Make sure that you and your company agree with the contract, if you don’t, change it.

Even if you have worked with the client before or know them well and they have previously been lenient on clauses, don’t count on that in the future.

The client PM may change or they may have a change of staff (who don’t know you).

They may be bought out or have control changed and be told to enforce contracts completely.

Your work should always be conducted as per the contract language.

Assume the client will want to enforce that (even if they don’t or haven’t in the past).

Tagged with: contract language • enforce

Filed under: Client • Contract

If your company is involved in site inspections, site supervision, or site management take lots of photos. Make sure to file these photos by name (location, item) and date.

Some of the important sets of photos I take are:

• Site conditions before the start of the project, and at the end of the project.
• Stages of construction.
• Any significant works
• Ground work
• Accidents
• Unsafe areas or work
• Ground conditions
• Influences on the project that cause delays.
• Detailed unusual or unfamiliar items (helps with design clarification).
• Reinforcement in concrete
• Damage to equipment, or buildings (especially if caused by client)

Ideally you should put together a collection of photos that tracks the project as it progresses.
Make it a regular scheduled activity.
Particularly take photos whenever you or your company have to witness something (e.g. placement of reinforcement).

Tagged with: photos • site inspection • site management • site supervision

Filed under: Quality

When buying specialty equipment, make sure the supplier can and will supply a complete system. If they do, take it. Avoid trying to save money by doing parts of it yourself, unless you have experience on that specific system and can guarantee it will be cheaper to do it separate to the supplied equipment.

Example: A polymer dosing system was bought as a package, but the company decided not to include the pumps and piping as part of the package from the supplier. This meant the company had to design the pump and piping system, and do installation themselves. They could have bought the whole package complete on a skid. This would have saved a lot of time and money.

If the supplier had supplied on a skid, they could have simply told the company the outer dimensions and connection points, saving a lot of design and installation time.

Get the supplier to include commissioning in their price. This may cost more than doing it yourself, but will save time and probably end up costing less.

Tagged with: commissioning • package system

Filed under: Cost • Procurement

Make sure to include a precedence clause in the specifications.

You should define which documents or sections take precedence. That way if there are errors or conflicts, one will take precedent.

Don’t put detail of the same work in more than one place. It is better to not repeat the same information but a precedence clause should still be put in place.

As the project manager, you should also be aware of the precedence in documents you have received from the client.

Tagged with: conflicts • errors • precedence • specifications

Filed under: Contract • Documentation

Make sure drawings have cautionary notes for areas of potential conflict (e.g. electrical wiring near nail fasteners).

Tagged with: conflict • drawings

Filed under: Design

Get agreement on the final designs with subcontractors before submitting them to the client.

You need subcontractor buy-in to the design. This gives you the opportunity to confirm they can actually construct it, and gives them the opportunity to support you in your delivery to the client.

Tagged with: buy-in • subcontractor

Filed under: Contractors • Design