Does pictorial documentation improve construction cost control?

Purpose. This research was undertaken to determine the relationships between the type and the amount of pictorial documentation used in engineering contracts and the resulting effects on the actual construction costs of the desired projects. Pictorial documentation is defined as the hand- or machine-drawn picture, photograph or model type of reproduceable record in which sizes and relative positions of parts can be accurately measured and which are accepted as a legal and binding portion of an engineering type contract. Procedure. Data were secured from a pilot study of two parts. Part one determined the effect of using or not using pictorial documentation on construction cost control for the period of 1960 to 1980 and also the types of pictorial documentation currently employed. This was accomplished through interviews with project management people in 21 Canadian organizations grouped into 7 owner/operators, 7 designers and 7 contractors all located in Southern Ontario. Part two attempted to determine the degree of improvement that pictorial documentation gives to construction cost control. This was investigated through the analysis of the contractual communication packages (CCPs) used on 12 pairs of similarly complex and recently constructed projects provided by twelve of the twenty one organizations who permitted their production managers to participate. Applications. The research dealt with a topic not covered in the literature of construction management, contract claims, engineering documentation and specifications. The new knowledge presented tells construction managers, cost engineers and educators what the owner/operators, designers and contractors are seeking from the components of their pre-bid contractual communication packages. It also tells them the advantages, disadvantages and usage of eight pictorial types currently available for use in their pictorial documentation. Conclusions. The results of this pilot study indicate that the construction industry has not developed a systematic technique for controlling costs using pictorial documentation. The recommendations made suggest that the industry could benefit from (1) the development of in-house quantitative data files on the effectiveness of the pictorial documentation in CCPs; (2) the development of the potential of photography and models as well as automated line drawings for future pictorial documentation and (3) the development of new formats for pictorial documentation to present items of work in trade crew packages arranged in correct sequence for assembly.