Communications Uniformity Improves the Construction Industry
Effective communication enhances all relationships. Communication is made more effective by insuring that parties trying to communicate are using the same language. The Manual of Practice establishes a common language for utilization in the Construction Documents by reducing the elements of communication to essential axioms, and then building communication conventions around those axioms.
The
necessity of better communication became evident at the conclusion of World
War II when economic solvency created by the war industry allowed more people
the opportunity to purchase their own homes and start new businesses.
This resulted in an unprecedented expansion in the construction industry.
There were many jobs and even more individuals involved in seeing them to
completion. The downfall of productivity was the ineffective
communication among those involved in the construction process. Each
discipline had a different method of presenting and tracking information.
Many individuals have recognized the inefficiency and confusion this caused
(Bates, 1993 and O’Bannon, 1989). More importantly, a few visionaries
developed a solution.
In
1948, The Construction Specifications Institute, Inc. (CSI) was formed. The
founders of our organization saw the need to establish a standardized
framework of communication for the construction industry.
A chief element listed in CSI’s Code of Ethics was to promote
improvement of construction communications, techniques, and procedures
(The Construction Specifications Institute, 1998).
This was the genesis of what the industry now refers to as the Manual
of Practice. To make this
type of system work it had to be reduced to basic axioms of communication that
could be utilized in any form of communicated information.
These axioms were then used to create conventions from which more
complicated forms of communication could be built.
The system needed to be holistic and integrated.
This
new framework as defined and explained by the Manual of Practice
effects every element of the Construction Documents.
This collection of paperwork includes not just the Specifications, but
elements such as the Bidding Requirements, Contract Forms, and Contract
Conditions as well as the Drawings, Addendum, and Contract Modifications.
These documents work in tandem with one another to allow every
discipline in the construction industry to speak the same language.
Even limited exposure and training similar to what I experienced as a
student in CDT education seminars is enough to illustrate the need, and
method, to communicate more effectively using the formats presented in the Manual
of Practice. Anyone can now
go to a specified location and find particular information presented in a
standardized format that is not just pertinent to one discipline, but each
discipline involved in putting a building together.
One
of the most fundamental axioms employed in the Manual of Practice is
that all forms of communication be clear,
complete, correct, and concise (The construction Specifications Institute,
1992). These intrinsic attributes
of communication are employed throughout all of the Construction Documents in
an effort to avoid conflict and ambiguity.
This is exemplified by the development of Division I, General
Requirements. This division of
the Specifications was designed to eliminate redundancy.
Specifications now function as an information tree going from general
to specific. This prevents
presenting the same information in multiple places.
For example, information about an element of a building can be traced
from specific product requirements possibly found in a MasterFormat,
narrowscope entry, to how it is to be utilized and installed and finally, who
is responsible for it in the General Requirements.
Another example is the precision of word usage in written documents
such as the difference between ‘amount’ and ‘quantity’.
This is expanded in the Specification Language Module in Fundamentals
and Formats of the Manual of Practice.
The
newest addition to the communication framework is the development of the Uniform
Drawing System. The graphic
conventions are doing for Drawings what the existing standardization tools
have done for verbal documents. Now
an individual can approach drawings and immediately locate and recognize the
standardized symbol for something as simple as an exit sign.
Until the development of the Uniform Drawing System very little
within architectural or engineering drawings was standardized.
Uniformity
through standardization in Construction Documents and common linguistics
improved communication by allowing all disciplines within the industry to
speak a common language. The
development of the Manual of Practice has been key to this evolution.
This commonality has improved the function and profitability of the
construction industry as a whole, improving the lives of all people that
contribute to the building process.
END
1.
Bates, Gary. 1993.
Checklist of critical success factors for building projects.
Journal of Management in
Engineering 9, no. 3 (1993): 243-249.
2.
The Construction Specifications Institute.
Administrative Reference.
Alexandria, Virginia, 1998.
3. The Construction Specifications Institute. Manual of Practice. Alexandria, Virginia: The Construction Specifications Institute, 1992.
4.
O’Bannon, Robert. Building Department Administration.
International Conference of Building Officials: Whittier, California,
1989.