The Drawing Revision Control on the Truck SOP

Purpose

On a job with drawings, the sheets change while the work is underway: bulletins, architect's supplemental instructions, RFI answers with sketches, reissued sheets. This procedure guarantees that the set the crew builds from is the current set, every day, and that anyone can prove later which revision was on the truck on which date. Without it, a superseded sheet stays in the truck because nobody pulled it, the crew builds what it shows, and the rework is the shop's. The way a revision block and revision clouds mark what changed is covered in The Revision Block and Why It Decides Everything; this SOP is what the shop does with them.

Scope

Covers every job where the shop builds from issued drawings: receiving a revision, finding what it supersedes, printing and delivering it, swapping the field set, keeping tablet sets in sync, the daily start check, and the rule on phone photos. Covers paper and tablet sets alike. Does not cover the questions that produce revisions (see related: The RFI Log SOP), deciding whether a revision changes the shop's price (see related: The Paper That Changes a Job: RFI to Change Order), checking an addendum issued during bidding (see related: How to Check an Addendum Against Your Bid), or the as-built redline set (see related: How to Redline the Set as You Build), except where a swap must carry redlines across.

Roles and responsibilities

One controlled set per job, held by the lead. Extra copies on the truck are the cause of the failure this SOP exists to prevent, so there are none.

The procedure

1. Log every incoming revision in the office sheet log the day it arrives. The PM enters each revised sheet: sheet number, new revision number and date from the title block, and the issuing document (bulletin, supplemental instruction, sketch number). Acceptance: every sheet the issuing document lists has a log line with its new revision. Wrong looks like a bulletin narrative that names sheets not attached to it, or a sheet attached that the narrative does not mention; stop, request the missing sheets from the general contractor (GC) in writing that day, and do not print anything from the narrative alone. Hazard: none, desk work.

2. Read the revision for impact on installed or scheduled work. The PM finds every cloud on every revised sheet and compares it with what the crew has installed and what is scheduled in the next two weeks. Acceptance: a one-line impact note per revised sheet, either "no work affected" or the area and the work affected. Wrong looks like a cloud through work already installed or starting within two weeks; stop work in that area by phone to the lead that day, and open the change question under The Paper That Changes a Job, because a revision to installed work is rework someone pays for. Hazard: none, desk work.

3. Print the controlled copies at a known scale and check the print. Print at the set's issued size, or at a reduction marked "REDUCED - DO NOT SCALE" across the title block. On every print, scale one figured dimension, a column bay or a room width, and confirm it reads true at the printed scale. Acceptance: the figured dimension scales within the width of a line, or the print carries the do-not-scale mark. Wrong looks like a fit-to-page print that scales short; reprint at the right size, because a reduced sheet that is not marked gets scaled. See related: The Half-Size Print That Moved the Floor Drain. Hazard: none, desk work.

4. Deliver the prints to the lead the same working day, or before work starts the next morning. Hand them over in person or leave them in the truck's document box with a text to the lead naming the sheets. Acceptance: the lead's reply confirming receipt, logged with the time. Wrong looks like no reply by the start of the next workday; the coordinator calls the lead before the crew starts, and the PM decides whether work in the affected area waits. Hazard: delivering on an active site means the site's required personal protective equipment, commonly hard hat, eye protection and high-visibility vest, and walking only on the site's marked routes, not through a lift's or a delivery truck's path.

5. Swap the sheets in the field set and stamp the superseded ones. The lead pulls each superseded sheet, checks it for field notes or redlines, transfers any to the new sheet or the redline set, then stamps the old sheet SUPERSEDED with the date and initials and puts it in the return envelope for the office. Acceptance: the field set holds exactly one copy of each sheet, each at the revision the log shows, and the sheet count matches the log count. Wrong looks like a superseded sheet carrying redlines that are not on the new one; stop and transfer them before the old sheet leaves the truck, because those notes are the only record of what was found. Hazard: none at the truck itself if it is parked out of traffic; if it is not, move it before laying sheets out.

