What is document control on a construction project?

Document control is the system that keeps everyone on a project working from the current drawings and gives every decision a record. Without it, a crew can build something correctly from a drawing that has since changed, and that mistake costs real money to undo.

Monument uses secure cloud-based software across every function of the business to store and manage project information, from tender through to handover and the end of defects.

What gets controlled

The list grows as the job moves from tender to site:

• drawings and specifications, with every revision
• requests for information and the answers to them
• instructions from the client or superintendent
• variations and the approvals behind them
• safe work method statements and subcontractor documents
• inspection records and test results
• certificates, warranties and manuals for handover

Revisions to drawings

A drawing changes many times over a project. The register shows each drawing's current revision and when it was issued, and each subcontractor is told when a new one lands.

Old copies are the danger. A printed set left in a site shed can sit there for months, so superseded drawings are marked and removed, and everyone on site works from the one current set.

Questions and instructions

When the drawings do not answer something, the question goes in writing, and so does the answer, each with a date. A site conversation that is never written down is hard to rely on later, especially when it changes the cost.

An instruction that changes the scope becomes a variation, and that paper trail is what lets both sides agree on it. The process is in how variations are managed.

Records from the site

The documents above describe what should happen, while site records show what did. Daily diaries, inspection sign-offs and test results all sit in the same place, tied to the part of the job they cover.

Someone asking months later whether a slab was checked before the pour should get an answer in minutes. The daily record behind that answer is covered in the site diary and daily records.

Records after handover

A client keeps the building long after the contractor leaves, and its facilities team needs to know what was built and how to look after it. When the records have been kept properly through the job, handover is a matter of pulling them together, as set out in handover documentation and operation manuals.

The records also stay useful through the defects period, when a problem has to be traced back to who did the work and which product was used.

Monument's system

Monument's software supports its Integrated Management System, which is certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001. Monument manages each project through a single point of contact, so a client's question gets one answer. How those systems fit together is covered in what an integrated management system is.

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