Planning the investment budget for factory construction requires investors to strictly control costs from the project preparation stage. Fluctuations in material prices, changes in fire prevention and fighting regulations, and the specific technology requirements of each industry cause significant differences in technical dossier preparation costs. Proactively updating the latest factory design quotation helps businesses accurately plan initial investment cash flow, optimize usable space, and shorten legal preparation time.
Accompanying investors, BIC provides comprehensive construction design solutions with transparent costs, creating a solid technical foundation for the general construction contractor to implement the building safely, on schedule, and with optimized long-term operating costs.
Forecasting the construction design budget plays a decisive role in shaping the total infrastructure investment cost. Design dossier preparation costs usually account for only 1% to 3% of the initial investment budget, but they influence more than 80% of total construction costs and later factory operating costs. At BIC, we always make unit prices and solution packages transparent to support investors in optimizing cash flow from the preparation stage.
The unit price for technical dossier preparation depends on floor area and the building’s actual intended use. Buildings with complex technical requirements, such as cleanroom integration, heavy machinery operation, or strict fire safety regulations, require a higher engineering workload. Below is the latest factory design service unit price table updated by BIC (Check prices):
|
Industrial building type |
Floor area scale (m²) |
Design unit price (VND/m²) |
|
Goods storage warehouse, simple pre-engineered factory |
From 1,000 to 3,000 |
40,000 to 60,000 |
|
From 3,000 to 10,000 |
30,000 to 50,000 |
|
|
Over 10,000 |
25,000 to 40,000 |
|
|
Mechanical production factory, processing factory combined with office |
From 1,000 to 3,000 |
60,000 to 90,000 |
|
From 3,000 to 10,000 |
50,000 to 75,000 |
|
|
Over 10,000 |
40,000 to 60,000 |
|
|
Multi-storey factory, food factory, pharmaceutical factory, cleanroom |
From 1,000 to 3,000 |
90,000 to 140,000 |
|
From 3,000 to 10,000 |
75,000 to 110,000 |
|
|
Over 10,000 |
60,000 to 90,000 |
To best serve the project management needs of each investor, BIC provides flexible service packages that precisely meet schedule and work scope requirements:
|
Service package |
Work items included in the dossier |
Suitable for |
|
Basic Architecture and Structure Package |
Layout planning, architectural design, foundation structural calculation, and pre-engineered steel frame design. |
Investors with their own MEP technical team or simple warehouse buildings. |
|
Synchronized Technical Package (Full MEP) |
Includes the basic package combined with the design of electrical systems, water supply and drainage, ventilation, and technical infrastructure. |
Manufacturing businesses that require high accuracy before inviting construction bids. |
|
Turnkey Legal and Construction Package |
Technical dossier, environmental report preparation, construction permit application, and fire protection approval. |
Investors who want to optimize time and assign turnkey responsibility to a professional unit. |
In addition to technical drawing costs, investors need to prepare a budget for surveys and mandatory legal procedures before construction begins:
- Geotechnical and topographic survey costs: Costs range from VND 15,000,000 to VND 40,000,000 depending on the number of boreholes and soil exploration depth. These are mandatory data for engineers to calculate a safe foundation solution.
- Fire protection design approval costs: These include consulting fees for fire and explosion safety solutions, dossier preparation and submission, and appraisal fees according to state regulations. The fee level depends on area and the fire and explosion risk classification of the industry.
- Environmental Impact Assessment Report preparation costs: These average from VND 80,000,000 to VND 200,000,000 depending on wastewater volume, exhaust emissions, and the factory’s discharge scale into the industrial park.
The difference in unit price between a standard warehouse and a high-tech factory comes from the amount of technical calculation required. A goods storage warehouse mainly focuses on a large-span steel frame system and a flat, load-bearing floor solution, while its MEP configuration is relatively simple.
In contrast, food production factories or electronic component factories require the design of central air-conditioning systems, room pressure control, dust barriers, and wastewater treatment systems that meet strict discharge standards. The need to coordinate multiple technical disciplines at the same time extends the research time of architects and engineers, which increases the dossier preparation unit price.
The cost of preparing a construction design dossier is not fixed. It varies according to many technical parameters and actual project requirements. Understanding these factors helps investors proactively negotiate and control budgets effectively.
Floor area scale is the first factor affecting unit price. Projects with a total construction area of tens of thousands of square meters will have a significantly lower unit price per square meter than small-scale projects under 2,000 square meters. This is because the consulting unit can optimize fixed management costs and specialized staffing.
However, if the overall building density is high and requires many auxiliary work items such as parking areas, transformer stations, underground water tanks, internal roads, and green areas, the volume of detailed drawings will increase, causing the total consulting cost to be adjusted accordingly.
Steel frame structure and foundations determine the durability of the building. Factories that install heavy machinery, mechanical stamping lines, or high-bay racking systems require reinforced concrete floors capable of carrying static and dynamic loads from 2 to 10 tons per square meter.
BIC structural engineers must calculate detailed pile foundation reinforcement, raft foundation solutions, and complex floor beam systems. In addition, selecting large-span steel frame column spacing from 30 to 40 meters to create open production space also requires complex deflection and horizontal displacement calculations, increasing drawing preparation time.
The MEP system acts as the operational bloodstream of the factory. The higher the technical requirements of the manufacturing industry, the larger the proportion of factory MEP design costs in the total consulting cost.
For example, a GMP-standard pharmaceutical factory or semiconductor manufacturing plant requires the design of a central chiller air-conditioning system, high-pressure compressed air station, HEPA filtration system, and pure water supply network. The high density of pipelines requires absolute precision in calculation to avoid spatial conflicts during on-site installation.
