A recent conversation with a Senior Project Manager for a major new project highlighted the lack of understanding about the importance of managing risks of Operations and Maintenance Manuals when handing over a new project.<\/p>\n
\u201cO&M Manuals aren\u2019t critical to handover\u201d. This comment is usually followed by \u201cThe last job took over 12 months to get the O&M\u2019s completed, why the rush?\u201d or \u201cthey\u2019re not needed until the end of the Warranty or Defects Liability Period\u201d. These myths are usually the result of past practice, where the Contractors are not pushed by the Owner or more importantly the Owners Project Manager.<\/p>\n
In NSW it is a condition to have proper building manuals in place before the issue of an occupancy certificate In other states, regulations require that the owners are given information that meets 3 basic criteria, in short, adequate descriptions, evidence of compliance, and instructions on safe and proper use. This applies to contractors and designers.<\/p>\n
The issue is about perception, people like designers, contractors and owners reps in the \u2018Project silo\u2019 think the objectives are to be ahead of time and under budget. Yet the \u2018Project\u2019 has only one real objective to be ready to \u2018do the business\u2019 for which it was created. A new office block is leased and paying rent, a school is teaching students, a retail facility is selling goods. How many of us would be happy to drive off in the new car without training on how it works, its new features and access to the owner\u2019s manual in the glove box? It\u2019s a myth to think that not managing risks of Operations and Maintenance Manuals at or before the handover is not a risk to the real project objective.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only provide Operations and Maintenance Manuals in accord with the specifications\u201d. Or the comment \u201cif the contract does not state a requirement for a schedule of equipment, we are not doing it\u201d. Often the specification is either lacking an understanding of the actual requirements or is inconsistent between design disciplines or it\u2019s just a \u2018cut and paste\u2019 from the last job.<\/p>\n
However, the real misconception is that the specification for Operations and Maintenance Manuals is of primary relevance. In countries like Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK, and elsewhere the requirements for Operations and Maintenance Manuals are set down in Laws and Regulations. As any good lawyer will advise, a legal requirement takes precedence over any contract or specification. And most good contracts include a clause \u201cthou shall comply with all applicable laws\u201d. So it\u2019s a misconception to assume that compliance with the specification will absolve the risk of not providing compliant O&M\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A recent conversation with a Senior Project Manager for a major new project highlighted the lack of understanding about the importance of managing risks of Operations and Maintenance Manuals when handing over a new project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10246,"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/10246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omtrak.com\/en-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}