Exclusive Neuroject Article: Being at the top of your game is more crucial than ever in the connected building era. If you are even slightly behind schedule or on budget, you run the risk of falling behind competitors or being permanently behind the curve on upcoming technological advancements. Managing submittal in construction is a crucial part of a contractor’s work before construction starts. It establishes the correctness of the project completion, the viability of the anticipated timeframe, and the line items on the budget.
A crucial component of pre-construction and construction, submittal in construction can occasionally be haphazard. It’s simple to think that material selections and other details, like color selections, are of low importance and have little bearing because of the sheer number of documents involved. However, a simple error on a submittal form might result in unthinkable mishaps and losses, like the 1981 Hyatt Regency Skywalk disaster.
Inaccuracies or delays in the submittal in construction procedures may result in overspending, delayed project completion, inaccurate quantities, or additional work to remedy the problem. Strong submittal in construction can result in job profitability, as misunderstanding and inadequate project data account for 52% of construction rework.
It’s critical to comprehend this concept and realize its significance for your work, projects, and personal life if you want your construction firm to succeed. We’ll look closely at what submittal in construction are, why they’re important, how to expedite the process, what makes up a good submittal template, and what they include below.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- Managing submittal in construction affects the correctness of a finished project, the line items in your budget, and the effectiveness of your anticipated timeframe.
- What does one submit? Documents submitted by a contractor to an architect for use approval are known submittal in construction. Information submitted to the architect requesting clearance for specific materials and equipment before their fabrication and delivery to the project site is included in the submission log.
- Thousands of line items, including color charts, material information, samples, color and finish choices, shop drawings, and more, may be included in submittal in construction.
- These submissions are kept structured by a submittal template. When paired with the submittal log, each approved item is monitored.
- A minimum of nine records, including the submittal type, the title and description of the request, and the specification section number, should be included in a construction submittal template. You can get a template for a building submittal here.
- A few essential pillars, such as streamlining administrative tasks, offering total visibility, and sophisticated tracking, can enhance construction submittals.
What is a Submittal in Construction? A Basic Definition
Being abreast of the latest organizational and communication tools to expedite submittals is one aspect of staying ahead of the curve, but comprehending the lingo plays a significant role as well.
According to Lexology, ” submittal in construction consist of information provided by the contractor to the design professional for approval of equipment, materials, etc. before they are fabricated and delivered to the project,” while Bizfluent defines construction submittals as “documents submitted by the contractor to the architect for his approval for use in a project.”
The submittal process begins early in the project and aids in directing how the project will be carried out, in contrast to procedures like closeout and as-builts, which are intended to be finished after construction is finished.
Why Submittal in Construction are Important in the Process
To ensure that the project is carried out by the designs and specifications, submittal in construction are essential. They guarantee that the contractor follows the specified protocols, makes use of the appropriate supplies, and completes the job on schedule.
To ensure that the finished product matches the project designs and satisfies the needs of the project owner, submittal in construction serve as checks and balances. They give each assignment an outline and specify roles for several teams to ensure its successful completion.
The shop drawing, which offers comprehensive blueprints for fabrications finished off-site, is a prime example. Contractors or fabricators can determine what the needs are for materials and what the on-site teams want by using illustrations.
Before approving contractors and project managers, these documents enable specialists to evaluate project plans in-depth. This strategy reduces material waste, expensive setbacks, and delays.
Types of Submittal in Construction
Before construction, shop drawings, material samples, engineering calculations, product cut sheets, mockups, and vendor information are the most often submitted forms. During project closeout, additional submittal in construction are created, such as as-built drawings and product warranties. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and each vendor or contractor that works on a project will have a different one.
A specialist contractor might be asked to provide a submittal package or individual submittals, depending on what the GC and design team desire. A collection of closely linked submittals is called a submittal package. An electrical contractor might, for instance, submit a light fixture package that includes product papers for each of the 25 varieties of fixtures that are used inside the structure.
Shop Drawing in Submittal in Construction
Shop drawings are comprehensive blueprints, sketches, and diagrams that show how particular project components will be made and/or installed. For particularly fabricated materials or equipment that is custom-built, shop drawings are usually needed to make sure the result fits and functions as intended. For instance, shop drawings of custom ductwork are frequently submitted by HVAC contractors to verify that the system meets design specifications, offers sufficient airflow, and illustrates how the ductwork is routed throughout the structure.
Product Data
Contractors are frequently asked to supply product data from the manufacturer by the design team. These papers, sometimes referred to as “cut sheets” or data sheets, include standard information about the items, such as dimensions, performance statistics, and installation and preparation guidelines. To confirm that a product satisfies or surpasses the required requirements, material certificates or test reports could also be needed.
