Construction Document Communication
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A look at communication methods used during an asset's project and maintenance phases...
Project Phase
During the construction/project phase, two primary forms of communication need to be handled.
General project communications
There are often points in a project where you must send a general project communication email to all relevant project stakeholders. In the past, most of these emails were sent from Outlook. While Outlook is a convenient tool everyone knows how to use, it presents several challenges when sending project broadcast emails.
Email overload: If you send a large broadcast email from Outlook with a number of people CC'd, by default, everyone is included in the reply loop. This can lead to an overwhelming amount of email traffic to everyone on the email thread and network traffic delays.
Error-prone: When you manually draft the contact list in Outlook, it's simple to loop in people you didn't mean to accidentally. This results in people not being involved in the project receiving the information they shouldn't or, on the flip side, people on the project not receiving information that they need to see.
Time-consuming: With this method, you need to create this broadcast list every time you send an email to the project group. This may be insignificant for smaller projects but can really add up with larger projects that may span months or even years.
Lunr's Signal module addresses these challenges with its project broadcast tool. Project broadcasts allow you to send a broadcast email to all project members. They are also accessible on the project dashboard and enable comment-based discussion.
Document communications
Document communication emails are triggered automatically on the relevant workflow steps. For example, when a document is submitted for review or approval, the reviewer group receives an automated email notification to action the request. Escalations can then be set up on these emails to remind reviewers/approvers at a specified interval after the initial email. This eliminates the requirement for manual follow-up by document controllers and avoids running into project bottlenecks on review and approval.
RFI (Request for Information)
The Training Industry defines an RFI as:
A standard business process used by customers to collect written information regarding the capabilities of various suppliers, which will better inform buying decisions.
Signal allows you to create an RFI, optionally attach documents from the Lunr repository, and specify either an optional or mandatory response by the RFI response due date. Like most artefacts in the Lunr repository, RFIs are enabled for commenting for all RFI members. This ensures that all stages of the RFI process are kept inside the system, improving searchability and transparency.
Asset/maintenance phase
At the end of the project, the as-constructed documents are handed over to the asset owner or maintenance team. There is some overlap with the project phase in that document workflow email notifications are also relevant for maintenance document revisions. However, some communication types are unique to this phase.
Document repository broadcasts
Some broadcast emails are relevant to all members of a document repository. As with project broadcasts, repository broadcasts are delivered as an email but also feature as an announcement on the main repository dashboard.
Engineering/Asset document standards update: Each time a standard policy is revised, you generally want everyone involved in the repository to know about it to ensure the drawings can be delivered to the new standard as early as possible.
System updates: It's also helpful to inform people when major system updates are coming. This could be something as simple as adding a new discipline to the tag list or something more major like a new system feature or planned outage.
Asset archive: These kinds of emails are typically sent when an entire folder in the repository is going to be archived due to an asset being made obsolete.
Document reminders: Certain documents need to be reviewed and updated at certain intervals. One example is a license that is renewed annually. With document reminders, users can subscribe to be notified that a document should be reviewed and updated annually. Optionally, users can choose to automatically add the document to their to-do list for edit when the interval is reached.
Construction projects are becoming increasingly complex, and the demands on document control departments are higher than ever. In today's project environment, managing project collaboration with a duct-taped system of spreadsheets and Outlook is not feasible. Lunr allows you to tame this process and get your project and asset communications back under control.
