The Issued for Construction (IFC) drawings are sets of detailed design drawings prepared by the Design Consultant and are an integral part of the Contract Documents which also include specifications, bill of quantity or schedule of values, contract agreement, general conditions, and special conditions.
Under the FIDIC conditions of contract, clause 6.1 requires that either before or with the Order to Commence or Notice to Proceed (NTP), the Contractor shall receive 2 sets of working drawings and documents stamped “FOR CONSTRUCTION” free of charge. Such drawings must be sufficient to allow the Contractor to commence the works on the site per the approved project schedule; if this is not possible, the Order to Commence or Notice to Proceed (NTP) must be withheld until this can be done.
Contract drawings may be issued in stages provided that site activities would not be interrupted or disrupted. The Engineer shall issue the drawings within a reasonable time according to Clause 6.3 of the FIDIC Conditions of the Contract. Failure to do so by the Engineer may result in extra cost and/or time granted to the Contractor.
During the progress of the works, it may be necessary, from time to time, to issue further drawings or instructions to the Contractor as in Clause 7.1 of the FIDIC Conditions of Contract. If so, these will be also stamped “FOR CONSTRUCTION”. Those drawings would supersede earlier versions of the same issued drawings. The issuing of drawings, or further drawings and documents is to be strictly controlled and recorded by the Engineer.
The issue of further drawings or instructions must be coordinated with the Contractor’s actual progress on site. A record is to be kept of the earliest probable date of use, i.e., ordering of material or constructing the works included in these documents. Claims associated with the late issuance of such drawings or instructions are a continual source of disputes and a contemporary record may prove to be invaluable in establishing the validity of such allegations.
Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) solutions like PMWeb helps in managing the business process for the Issued for Construction (IFC) contract documents and subsequent issuance of revisions. PMWeb drawing list module will be used to maintain a record of every single contract drawing or document along with all revisions made on the drawing or document. The actual drawing or document file can be attached to each entry to enable the PMWeb user to view the document. The attached document can be also set to be displayed on the drawing list template.
PMWeb drawing set module will be used to select the drawings or other contract documents captured in the drawings list module for which they need to be sent to the Contractor. PMWeb allows linking those drawings and contract documents to the drawing set module.
Although the set of Issued for Construction (IFC) drawings and documents can be done directly from the drawing sets module, nevertheless, it is highly recommended this submission be done using the Transmittal business process. PMWeb transmittal module will be used to link the drawing set and transmit it to the Contractor as per the pre-defined procedure.
An output form can be created for the transmittal template to include the information that needs to be communicated to the Contractor. Those could also include the workflow tasks status among others. The output can be designed and branded in any desired format.
The transmittal output form will have a link to the drawings and contract documents list included in the drawing set module. Again, the output form can be designed in any desired form or format with the option to hyperlink to the transmitted drawings and contract documents.
Similar to all other business processes managed in PMWeb, the project team can attach all supportive documents to each drawing list, drawing set, or transmittal template. It is highly recommended to add details to each attached document to better explain what is being attached and viewed to the reader. In addition, links to other relevant transactions or records of other business processes managed in PMWeb can be also added.
It is also highly recommended that all those supportive documents, regardless of their type or source, get uploaded and stored on the PMWeb document management repository. PMWeb allows creating folders and subfolders to match the physical filing structure used to store hard copies of those documents. Permission rights can be set to those folders to restrict access to only those users who have access to do so. In addition, PMWeb users can subscribe to each folder so they can be notified when new documents are uploaded or downloaded.
To enforce transparency and accountability in managing drawings lists, drawing sets, and transmittals, a workflow needs to be added to the template to map the submit, review and approve tasks, role or roles assigned to each task, task duration, task type, and actions available for the task. The workflow can be configured to include the approval authority levels as set in the Delegation of Authority (DoA) document.
When a transaction of any of those business processes is submitted for review and approval, the workflow tab available on the template will capture the planned review and approve workflow tasks for each transaction as well as the actual history of those review and approval tasks. The captured workflow data will include the actual action data and time, done by who, action taken, comments made, and whether team input was requested.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with 40-year service record providing project management, project controls services, and project management information systems to over 400 projects with a total value over US$ 400 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education, and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment, Hospitality, and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, Telecommunication, and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training, and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker on topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management, and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 40 years, he has lectured at more than 400 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America. He has written more than 600 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He was a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA, and London Business School, London, UK.