Samples
Samples are tangible representations of the materials that will be used. The design team needs to make sure that the materials fulfill the necessary structural criteria as well as the intended quality, color, and texture. Flooring, tile, and paint samples are typical examples of the kind of submittal in construction that are needed.
Mockups
Mockups are essentially life-size or scale models of submittal in construction elements made with the same materials and techniques as the final product. These are made to confirm the product’s workmanship and/or appearance.
Photographs of the mockups may occasionally be submitted to record an in-person evaluation of the mockup, particularly in cases when the mockups are too big or cumbersome to carry. Mock-ups can also be a part of the work that is done in situ, or on the job site, and then put on hold while the submittal is reviewed. Once more, this would be photographed and submitted along with all other submissions.
Engineering Calculations
It could be necessary to perform calculations to show that a contractor’s work is adequate for the intended use. As an illustration, voltage drop estimates, short-circuit analyses, and load calculations are frequently needed by electrical contractors to guarantee that the electrical system is suitably constructed and able to withstand anticipated demands. This is particularly crucial for institutional operations, such as hospitals, where power outages may claim lives.
Vendor Information
The project owner frequently has little insight into the companies that the general contractor or their subcontractors use to carry out specific tasks, especially on big commercial or public projects. An owner may occasionally ask for a list of all the subcontractors and suppliers who are contributing labor and supplies to a project, along with their contact details and a breakdown of the tasks they will be performing.
Warranties & Manuals in Submittal in Construction
It is frequently necessary for suppliers and contractors to submit documentation outlining the conditions of warranty coverage for goods, supplies, or machinery utilized in the project. Manuals for operation and maintenance give specific instructions on how to run and maintain different building systems or components. They may also be asked to produce the project’s actual executed warranties during the closeout submittal process if these are examined during the construction submittal process.
As-Built Drawings in Submittal in Construction
As-built drawings, simply called “as-builts,” are the final diagrams submitted by a contractor upon completion of their work. Where shop drawings are submitted before installation, as-built drawings reflect the final product, including any approved changes to the specifications and locations of products, components, and assemblies. These and other similar record documentation are considered a closeout submittal and provided at the end of the project.
What is Included in Submittal in Construction and Why do they Matter?
Every piece of machinery, every kind of material, down to the precise paint color, must be examined and approved through submittals before the building can start. Submittal in construction might include thousands of distinct components, depending on the specific project. These consist of:
- Product cut sheets that identify the manufacturer, specifications, and model number
- Shop drawings, Cast concrete, Windows, Appliances, Millwork, and More
- Color and Finish Selections
- Color Charts
- Finished Product Components
- Material Data
- Samples and More
These documents are crucial for a successful construction project because they provide a detailed view of the project and give design experts the ability to approve materials, equipment, and other items. Before things are manufactured and delivered, approval must be obtained because it will be too late to avoid needless delays in the timeline and budget.
It also counts how well the submissions are made. More thorough submittal in construction increases the likelihood of an accurate budget and timeline, which benefits the project as a whole. However, a precise and well-organized input is essential because construction submittals can include thousands of distinct elements related to each project specification. The entire project could be jeopardized if there is a lack of detail or if mistakes are made in the submission record creation process.
The Importance of Accurate Submittal in Construction
One of the most crucial facets of a contractor’s work before construction starts is preparing Submittal in construction. The accuracy of the project completion, the viability of the suggested schedule, and the specifics of the budget are finally determined by these documents. A single material or supply option that requires approval from senior team members, such as architects, engineers, project owners, and general contractors, should be included on each submission form.
Suppliers, subcontractors, and trade contractors typically send this documentation. They are occasionally also created internally by team members to decide on particular design options. In contrast to as-built drawings, which are intended to be given to demonstrate the project’s final form once construction is finished, submittal in construction are provided in advance to guide how the project will be constructed.
They play a particularly significant role in structures that use modular and prefabrication construction methods. To iron out the intricacies, each of these units might produce a dozen or more submittal forms. Every submittal has the potential to skip one or more critical approval checkpoints, whether it’s moving laterally or up the chain of command. One of the main causes of the cumulative delays that occur throughout a building project is inaccurate submittal forms.
The Submittal in Construction Review Process
Professionals in the construction industry concur that the submittal review procedure has historically been drawn out and difficult. To guarantee that you have comprehensive information and specifications for every aspect of the project, all submittal items from specialty contractors must first be combined. This used to mean laborious manual entry procedures, such as creating enormous Excel files that were prone to errors and inconsistencies. By automating this procedure, construction project management software can enhance the precision and caliber of things submitted. Once all of the submittal in construction items have been gathered, the general contractor checks them all to make sure they have the correct products and requirements, and the architect and design team must verify everything for compliance.
