Owner's Representative Engineering for a Biopharmaceutical Expansion
Confidential Client | Hillsboro, OR
Project Overview
A global biopharmaceutical manufacturer is expanding its fill-finish campus through two concurrent capital projects covering five new buildings and two building modifications. Harris Group serves as the client's multidiscipline Owner's Representative, working as an extension of its corporate and site engineering teams to review work from the engineer of record, contractors, and equipment suppliers. Our scope includes:
Process, Mechanical HVAC, Plumbing/Piping, Electrical and Controls, Structural, and Fire Protection review
Design review of GMP manufacturing and process equipment, building infrastructure, and plant and clean utilities
Review of flow diagrams, equipment and line lists, long-lead specifications, cost estimates, change requests, and schedules
Compliance support for corporate and site standards, FDA requirements, and EU Annex 1
The Challenge
The client needed experienced, responsive oversight across two large projects running on overlapping timelines, from conceptual design through construction into 2029.
Two projects, shifting peaks. Each project and each discipline hits its busiest periods at different times, so a fixed staffing plan would leave some reviews understaffed and others overstaffed.
Limited internal bandwidth. The client's own engineering team, especially in electrical and controls, didn't have the capacity to keep pace with review cycles on its own.
Competing standards. Site standards, the parent company's global standards, and the engineer of record's specifications didn't always line up, and someone needed to reconcile them consistently across both projects.
Our Approach
One point of accountability. A single Resource Manager owns scope, performance, schedule, and budget across both projects and serves as the one contact for the client and the engineer of record.
A Driver and Navigator in every discipline. Each discipline has a senior lead engineer shared across both projects, backed by a support engineer. That pairing keeps standards consistent, covers absences, and adds surge capacity without new mobilization.
Standards experts and a local team. Our process engineers train the team on corporate and site standards and quality-check work across all disciplines. A Portland-based team provides same-day site access and face-to-face coordination.
Results
Simpler coordination. The client works with one accountable contact instead of managing reviewers discipline by discipline.
Consistency and efficiency. Shared lead engineers apply standards the same way on both projects, cutting training time and overhead while keeping dedicated coverage for each.
No surprises. Weekly reports, monthly summaries, and an early warning within five business days of any forecasted overrun, always paired with a recovery plan, keep the client ahead of issues instead of reacting to them.
