the owner format. Construction: HVAC, refrigeration, boiler, steam, hot and cold water systems, compressed air, domestic water, fire suppression, process and sanitary drainage, on-site wastewater. Commissioning and startup with MEP vendors. Operator/maintenance training during the CQV period.

Cost-driver flags: “Building MEP” and “Process Utilities” overlap — confirm which discipline carries refrigeration, steam, and CAS so they are priced once, not twice or zero times.

4. Process & Packaging Equipment — Mechanical & Electrical

Engineering: Equipment design basis, process flow diagrams, P&IDs, equipment layout drawings (plan/elevation/detail), master equipment lists, electrical power system drawings, control system / network architecture, 2D electrical layouts, electrical equipment lists. Develop equipment specs and RFQs for the owner to bid and procure. Construction: Major equipment installation, coordination with vendor installation activities, equipment electrical power distribution, network and controls integration not specific to equipment vendors. Commissioning/startup with equipment vendors. Operator/maintenance training.

Cost-driver flags: this is where the OFCI split lives (see below). The engineering firm writes the equipment RFQs and installs the equipment, but the owner purchases the process/packaging/material-handling equipment directly. Price the installation, integration, and engineering — NOT the equipment FOB cost.

5. Building & Process Utilities

Engineering: Utility design basis — ammonia refrigeration design, boiler, steam, hot/cold water, compressed air. Electrical power distribution through utility controls. Design for material-handling charging connectivity (quantity and power by owner). Construction: Refrigeration, boiler, steam, hot/cold water, compressed air. Commissioning/startup with utility vendors. Operator/maintenance training.

Cost-driver flags: on F&B frozen/refrigerated plants the ammonia (NH₃) refrigeration plant is often the single largest utility cost — engine room, evaporative condensers, screw compressors, recirculators, suction headers. See Food and Beverage for the whole-facility NH₃ architecture. Equipment-vendor specs routinely state “refrigeration valves, instrumentation and piping tie-ins by others” — that tie-in scope lands on this discipline and is frequently missed.

6. Equipment Installation

Engineering: Mechanical/electrical plans, isometrics, P&IDs, schedules for the specification and construction installation of process equipment and utility connections — vendor rigging and installation details, power distribution and controls integration per vendor-provided info, specs matrix. Construction: All equipment installation construction (rigging, setting, anchor, utility connections) per the equipment list. Remove/reinstall owner-refurbished components (e.g., corn cutters, cob saws). Commissioning/startup. Training.

Cost-driver flags: anchor/grout/setting and the last-10-feet utility drops to each machine are the most consistently under-counted items. Pad/feet installation methods (anchor → weld → epoxy-fill, or hygienic adjustable feet) carry a per-point cost on sanitary floors.

7. Controls & Automation

Engineering / Construction: Control software stack installation and configuration per owner standard server architecture (e.g., FactoryTalk Transaction Manager, View, Historian, VantagePoint, Network Manager, AssetCentre). License specs provided to owner for procurement. VM specifications. OT network architecture drawings (topology, BOM, IP addressing — public OT and private machine networks). Machines connect to zone enclosures before owner IDF switches.

Cost-driver flags: the controls software licenses are usually owner-procured (the engineering firm specs them); the integration labor is the contractor’s. The OT network hardware (managed switches between PLCs and SCADA) falls between the electrical sub and the integrator — confirm who owns it. See Controls and Automation Scope.

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The OFCI Split on F&B DB Projects

The most important structural feature of a CPG/F&B Design-Build SOW: the owner self-procures the major process, packaging, and material-handling equipment, and the engineering firm installs it.

Activity	Owner (OFCI / Owner Scope)	Engineering Firm (Foth)
Process equipment purchasing	✓	—
Packaging equipment purchasing	✓	—
Material handling equipment purchasing	✓	—
Writing equipment RFQs / specs	—	✓
Equipment installation (rigging, setting, utilities, controls integration)	—	✓
All site/civil/building/MEP/utilities engineering + construction	—	✓
Operator training, process CQV/startup	✓	— (supports during CQV)
Controls software licenses	✓ (procures)	— (specifies)

Estimating consequence: A naive estimate that prices the process/packaging equipment FOB cost into the contractor’s number double-counts the owner’s largest line. The contractor’s scope is engineering + installation + integration + building/site/utilities — the equipment FOB belongs to the owner’s separate procurement. Confirm this split for every equipment package before pricing. See MUCE for how the OFCI designation is carried per line, and Owner Project Costs for how owner-procured equipment sits in Total Project Investment.

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How to Use This in an Estimate

1. Build the cost breakdown by discipline first, then map to CSI/MUCE tabs — the owner thinks in disciplines, so scope-completeness is easiest to verify in the same structure they wrote.
2. For each discipline, confirm both the Engineering and the Construction scope are priced. A missing engineering deliverable (e.g., the process wastewater design) is as much a gap as missing construction.
3. Run the OFCI split for every equipment package — price installation/integration, not FOB, where the owner procures.
4. Cross-check against the referenced spec library — each referenced owner spec (sanitary construction, passivation, refrigeration, controls, acceptance) is binding scope and a cost driver.
5. Hand off to Scope Misses Checklist for the sector-specific gap audit before submission.

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Related Pages

• Scope Misses Checklist — gap audit after discipline decomposition
• Controls and Automation Scope — Discipline 7 in depth
• Owner Project Costs — where owner-procured (OFCI) equipment sits in total investment
• Food and Beverage — F&B-specific discipline cost drivers and NH₃ refrigeration
• FAT SAT and Line Acceptance — acceptance/CQV scope across disciplines
• foth — Foth DB delivery model; MUCE — per-line OFCI/discipline structure

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