Scheduling And Grouping Design Decisions
Design Decisions
When to make them. How to delegate them.
Ages ago I found an article describing when design decisions should be made to minimize re-work. The most interesting thing about the recommendations was how they had been broken down by the same 'assemblies' system that I had seen in RS Means.
Later I learned that this was the Uniformat system. What is unique about the Uniformat breakdown of everything that goes into a building is that each division aligns with a whole group of related tasks. To some extent these divisions align with groups of drawing sheets, too. Bottom line: the Uniformat system, especially the older version, aligns with groups of responsibilities that you might want to delegate to team members so they won't be stepping on each others toes, or having a lot of coordination to do.
The table below is the way we documented the article to make it concise and accessible.
Not every Uniformat division can stand completely alone. Here I have tagged each division with a group letter ID to show which are best to keep together, and also describe the sheets that go with that group of divisions. Of course, coordination among all groups is necessary. However, if speed requires everything to move forward at once, this is a starting place for how you might assign multiple people to the job with a minimum of overlap.
Clearly group A has the most work and takes the lead in decision-making. Group A might consist of the project manager and/or principal and the project architect. Group B is very stand-alone, Group C is significant, but might be easily combined with Group D. Group E can stand alone or be folded into Group A. Group E doesn't even exist for one story buildings.
A - GENERAL Floor Plans
A - FOUNDATIONS AND SUBSTRUCTURE Coordination with in-house or consulting structural engineer
A - SUPERSTRUCTURE Coordination with in-house or consulting structural engineer
A - INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION Floor Plans, Reflected Ceiling Plans, Partition Types, Room Schedule, Door Schedule and Door Details, Interior Details, Enlarged Plans, Coordination with mechanical and electrical engineers
A - EQUIPMENT Schedules
B - SITE Site Plan and Site Details, Coordination with civil engineer
C - EXTERIOR CLOSURE Wall Sections, Exterior Details, Window Schedule
D - ROOFING Roof Plan, Roof Details, Coordination with mechanical and electrical engineers
E - VERTICAL CIRCULATION AND CONVEYING SYSTEMS Stair Plans, Stair Sections and Details, Elevator Plan, Section and Details, Coordination with structural engineer
F - MECHANICAL SYSTEMS by in-house or consulting engineer
G - ELECTRICAL AND LIGHTING SYSTEMS by in-house or consulting engineer