February 2008

Bill Booth IBG President Selected to Join New York Police Department
Training Center Value Engineering Team

Bill Booth, President of Interact Business Group, was selected to participate in the NYPD Training Center Value Engineering Team in a series of workshops for their newly proposed consolidated training center.

The NYC Office of Management and Budget (OMB) organized and managed the Value Engineering Team (VE) for the (NYPD). In April 2007, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the Police Department´s training academy, shooting range and driver training facility will be consolidated and moved to a campus to be built in College Point, Queens; replacing the inadequate Manhattan facility that opened in 1964.

Experts from several disciplines were selected to participate in a workshop consisting of an iterative value engineering process reviewing the proposed space program based on functional space areas, class delivery logistics and operational efficiencies.  Team members reviewed key elements of the training center project and were asked to generate creative ideas for improvement.

The basic phases of each functional space review included:

1. Information:  background discussion as to usage, hours, staffing, student population, special spaces or equipment needs

2. Function Analysis:  identify and list all required functions to be provided within the programmed spaces

3. Creative Phase:  revisions or alternatives are identified to improve the performance of the facilities or spaces to perform their intended functions

4. Judgment:  Creative ideas are evaluated as to acceptability and project impact.  Those with the highest rankings will be incorporated into the final recommendations.

5. Development:  Ideas receiving highest rankings are recorded and those requiring formal development as major ideas are recommended for future development.

The value engineering process conducted by NYC OMB is a team approach that analyzes a function by systematically developing the answers to such questions as:

• What is it?
• What does it do?
• What must it do?
• What does it cost?
• What other materials or methods could be used to do the same job without sacrificing required performance or degradation to safety, reliability or maintainability?

Value engineering is concerned with elimination or modification of anything that adds cost without contributing to the program´s functional requirements.

Interact Business Group is the recognized national expert for the development of strategic/business plans for the public safety training community. The Interact process is unique. It is a product of years of research and successfully completed projects.

President Bill Booth says, "We have engineered plans for small departments to large governmental multi-municipalities. Each individual process is a collection of activity segments that when completed constitutes an exclusive strategic/business plan. Our unique process provides a roadmap for public safety training agencies to navigate successfully to their goal."

Contact Points:

We Write Strategic/Business Plans
for Public Safety Training Centers

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