Construction Documents Quality in design management is the Seventeenth article of a series. Articles about design management in architecture practice. I have discussed in the previous articles what is design management, who is the design manager in practice. Also, firm or project design management plan, what are the key functions of a design management plan in practice? In addition, what needs to be managed in architecture firm? This article is the twelfth article on building and writing a design management plan.
What are construction documents?
Firms in the building industry use construction documents to realize a building project. They include drawings, specifications, Bills of quantities, and contracts. Architecture firms, construction companies, clients, and any relevant companies use them in their work. Here I will give a brief of the four former mentioned, showing examples and details from practice.
Construction drawings include architecture, structure, mechanical (AC-Plumbing-Fire fighting), Electrical, road network, and landscape drawings. Either one firm prepares them or several firms bond by a contract with one client.
Specifications include all the above disciplines’ components, materials, physical character, and strength. It includes defining their location in the building components. Such as doors, windows, concrete beams, drainage pipes, AC pipes, and landscape parts.
Bill of quantities is the table of all the building components quantities, either in M3 or M2 . The concrete structure, for example, quantities calculated by engineers in M3 . Architects calculate Doors as No of units. Air conditioning ducts calculated by AC engineers in RM, which means running meter.
Contracts include the main construction contract between the client, the construction company, and the architecture firm. The three parties either rely on a standard form or build it themselves. The contract includes clauses of dispute, clauses of payments, terms of payment, and procedure of payments and related process.
Construction documents quality safeguard the project completion as per the project management plan. It’s the tool that all parties ensure is highly efficient. The successful completion assures the client’s achievement of the project vision, goals, and ambition. Also, he reaches the targeted turnover from the capital invested in the building.
What are the important factors of the construction documents quality in practice?
To stand on these critical factors, I have divided them according to their relation to construction documents.
Construction drawings: When the contractor receives the construction drawings, he distributes them to every relevant discipline staff. The accuracy of the drawings governs the high quality of the shop drawings prepared. The construction company prepares them for execution on the project site. For example, the windows in the project must have shop drawings for accurate fixing on the site. The team – supervisors- in the site collect actual window site dimensions. They draw the windows as per the actual dimensions. The shop drawings include all window elements, sections, plans, and elevations. Also, connection details to adjacent building components.
The construction company-related team that prepared the shop drawings transfers the drawings to the factory. The factory staff will use the shop drawings to prepare the fabrication drawings. These drawings include every component in the window as per its section and dimensions for fabrication. The labor will prepare a table of all parts numbered as per the drawings. They will use these tables to group parts to ease assembly in the site.
Any inaccurate information from the construction drawings will lead to a massive loss in project money. Also, a delay in time of construction and leads to disputes and fines.
Specifications: they govern the overall accurate form of the building to match the architectural design. Any discrepancies between the construction drawings and specs will lead to the preparation of building components that do not match the building design. Accordingly, that will cause a loss of material, money, project time, and delay in completion. In addition, rework of drawings and specs from both sides, the design firm and the construction company. For example, if the window component’s spec dimensions and sections do not match the construction drawings will lead to total corruption in the whole process.
Bill of quantities: the accuracy of building component quantities governs the smooth operations of the construction activities on the project site. For example, granite quantities for building facades, if not calculated accurately, will cause problems. An engineer must add an extra amount to cover cutting and wastage during the preparation of the granite pieces. If he doesn’t include this, an extra cost on this item will appear in the end. Accordingly, the ceramic tiles will require an extra amount of cutting for edges, and end pieces will also cause extra cost. Other items also follow the same principle.
Contracts: the construction contract between the client and the construction company must consider one critical matter, the dispute matters.Also, how to refer to an external company or FIDIC. Many factors affect the project budget on both sides of the client and the construction company. Delays, extra costs, changes in project components, and changes in specifications. Also, stops in the construction timeline must be covered by the contract.
The most important factor in the successful delivery of construction documents that leads to the effective completion of project construction activities is information transfer between all disciplines.
construction documents quality delivery in practice.
Meetings scheduled between the client and the architecture firm are the pillar for the successful delivery of construction documents. Keeping the client informed about the project’s progress and development is very important to keep data and information transferred to all involved parties in the project. Meetings between all the related project disciplines govern the accuracy of preparing construction documents with high accuracy. Information of any progress and development in design matters must move to all involved parties – client and firm project-related staff- weekly or as per schedule. The client wants to know how the project is going and how his budget and goals from it will be realized. Any changes that will affect the cost will affect building specifications, components, and final form.
On the other hand, the architecture firm must know within the project progress timeline the client’s views about the project design. In this case, the architecture firm will know what the client’s actions are related to any design matter that might require extra work or changes in building systems. For that, the architecture firm might need to reschedule the design work asking for more time. The architecture firm might need more staff to relocate to this project. Or the firm might need to outsource the work to another sub-consultant for fast delivery and completion. These activities will need extra time from management, administration, and finance.
The construction company preferably to be involved before the final stages of the design activities. The construction company when asked for bidding for the project will take all the documents and study and analyze them in detail. The construction company will for Any discrepancies, unmatched information, or missing information pass a full report to the firm for action.
The design manager must consider various matters when preparing the design management plan. From the inception information about the project from the client and related bodies must be registered and transferred smoothly to the project team. A full schedule of meetings from inception to final stage of project design must be identified. Full team from all disciplines to attend these meetings and to define the proper staff for meetings. The process of the final report and comments after handing over construction documents on bidding must be transferred to all disciplines.
Also, other related articles you can find in these links 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16
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