When preparing specifications, the age-old debate continues about the best way to capture your product selections. Should products be consolidated within the specification sections or separately itemised in schedules? Below we list the common pros and cons, to help you decide which approach best suits your organisation.
The Beauty of Consolidation: Specifying All in One
Pros:
- Integrated Approach: Integrating all product selections within the specification sections ensures that every element has its rightful place. This single document becomes a comprehensive guide, offering a centralised reference point for Designers and Contractors alike.
- Consistency and Cohesion: With everything specified in one place, discrepancies are easier to spot and rectify, ensuring that the built form aligns with the design intent.
- Reduced Risk: By having a universal reference point, the Contractor is forced to read the Specification, not just browse the Schedule for selections.
- Document Control: There is only one document to update and re-issue, meaning each revision contains the current up-to-date information.
- Verification: Providing design verification evidence to stakeholders within a single document is easier than referencing multiple documents.
Cons:
- Reduced Flexibility: One key challenge is the reduced ease of adaptation. Changes or substitutions can become cumbersome, requiring significant revisions to the core document.
- Potential Overwhelm: A consolidated specification can become overwhelming to read. The nature of specifications is text-heavy, and consolidating all information in one place might appear intimidating, or put in the ‘too-hard’ basket to review.
- Document Revision Overload: Whilst it’s easier to re-issue one single document, the need to repeatedly re-issue a 400+ page document for minor changes can be cumbersome, frustrating, and difficult to navigate.
The Freedom of Flexibility: The Standalone Schedule Approach
Pros:
- Adaptability: A separate schedule allows for quicker adjustments. If a product or material becomes unavailable or is substituted, the standalone schedule can be revised without major disruptions to the core specification.
- Clarity for Stakeholders: Manufacturers, Clients, or Contractors seeking specific product details can refer directly to the schedule, ensuring a more efficient and targeted approach, and expedited review process.
- Document Revisions: The Schedule can be independently revised and re-issued, without the need to re-issue the entire specification.
TIP: Always check the relevant specification section to ensure it’s still accurate when substituting products. Even minor substitutions can have a carry-over effect on the specification.
- Early Adoption: Schedules can be produced earlier in the design process to provide Designers an immediate mechanism to capture product selections and nominate keynotes, without having to worry yet about the bulk of the Specification.
- Focused Expertise: Teams or consultants specialising in product selection can work on the schedule independently, providing expedited decision-making, without overburdening the primary specification team.
Cons:
- Increased Coordination: With two pivotal documents, coordination becomes crucial. The risk of misalignment between the specification and the schedule can lead to costly errors.
- Potential for Oversight: Requires diligence in cross-referencing between Schedules and Specification sections.
- Duplications: Potential gaps or duplications between the two documents. Separate documents have a higher chance of scope gaps or repetition of information.
Evaluate Trade-Offs
Consider your unique needs. In the years of providing Specification Consultancy, no two organisations are the same. Each organisation has their own character or personality when it comes to documentation. Below are further points to consider:
Project complexity:
- What size, scale and complexity are the projects you work on?
- Do these projects warrant a fully consolidated specification, or do separate Schedules satisfy your documentation requirements?
Software capabilities:
- Do you utilise cloud-based intelligent software that allows the option of consolidated Specifications or separate Schedules?
- Even within the same organisation, there may be exceptions to the company-wide rules to align with the project stakeholder’s documentation requirements.
Contractor Familiarity:
- What level of sophistication are the Contractors in your sector/ project tier?
- What verification processes do they require as part of the specification process?
Personal Preference:
- The decision may be as simple as what is your personal preference and why?
- Reflect on your prior experiences and decide based on what you thought worked well or not.
Conclusion:
The debate will continue between different companies and stakeholders. There are pros and cons for both approaches, and what best suits your specific position may not match your neighbours. Investigate what may work for you, and if you’re not sure – experiment!
Could your company benefit from an external pair of eyes? Perhaps a Specification Consultancy to manage and coordinate your specifications, or utilise a digital cloud-based ecosystem that allows the flexibility of consolidated specifications or separate Schedules? Then reach out to us, and let’s improve the natural and built environment with every project together.
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What is your preference when documenting and what pitfalls or positives have you discovered? Share your experience in the comments below.
