#submittals

A submittal is a construction document, or a document stack that consist of various contract documents like product data samples, mock-ups, shop drawings, and more. Contractors and Subcontractors need to create these documents for review by the concerned architect or engineer. It is not easy to prepare these documents as it takes in a lot of time and analysis to study each facet of the project process.  Project engineers are responsible to review the submittal log, forward them to the concerned personnel, note the approvals and return them back for editing or changes. Submittal Management or Submittal Management Services are vital for construction personnel to initiate the project.

What is the starting point?

The basis of the construction process begins with plans and necessary specifications, these plans are drawings that are actually delivered through digital media, or on paper by various stakeholders like engineers, architects, and consultants. A project manual can turn into hundreds and thousands of pages that includes parameters like scheduling, project documentation, third party payment processes, and more. A plan is more of a visual presentation of a project that depicts a structure put together graphically.

Submittals, and who needs to do it.

Submittals are prepared by General Contractors and Subcontractors. Submittals are actual physical samples of the project that are to be delivered to architects, engineers, and various project consultants before a project actually begins. Construction Submittals include various document formats like meeting minutes, project information, shop drawings, etc. A project that comprises of multiple subcontractors can envelope hundreds, or even thousands of submittal documents. Furthermore, if owners and contractors look up to Submittal Management Services, they can easily get their work cut down by miles, and focus on various subject propositions that need to be accomplished during project progress.

Submittal types, and why each one is unique!  

Action Submittals –

As the word prescribes, Action Submittals are project data or multiple shop drawings that need to be verified by engineers and architects. If there are changes that need to be made in any of the action submittals, then are responded back to the contractor or subcontractor for rectifications. Now, there are ways these submittals are responded to, these can be designated with words like Approved, or Approved with Notes, Revise and Resubmit, or if the submittal is completely wrong, then it is marked as Rejected and sent back to the general contractor or subcontractor. Submittals can take a lot of time to get approval from various parties in the project. This was all about action submittals, wherein an action needs to be taken for construction submittals.

Information and Closeout Submittals

Information submittals are submittals that contain data, test reports, quality control, meeting minutes, and more. These submittals give out information to various parties informing them about the data that needs to be reviewed in those submittals, it serves as an information point for all stakeholders. Closeout submittals are created to inform all the parties and owners about maintenance and operations through requirement of extra assets like walls, floors, ceilings, etc.

Why are they so important in the initial phase?

Project teams need to streamline the entire process to anticipate major issues or ambiguities that can be confronted during actual onsite construction. This means, submittals are vital to mitigate issues between architects, designers, and builders to resolve problems behind the desk, rather than onsite.

Submittal Management Services follow five key parameters to achieve precise submittals. Study the info graphic to know more.

Key Submittal Elements

To sum up

Clear and concise submittals actually payoff in technicalities. A submittal review and approval procedure need to be managed efficiently for construction projects, old ways of storing various data in silos can cause heavy efficiency and productivity issues, leading to onsite disputes. Poor quality submittals can also mark questions on accountability, ability, and transparency of contractors and subcontractors on their submittal management services.

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Design teams, owners, and other stakeholders require supplemental information about project materials, components, equipment, etc. to be handed over before actual onsite installation begins. The review and approval process for these submittals isn’t just for an aesthetic purpose, but it serves as a critical component for project structural integrity. Contractors need to manage submittals and their approval process meticulously for people and teams to review and approve submittals for on-schedule project completion.

Incorrect submittal workflows can hit planned project costs, quality, and outcomes. These challenges need a collaborative construction management app like iFieldSmart Technologies to speed up and improve the review and approval process. It is common for project teams to question and exchange feedback during the submittal review process. iFieldSmart’s single-page dashboard streams everything inside a single view to make the process faster and more efficient for information exchange through cloud-based documentation.

Complex and large projects can give rise to hundreds or even thousands of unique submittals that require proactive management from project contractors. Depending on silo emails, excel worksheets, paper trails, etc. lead to large error margins, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies in submittals workflows.

Negative impacts of an inconsistent submittal process or workflow.

When correctly managed, submittals can aid in streamlined project outcomes, but incorrect management can lead to costly rework and project delays. Incorrect submittal management can make it longer for submittals to go through architects, subcontractors, owners, and other teams. These delays can cause a serious ripple effect for onsite activities due to a lack of information completeness including manufacturing delays, missed timelines, rescheduling activities, and other inconsistencies. Here are a few scenarios wherein wrong submittal workflows can go from mediocre to disastrous.

SCENARIO # 1

Commercial general contractors have a myriad of activities and responsibilities to handle. Forgetting to send a submittal for a type of concrete block beforehand can lead to errors. Inability to follow specifications mentioned in the spec book for concrete block types can lead to delays in the building of the roof structure. Reengineering and reinforcing the roof with concrete and rebar takes additional cost and time to rectify the error.

SCENARIO # 2

An Architect approves a submittal for materials related to project roofing, but it does not meet project requirements. The specs book clearly mentioned this was not the material to be applied to components for projects near ocean areas. Warranty exclusions set by the manufacturer could include material corrosion, environmental loads, scratching paintwork, etc. The architect’s negligence resulted in severe component failure leading to corrosion. In this scenario, the general contractor is not to blame as all the proper steps were followed based on initial submittal protocols and documentation.

Both scenarios showcase an inaccurate and inconsistent workflow as the first scenario depicted lousy submittals sharing, whilst the second one depicted wrong submittal approvals that did not meet project requirements.

How iFieldSmart Technologies supports improvements in Submittal Workflows.  

§  Submittals are created in quick and easy steps with required submittal parameters

§  Submittals are sent for approval to concerned parties through distribution lists

§  Submittal approval takes place

§  Submittals are shared and managed on the iFieldSmart app dashboard

A cloud-based and collaborative platform provided by iFieldSmart Technologies delivers preemptive and secure access to online documents with metadata. This supports general contractors with improved documentation and accountability. With each submittal shared within the iFieldSmart dashboard, teams and stakeholders can comment and collaborate with multiple teams. Moreover, general contractors can avoid unnecessary financial overruns with mitigated submittal errors.

Schedule a quick demo to create and manage submittals quickly and efficiently.

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Get the ball rolling faster than ever

When people want something, they want it right away. However, construction is a process full of red-tape, delays and waiting on information from other people. We completely redesigned the project setup process to make your construction life even easier.  We distilled down project setup to filling in a simple excel-like spreadsheet with your project budget.  Even more we installed brand new functionality that allows the customer to COPY AND PASTE data from Excel into the BuildingBlok preliminary budget spreadsheet.

Cut and paste your contract names from an excel spreadsheet to begin setting up your budget. Once you assign those contracts to companies, those subcontractors can begin creating and submitting RFIs and submittals.

Next, paste in contract values to open our full suite of financial construction documents. Doing so will allow the subcontractors to create invoices, payment applications, and change orders - all of which are tracked in the system so you can see your project financial picture in real time.

Construction is hard work. Setting up your project and getting started should be quick and easy. Copy and paste your budget, assign your contracts, and let your subcontractor create construction documents IN the system instead of EMAILING or MAILING you their documents, and you entering them in a tracking system. 

Today I learned (re-learned actually, but it's been a while since I did CA) a number of things about reviewing submittals.

I re-learned the numerical format we use for filing submittals: X-Y-Z, where X is the number of submittals that we've had on a given spec section number, Y is the spec section number, and Z is the revision number of that particular submittal.

I learned that 15375 is the MasterFormat section number for Standpipe & Hose Systems (under the pre-2004 MasterFormat system, which we are still using.)