6. Sign the truck sheet log. The lead writes the date, the sheets swapped and their new revisions on the log sheet kept at the front of the field set, and initials it. Acceptance: the truck log's latest revisions match the office log line for line. Wrong looks like a difference; call the PM before work starts in any area those sheets cover, because one of the two logs is wrong and only a comparison of title blocks settles which. Hazard: none, paperwork.

7. Sync every tablet set and check it. The coordinator places the new sheets in the job's active folder and moves the superseded files to an archive folder the field devices do not open. Each device holder syncs, then opens two of the revised sheets and reads the revision number in the title block. Acceptance: the device shows the sync date, and both sheets show the logged revision. Wrong looks like an older revision on the device after sync; stop using the device for that job, paper governs, and the coordinator fixes the folder and has the device re-synced and re-checked that day. Hazard: none, but no one reads a device while operating a lift or driving.

8. Run the daily start check before layout in any area. Before marking, cutting or hanging anything, the lead reads the revision in the title block of each sheet covering that day's area against the truck log. It takes about two minutes. Acceptance: every sheet for the area matches the log. Wrong looks like a sheet that does not match, or a sheet missing from the set; stop layout in that area and call the PM. Hazard: none, a check at the truck.

9. Never build from a phone photo, a screenshot or a text of a sheet. If someone on site, often the GC's superintendent, shows a photo of a revised sheet or a sketch, the work it covers waits until the document is issued and logged. The lead tells the PM, who asks the GC for the issued document. Acceptance: no work installed whose source is not in the field set, checked at the weekly audit. Wrong looks like a crew member holding a phone over the work; stop, and the lead calls the PM. Photos of existing conditions for the shop's own record are fine; photos of sheets as build instructions are not. Hazard: none.

10. Audit the field set against the office log every week. The PM or coordinator compares title-block revisions in the truck set and on each device with the office log, and collects the superseded sheets. Acceptance: every sheet matches, and every superseded sheet logged that week is back in the office. Wrong looks like a superseded sheet not returned; find it that day, because a sheet still on site can still be built from. Hazard: per step 4 when on site.

The record this produces

The office sheet log, one line per sheet: sheet number, title, current revision and date, issuing document, date received, impact note, date printed, date delivered, date synced. The truck sheet log, at the front of the field set: date, sheets swapped, new revisions, lead's initials. The superseded archive: stamped sheets filed by date, kept to closeout. Together they answer the question asked after every rework dispute: on the day this was built, which revision was in the crew's hands, and when did the shop receive the next one. The PM reads them weekly; the office reads them at closeout.

A worked pass: Bulletin 4 on a medical office fit-out

The shop has the mechanical and electrical scopes. Bulletin 4 arrives by email on a Tuesday afternoon.

Step 7, the failure. The tablet read E-102 Rev 1, one revision behind the log's Rev 2, after a sync that reported success. The stop rule applied: the electrician put the tablet away for that job and worked from the paper set. The coordinator found the Rev 1 file still in the active folder beside the Rev 2 file, both named E-102, and the device had opened the older one. The coordinator moved Rev 1 to the archive, renamed the active file with its revision in the name, and had the device re-synced. The electrician re-opened E-102 and read Rev 2 at 5:20 PM. The receptacles in that cloud had not been roughed, so no work was affected; had the tablet been trusted, the two boxes would have gone in at their Rev 1 locations Wednesday.

Step 9, the hold. The diffuser in room 118 waited. The PM asked the GC for the issued sketch; it arrived Thursday as SK-M-9 attached to an RFI answer, was logged under step 1, and went into the field set Thursday afternoon. The diffuser went in Friday at the sketch's location, which differed by 2 ft from the photo the crew had been shown, because the sketch had been revised once more before issue.

References

• See related: The Revision Block and Why It Decides Everything
• See related: The Crew That Built Off a Superseded Sheet
• See related: How to Confirm the Truck Set Is Current
• See related: The RFI Log SOP
• See related: How to Redline the Set as You Build