Time is a key factor in industrial real estate investment. Many investors face pressure to hand over premises to partners or put the factory into operation early to meet export orders, leading to requests to shorten the factory design dossier preparation time by half compared with the normal schedule.
To meet this requirement, BIC must mobilize multiple engineering teams to work overtime simultaneously and apply special working procedures. Concentrating a high level of manpower in a short period increases management costs, causing service quotations to be adjusted upward.
A complete construction design dossier implemented by BIC not only fully meets legal standards, but also effectively supports construction execution and cost control by the general construction contractor.
The architectural dossier acts as the guiding framework that shapes the space and aesthetics of the entire building:
- Master layout planning: Accurately shows land boundaries, building orientation, the location of the main factory, office block, cafeteria, parking area, security gate, transformer station, and fire protection water tank. The planning solution ensures one-way traffic flow and fully separates truck routes for incoming raw materials, outgoing finished goods, and dedicated worker pathways.
- Detailed architectural drawings: These include detailed floor plans, building elevations, longitudinal sections, and cross sections. They clearly show insulated panel partition solutions, three-layer heat-resistant metal roofing, industrial roller doors, emergency exits, and natural light louver solutions that help reduce lighting electricity consumption.
The structural dossier ensures the building’s load-bearing capacity and stability against external impacts:
- Foundation solution drawings: These detail reinforced concrete pile foundations, isolated footings, or strip foundations based on actual geotechnical survey data. They also include detailed calculation of grade beams and industrial machine foundations subject to dynamic loads.
- Pre-engineered steel frame drawings: These show steel column sections, steel rafters, roof purlins, wall girts, column bracing, and roof bracing systems. They also detail column base anchor bolts, rafter peak connection bolts, and key load-bearing details.
- Industrial concrete floor drawings: These include floor reinforcement layouts, concrete thickness, locations of expansion joints and thermal joints, and surface hardening solutions using hardener finishing or chemical-resistant epoxy coating for forklift loads.
MEP and fire safety systems determine safe operating conditions for the factory:
- Power supply and lighting systems: Drawings include low-voltage transformer stations, main switchboards, distribution boards, cable ladder systems, power supply networks for machinery, and energy-saving lighting systems that meet required lux standards.
- Ventilation and HVAC systems: These include roof exhaust fans, sidewall ventilation fans, fresh air duct systems, workshop cooling fans, and central air-conditioning systems serving production areas or cleanrooms.
- Water supply and drainage and waste treatment systems: These include production water supply pipelines, domestic water supply, high-capacity stormwater drainage, and a centralized industrial wastewater treatment station that meets environmental standards.
- Fire prevention and fighting system: Drawings include the automatic fire alarm network, sprinkler heads, wall-mounted fire hose reels, high-capacity fire pump station, fire barriers, and surge protection system protecting the entire building.
The detailed BOQ prepared by BIC provides maximum financial transparency for investors:
- Material quantity takeoff: A detailed schedule lists excavation quantities, concrete volume, reinforcement, structural steel weight, roofing sheet area, number of lighting fixtures, and MEP pipeline lengths.
- Detailed cost estimate: Material, labor, and construction machinery unit prices are applied according to actual market fluctuations. This cost estimate is a powerful tool that helps investors proactively manage budgets, easily compare quotations from construction units, and use it as the basis for signing a turnkey contract with the general construction contractor.
Budget optimization does not mean reducing material quality or removing technical work items. Intelligent cost optimization lies in developing a reasonable factory design solution from the beginning and applying modern management technology.
An accurate design solution can help businesses save billions of VND in on-site construction costs:
- Selecting reasonable column spacing and roof slope: Calculating steel frame column spacing from 8 meters, 9 meters, to 12 meters helps optimize the number of steel columns and truss weight, reducing steel quantity per square meter of floor area while still ensuring load-bearing capacity.
- Standardizing technical details directly on drawings: Drawings with complete and accurate connection details help on-site workers execute work quickly, minimizing modifications, dismantling, or rework caused by unsynchronized drawings.
BIC applies Building Information Modeling, or BIM, to improve dossier quality and control project risks:
- Visual three-dimensional modeling: BIM technology reconstructs the entire building as a three-dimensional spatial model, helping investors easily observe, evaluate functionality, and adjust the solution before construction begins.
- Early detection of technical conflicts: The software automatically checks and detects a series of spatial clashes among fire protection pipes, air-conditioning ducts, and structural steel beams directly on the computer. Thoroughly resolving these conflicts at the drawing stage eliminates the risk of additional costs and on-site construction delays.
Choosing a turnkey Design and Build model from design to construction provides outstanding advantages in both finance and schedule:
- One single point of responsibility: BIC as the general construction contractor takes full responsibility from survey, drawing preparation, and legal permitting to complete construction and project handover. This saves investors management time and eliminates responsibility shifting between the design unit and construction unit.
- Cost optimization and commitment to no additional costs: Thanks to strong practical construction knowledge, BIC’s engineering team proposes feasible material solutions that align with the investor’s expected budget. We commit to a turnkey construction budget in the contract, helping businesses confidently manage investment cash flow.
- Shortening the total schedule by 15% to 25%: Thanks to synchronized coordination between the design office and on-site construction team, material preparation and foundation works can begin as soon as the basic drawings are approved, helping the building quickly enter commercial operation.
Updating the latest factory design quotation helps investors proactively manage cash flow and propose an effective investment plan. Investing properly in construction design from the beginning is the key to protecting building safety, reducing long-term operating costs, and facilitating fire protection approval as well as completion acceptance.
A high-quality technical drawing set not only optimizes production space, but also increases the industrial real estate asset value of the business. Partnering with a reputable general construction contractor like BIC helps investors own a modern building that optimizes functionality, meets committed completion targets, and is ready for future expansion goals.
