Coordination between disciplines

What coordination is not

Everyone sending their drawings to the others. That still leaves the possibilities that:

• nobody looks at them,
• they are working from different versions,
• and two disciplines are using the same space.

What coordination is

Shared base data

Everyone works from the same architectural base, with the same version number. That sounds trivial, and a significant share of mistakes comes from it anyway.

Regular meetings

Not when there is a problem, but to a schedule. Short, regular sessions are worth more than rare, long ones.

Recorded decisions

What has been decided has to be written down — who it is for, from when it applies.

Clash detection

With model-based working this can be partly automated. Clash detection.

Change control

The most important element. If something changes, everyone affected has to know.

Why it is critical for a prefabricated structure

Because the structure arrives manufactured. Changing drawings that were closed before manufacture means the member made becomes scrap.

So coordination between disciplines has to close before manufacture — not during construction.

That is one of the technology’s greatest demands for discipline, and the reason well-coordinated projects are faster here while badly coordinated ones are more expensive than with traditional technology.

The practical sequence

1. Fix the architectural base.
2. Structural concept and spans.
3. Services concept and routes.
4. Resolve the clashes.
5. Finalise the build-ups.
6. Structural detailed design.
7. Shop drawings.

Every step back in that sequence costs time and money — and it is cheapest when it happens at the top of the list.

The point

Coordination is not administration but the prevention of mistakes. For a prefabricated structure it is the difference between a fast project and an expensive one.