Technologies Role During Review Process
You may shorten the time it takes to finish the submittal review process by utilizing technology, which is important in this process. You can utilize technology to efficiently oversee and expedite this process in the following ways:
- Automate the creation of submittal logs with the right software
- Keep submittal information secure
- Add some filters directly to the submittals for easier access to specific information
- Use email notifications to achieve an advanced tracking system
- Use several different reviewers at the same time
- Implement clear statuses for each submittal, which will allow you to update them whenever they are approved or rejected
One of the most crucial pieces of paper for any construction project is the construction submission. Every project component needs to have its submittals produced and subsequently accepted for the construction project to proceed as scheduled. Changes must be made before the project may start if the submittal is rejected. You must be aware of how to handle submittal in construction and the review procedure to prevent delays in your building project. Fabrication and final delivery can start if all submissions are accepted.
Common Challenges in Managing Submittal in Construction
Building submittals contribute to the success of the project. Regrettably, the following obstacles could prevent submittals from being made:
- The Time Factor: The timeliness of the project may be impacted by submittal in construction that take weeks to complete. For example, creating a product datasheet necessitates that the manager has prior knowledge of all necessary items and materials, which might be challenging.
- Inadequate Resources: Certain teams rely solely on email, spreadsheets, or paper trails for submissions, which puts them at risk of delays if a document is lost or misplaced. Due to the absence of centralized document control, this may also result in disjointed activities.
- Limited Information: Teams may be deprived of vital information required to produce submittal in construction due to disconnected processes and postponed activities. Delays and erroneous or incomplete submissions result from this.
A deficiency of coordination and communication is typically the primary cause of these difficulties. This leads to low output, misunderstandings, and delays, all of which can affect the project’s deliverables and budget.
Submittal in Construction Template
The smooth operation of this procedure depends on the organization. Without it, a building project’s numerous levels and thousands of documents might easily become confusing and disorganized. For this reason, it’s essential to have a thorough submittal log. The submission log keeps track of every document related to the project and serves as proof that everything has received the design team’s approval. The following should be included as a minimum in a decent submittal log:
- Specification Section Number/Name/Subsection: Where the requirement came from
- Title/Description: Submittal in construction name and a short description of the request
- Submittal Type: What type of information is being requested
- Priority: Request/approval urgency
- Responsible Contractor: Who will be providing the information
- Submittal Manager: Who is responsible for submitting the item for review
- Submittal Reviewer: Who will be approving the information
- Required Date: When the submittal is due from the responsible contractor
- Required Approval Date: When the reviewer must approve the submittal by
How to Improve Submittal in Construction
Now that you know the definition and procedure of a construction submittal, how can you enhance the necessary but sometimes vexing submittal workflow? It begins by strengthening three essential pillars:
- Streamline Administrative Work: maximizes organization through automated workflows, reducing manual errors and delays.
- Provide Complete Visibility: The necessary information and documentation are readily available to the entire team.
- Advanced Tracking: At any point in time, anyone may view the status of submittal items in the process and determine what has to be done next.
The aforementioned pillars are made possible in large part by technology. So where should we start? Here are nine steps to help you use cloud-based technologies to start streamlining the submittal process right now.
1. Automate Your Submittal in Construction Log Creation
Construction specifications, as was previously noted, outline the supplies and labor needed to complete a project according to the plan. Specifications might be as extensive as 2,000 pages and include requirements for thousands of the submittal in construction register items, depending on the scope of the project.
At the beginning of a project, you can use AutoSpec to generate a submittal log from a spec book. Regardless of the length of your spec book—100 pages or 1,000—you can quickly and accurately generate a downloadable spreadsheet that contains every item on the submittal register for your project. You save time and the possibility of mistakes is eliminated by the method.
2. Keep Project Information Private and Secure
Dozens of individuals must submit and approve shop drawings, closeouts, and product data as part of the submittal process to guarantee that the structure is constructed according to the specifications. Encouraging external parties to engage completely in the submittal process is crucial, but so is ensuring that confidential project data stays that way. Make use of technology that gives you the freedom and control to quickly and easily delegate submittal in construction to people who aren’t involved with the project.
Subcontractors, vendors, and designers can all submit or review submittals by email without being included in the project. Private information, such as sheets, notes, and papers, can always be kept confidential because external partners don’t need to be added to the project itself, and the project can continue to advance.
3. Add Filters to Submittals to Find Information Faster
Items can easily fall through the cracks because there is so much information to keep track of during the filing process. With the use of technology that lets you filter, you may discover exactly what you need by narrowing down the list of submittal in construction, regardless of how many submittals register entries you have. Any combination of spec section, priority, status, approvers, reviewers, generated by dates, due dates, and submittal type can be used as a filter.
