For those who are keen to understand the best practice of Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) and what documents and records are needed to implement this practice and capture the data required to report the associated project performance, the Construction Owners Associate of Canada (COAC) has developed many templates, presentations, flowcharts among others to enable a better understanding of this practice. This is a practice that was developed by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) to improve the delivery of capital projects using the EPC project delivery model.
Having a Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb will enable organizations to implement advanced work packaging best practices using a single web-enabled platform to manage, monitor, evaluate and report on the information associated with AWP. In the last article, it was detailed how the different project documents will be grouped and aligned with the engineering (EWP), procurement (PWP), construction (CWP), and installation (IWP) work packages for each construction work area (CWA) using PMWeb document management repository folders and sub-folders. Nevertheless, many other project-related records are specific for each construction work area and work packages within the area. For example, those include:
- Request for Information
- Safety Incidents
- Meeting Minutes
- Transmittals
- Punch List
- Risk, Issue
- Change Orders
- Daily Reports
- Submittal Items and Sets
To achieve this alignment with the construction work areas and work packages, the PMWeb list module will create a predefined list of all construction work areas and work packages that will become part of each project record regardless of the record type. Those predefined values are specific for each project and the approved advanced work packaging strategy selected. For the list values that apply to all construction work areas like the project estimated budget, purchase orders, among others, the value “000” will be used instead of the specific location or work package number value.
Using the PMWeb function that allows creating a set of user-defined fields for PMWeb out-of-the-box modules will be used to create a group called “Advanced Work Packaging.” This group will consolidate all AWP predefined list of values on a single tab to enable the project team to associate those project records with their relevant Construction Work Areas (CWA), Project Disciplines, Engineering Work Packages (EWP), Procurement Work Packages (PWP), Construction Work Packages (CWP) and Installation Work Packages (IWP). All those fields will be set as being “Required” to ensure that each record will have the associated value provided by the recording initiator.
For all additional forms that never existed in PMWeb and were created using PMWeb custom form builder, the newly created fields for advanced work packaging (AWP) practice can be displayed at any desired location of the created form in the desired format. For example, for the IWP checklists form, a group was created to capture each checklist’s corresponding AWP values. The same approach will be followed for all other documents needed for the AWP best practice implementation.
Of course, there is no limit on the number of predefined lists of values defined in PMWeb and incorporated in either out-of-the-box form or a new form created using the custom form builder. Those predefined lists of values will not ensure consistency and expedite the process of filling the forms but also critical in standardizing the values needed to create reports and dashboards to monitor, evaluate and report the project’s performance status using the Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) best practices.
An example of some of the new forms that need to be created for the Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) best practices are the templates for the Construction Work Package (CWP) and Engineering Work Package (EWP) scope of work, which will also incorporate the requirement for the Procurement Work Package (PWP).
For example, the Construction Work Package (CWP) form proposed by COAC includes the fields for Scope of Work, CWP Reference List, Engineering Information, Craft / Manpower, Direct Field Equipment and Materials, Safety, Quality, Regulatory Approvals and Permits, Sub-contracts, Vendor Support, Rigging Studies, Scaffolding, Special Equipment, tools and consumables, Waste Management, Risk Register, WorkFace Planning, Project Controls, Turnover Documents, 3D Model Shots of CWP, Submittals and Contact List. On the other hand, the Engineering Work Package (EWP) form proposed by COAC includes the fields for Scope of Work, EWP Reference List, Engineering Information, Quality, Vendor Support, WorkFace Planning, 3D Model Shots of EWP, and Contact List.
The attachment tab will be used to attach all documents referenced on the CWP and EWP scope of work forms, which should be uploaded and stored in the relevant CWP, EWP, and PWP folders in the PMWeb document management repository. Also, links to related PMWeb records as well as imported MS Outlook email can be added. Those could include submittals, RFI, purchase orders, meeting minutes, transmittals, punch list, among many others. In a way, those links will ensure that all PMWeb records are connected depending on the relevance of those records to each other.
The CWP or EWP Scope of Work form workflow will ensure that the form is reviewed and approved by the right project team members. The workflow will identify all needed steps, each step’s duration, responsibility for each step, actions taken for each step, and sequence for performing those steps. The workflow steps will be aligned with the permissions set in the CWP or EWP Scope of Work form to ensure that designated project team members provide the information they need to deliver. PMWeb also allows adding conditions to the workflow steps to incorporate the approval authority levels. Besides, the form copy command can be used to create different review revisions of the CWP or EWP Scope of Work forms should this be needed.
PMWeb reporting tool will generate the output for the Construction Work Package (CWP) and Engineering Work Package (EWP) forms in the desired layout forms similar to COAC form. The form can be designed to display the BIM model snapshot pictures taken using PMWeb BIM Model Manager or any other images that have been attached to the form. The form will also include details of all attached documents and records to the form with hyperlinks to those documents and records. The form will also have details of the workflow review and approval steps along with the comments made, actual review dates, and the digital signature of the reviewer.
