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“Uncertainty-noise” Le Mans
21
Acoustique
&
Techniques n° 40
The French acoustical consulting market
The French market of acoustical consultancy is rather new.
Until about 1990, he was dominated by a small numbers of
acoustical “gourous”. In the early nineties the actors have
tried to organize themselves around the GIAc (Groupement de
l’Ingénierie Acoustique) which represents now the profession
in “official” French organizations like government or official
instances dealing with acoustics, AFNOR working groups, ….
The GIAc represented 80 independent consulting companies
in 2004 of about 400 persons and about 30 M
€
turnover. Six
companies had more than 10 persons. The estimation is that
the GIAc represents about 2/3 of the independent acoustical
consulting independent engineers or companies.
Apart from representing the profession, the GIAc has also
internal working groups such as:
- Professional insurance: a special insurance contract has
been established in cooperation with an insurance company
taking into account the characteristics of the activity of the
members like transversal activities, immaterial damages, …
- Acoustical economy survey: 4 times a year the members give
(anonymously) economic data and tendencies and a synthesis
is given to the members.
- Technical meetings (“Rencontres de l’Ingénierie Acoustique”)
on acoustical subjects.
- etc.
The consulting acoustic market remains in France a very
small economic market with the characteristics of all of
“fragmented” market :
- Multiple sources of differentiation and changes (unstable
market),
- No durable competitive advantage possible,
- Low barriers at the entrance,
- Few “scale economies” possible,
- Flexibility,
- Uncertainty in terms of evolution.
That means that the acoustical consultant has to deal with
uncertain and unclear economical situations that he has to
overcome. He need to develop many capabilities such as
commercial, psychological, technical competence and
creativity.
The factors acting on acoustical
consulting work
To help him in taking the right decision, the acoustical consultant
has to take into account the TEA factors : the Technical factors
influencing his work (the acoustical consultant remains first
a technician), the Economical factors and the human Actors
influencing his work.
The various sources of uncertainties in
acoustic consultancy work
Marc Louwers
IMPEDANCE
80, domaine de Montvoisin
91400 Gometz la Ville
FRANCE
The acoustical consultant has to face various kinds of
parameters : technical but also human and economical.
Each of these 3 factors introduces uncertainties. The quality
of his work is when he succeeds in managing all of them
and offering the best acoustical solution taking into account
all the parameters. To do so he has different tools at his
disposal. Some of them are presented hereunder in the
classical 4 phases of the consultancy work.
Le consultant en acoustique doit faire face à plusieurs
paramètres qu’ils soient techniques , humains ou encore
économiques. Chacun de ces trois facteurs entraîne des
incertitudes. La qualité de son travail est reconnue lorsqu’il
arrive à gérer tous ces facteurs et à offrir la meilleure
solution acoustique en prenant en compte tous les
paramètres. Pour cela il a à sa disposition différents outils.
Certains d’entre eux sont présentés ici au travers des quatre
phases habituelles du travail de consultant.