Value - Day 21 of 365

Sticking to my area of utilities with this one but hoping others see ways to apply the principals to the work they are doing as well.

For value today we will discuss redlines. Also called As-Builts, mark-ups, Job prints. I sat a number of times in the ESRI LUC meetings while this topic was under hot debate. Many ideas, thoughts, opinions. For todays discussion I am going to work to decouple the thoughts from the words and define some of the words in light of the workflows and work that needs to be accomplished I also will offer a novel solution to the issues at hand.

To initiate the discussion we are going to start with REDLINE: A completed marked up job packet returned from the field. The job has been constructed and no further field work is required. These jobs were typically marked up with a red ball point or felt tip pen leading to the name "Redline". Eventually some began to call them an "As-builts" or "As-Built Prints"

To not get overly lost in the discussion we will now shit focus on the completed job packet coming back into the office. For the purpose of the discussion today we will call it a Redline as we will be allocating the term "As-Built" to a later process.

The redline comes back to the office to be processed. At this point a few determinations need to be made. Are there any significant electrical, pressure, pairing changes that need to be addressed? If it was overhead work are there structural issues that need designer attention? If so then the job will need a designer to look at it to see if the changes made in the field have caused any lasting affect to the overall integrity of the network. (more on this at the end)

Minor material reconciliations can be handled by non designer personnel if so desired.

Simple spatial changes can be handled by the mapping group since many of the new design work programs make such work necessary already.

Why are As-Builts such a hotly contested issue? The need for better data to support ADMS and other systems is growing daily. It is believed that by getting designers to do their as-builts data will improve. Wait a minute. Aren't designers already doing their as-builts I hear you say. Yes and no, but mostly no. Many designers as more and more demands were made upon their time began to allow the shop clerks to "do" their as-builts. Except that clerks rarely knew enough or had the access to do a real as-built (determining if the changes made would harm the customer). These clerks were more than qualified to do material reconciliations to align material used with material designed. This is why there is such heated debate around As-Builts, what they are , and who should do them.

Most designers I have talked with will tell you they simply do not have the time to add doing As-Builts to their already overloaded schedules. However, as we have noted there are aspects of the design that only they can answer to. What can be done. We could hire more designers but even that would only be part of the issue. They would need training and time to grow into the role.

A new approach to consider. At this point the job is "complete". The material can reconciled. The mapping completed and the job closed for the books. WHAT ABOUT THE AS_BUILT you say?

Simple. Just as we can set triggers in the software to know there were changes requiring an as-built by a designer. We could also generate an as-built job to track that follow-up after the fact. Call it by the same job number and add a _AB at the end.

These jobs could then be assigned to new designers. While going over the original design they are getting a feel for how senior designers lay things out. The material they pick and why. They can run the calculations on the changes and see if the changes will cause an issue for the customer. Think about it..... Everyone benefits. The value in the changes outlined here are far reaching.