In 2015, the firm set its sights high to better leverage the pool of talent and our geographies across the company.  The result?  We established Regional Design Centers to serve the global reach of CH2M and introduced a Global Design Production Center (GDPC) in Poland.  

In 2016, the Poland GDPC swiftly became CH2M’s largest and most utilized design center.  Since the start, they have shared many noteworthy accolades and wins.  

  • Invested in developing capabilities and an efficient delivery model that helped achieve the firm’s strategic goals.  This led to some major project wins and to consolidating our global competitive advantage.  
  • Successfully delivered 400,000 client hours of engineering and design work, working on more than 400 projects around the world serving all of our business lines.  
  • The number of offices served from Poland has grown rapidly in the last year, with offices such as Houston, Sydney, and Calgary executing projects with the GDPC for the first time.  

 The overall success of the GDPC was delivered by an excellent team and the proper organization of work in partnership with client sectors.  In addition, international cooperation worked best when the project teams embraced the Krakow engineers and designers as part of their teams.  These factors led to improved competitiveness in our markets; positive feedback; and, ultimately, follow-on work with delighted clients using the GDPC.

“The client was impressed with the work the Krakow team performed, and this has led to their willingness and desire to see us utilize the GDPC on all projects for them going forward,” says Private Sector Manager of Projects Paul Fullam.  “The GDPC team was on time for all deliverables.  Their output, in my opinion, surpassed all expectations from the project leadership at the project outset.” 

“I was impressed with Krakow GDPC’s knowledge and technical ability on the project.  The design team had a great understanding of the piping requirements for the HEC dryer building.  They worked very diligently on the job and had quick turnaround.  Overall, it was a great experience working with the Krakow team, and I look forward to working with them in the future,” says Project Manager Keith Black, Private Client Sector.

In terms of growth, the GDPC staff population nearly tripled in size in 2016 and now constitutes a team of over 450 architects, engineers, and designers, including the integration of the established team from Warsaw.  A growing number of staff, specific project demands, and workplace and client security standards required moving to a larger office.  In the fall of 2016, the Krakow team moved from five temporary offices to the new CH2M Center in Krakow.  Located near the city center, with a stunning view of the Vistula River and the Royal Wawel Castle, the office holds more than 900 colleagues from both GDPC and Global Shared Services Center, and has the capacity to add up to 1,300 team members.

To expand the CH2M global design centers network, in 2017 the GDPC is expected to integrate the India design team into the GDPC organization as a second location for a GDPC in the enterprise.  This will bring even greater capacity and capability to the firm as demand for global design services continues to grow.  Poland and India will collaboratively work and coordinate resources for our Client Sectors.

“I am really proud of the achievements of our team in 2016,” says GDPC Operations Director Jonathan Billings.  “With the help of specialists and design leads from other CH2M locations, the team achieved most of our targets for the year, including:  recruiting almost 300 new team members, transitioning to the new CH2M Center, developing new service offerings, integrating new joiners, rolling out training and development plans, implementing new workflows, while also delivering 400,000 work hours on live projects.  I believe we now have a solid base for high quality and cost-effective design delivery.” 

One of the most successful achievements for GDPC Poland was obtaining the ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004, and OHSAS 18001:2007 certifications.  Implementation and following policies, procedures, and processes ensured positive recommendation and complimentary feedback from the BSI Auditors.  In addition to this recent quality achievement, the Poland center has already welcomed several of our client sector leads and customers for site visits and CH2M-hosted events, such as the 2016 JuMP Poland Conference.