A work package that gives a crew everything on one page
At 7:20 a mechanical crew of three reaches the roof of a two-storey retail building to set the curb and supports for a rooftop unit. By 9:00 the foreman has made four calls, about the anchors, the detail, the structural engineer's review and the crane, and nothing has been set.
Before a crew starts a task, give it one page that answers every question it would otherwise stop work to ask, from the scope and drawings to the bookings, checks and hazards. Writing the page forces whoever plans the work to find the answers before the crew needs them. The Construction Industry Institute describes advanced work packaging as organizing engineering, procurement and construction into defined packages. For a small job, use the same discipline to make one crew task ready. The day-before readiness check is a separate routine: planning tomorrow before you leave.
- Size it to one crew and a few days, with start and end points by gridline or area, and what is excluded.
- List the documents by sheet and revision, checked against the current set: drawings, details, the approved submittal, RFI answers.
- List the materials: quantities, where they are staged and what is still to arrive.
- List the equipment and bookings, with dates and times.
- State the checks: the inspections and hold points from the inspection and test plan, and who books them.
- State the hazards and controls from your hazard assessment, and any permit the task needs.
- Go through it with the foreman the day before, and close every gap before the crew starts.
Common mistakes
- Listing drawings without revisions, so the crew builds from a superseded detail.
- Writing one package for the whole job instead of one per task.
- Handing it over at 7:00 on the day, with no time to fix the gaps.
Checklist
On every work package
- Scope, limits and exclusions
- Drawings and details, with revision numbers
- Materials, quantities and locations
- Equipment and bookings, with times
- Inspections and hold points, and who books them
- Hazards, controls and permits
- Who to call with a question
Check your understanding
Your field engineer says a package for every task is too much paperwork on a small job. Which tasks would you package first?