4. Utilize Email Notifications
Before the field crew receives authorized documentation and can begin construction, there are numerous steps in the submittal process. No more time should be spent setting up partners on your submittal tracking system—from the vendor or subcontractor posting submittal in construction to the consultant or design team approving them.
Make use of software for construction submittals that can email alerts for approval. Approvers are more accountable and transparent, and they can respond to requests for information more quickly when they receive notifications directly to their email about submittal items that have been allocated to them.
5. Centralize Submittal Markups
Before a submission is released in the field, it is reviewed and approved by several persons for each one. To ensure that the field team constructs by specifications, submittal documents are marked up, renamed, reordered, and stamped during all of these handoffs. Without the proper resources, teams risk switching between several platforms or falling back on antiquated, ineffective manual processes.
Teams will save time by not having to export documents, mark them up in a different PDF tool, and then upload them back into the system when they use technologies that centralize documents and enable PDF markups for submittal in construction. Rather, with the help of this tool, users may quickly and easily mark submittals with text, highlights, shapes, callouts, and stamps to ensure that the correct information is recorded.
6. Enable Multiple Reviewers at Once
Rarely does a submittal that is sent out for review simply need to have one party approve it. Alternatively, the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and architectural designers may serve as approvers. It is ineffective to wait for each side to evaluate the submittal separately before moving on to the next reviewer because the majority of submittals need a two-week window to achieve final approval. Assigning a submittal in construction to every necessary reviewer simultaneously lowers the chance of delays and the amount of time you have to manage and gather feedback.
You can send submission items to several reviewers at once by adding them as co-reviewers if you have access to technology like Autodesk Build that supports parallel reviews. The comment section will allow co-reviewers to contribute their response. To ensure a clear point of agreement, the reviewer is in charge of organizing and merging the feedback from other reviewers into the official response. Once more, more transparency encourages accountability among project participants and facilitates determining when action is required.
7. Keep the Project Team Up to Date
Other team members who should be informed of the item’s progress as it moves through the workflow but are not obliged to take action can be added as distribution list members or watchers in addition to those who are required to submit or review a submittal in construction. To make sure that all materials are accurate, they will be informed whenever a submission item is made, transmitted, evaluated, or published. The following people could be added to the distribution/watching list: more suppliers, subcontractors, team members from within, designers, and even owners.
8. Implement Clear Submittal Statuses
In terms of submittal in construction, status matters. Products or materials added to a project without the formal consent of the design team may need to be removed and replaced at the contractor’s expense. This can be a major pain in the ass and possibly result in a modification order, which adds time to the project and delays it.
Not all technology can be customized, which might be problematic if your teams are used to a standard vocabulary. To make it easier than ever for the project team to determine which submission has been accepted so they can begin construction, try to incorporate technology that allows you to develop precise and personalized status indications.
9. Create Custom Reports
To keep a project on track, timely submittal in construction approval is essential. The project engineer in charge of them is regularly asked for reports and status updates to make sure they are proceeding as planned.
Put into practice project management tools that let you design unique, in-depth reports and dashboards. These reports also need to appear professional because they are distributed to owners and other interested parties. With the use of certain technologies, customers can effortlessly generate a PDF report that showcases a portion of their submittal packages and features their brand.
Conclusion: Benefits of a Submittal in Construction
In the construction industry, submittals are critical to project safety and productivity. They make sure you meet the needs of the client and select the appropriate materials. It is for this reason that it is crucial to get them correct.
A construction good submittal’s budget and anticipated completion date are useful indicators of a project’s success. To deliver accurate submittals, a submittal provides accuracy regarding the roles of all stakeholders as collaborators. Accurately A submittal’s success rate is raised when it is reviewed to make sure it complies with all the papers. Submittal in construction guarantee that projects adhere to their designs, enhancing any construction’s viability.
As we have covered, submittals serve as documentation of agreement and serve to inform and hold all parties involved in the construction site accountable. A signature from each partner confirming that they have read, comprehended, and consented to the start of a certain task is required. Although the manual methods they had previously used to create and track submittal in construction proved ineffective, there are now several solutions available that simplify the procedure and conserve time and resources. When all members of the project team are aware of the procedure, the work is taken seriously and the project continues forward.
Contractors can greatly enhance the construction submittal process by utilizing contemporary integrated construction workflows. Accurate data, prompt replies, and improved management and control ensure that materials and procedures are up to par and that contractors are constructing the projects as intended. You may study up on submission in the building industry.
Suggested article to read:
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Resources:
E-Builder | Digital Builder | Indeed | BigRentz | Raken | LetsBuild | ProEst | Build | Trimble Viewpoint
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