We undertake the Management and Production of Operation and Maintenance Manuals to the construction industry.  We are experienced in producing both hard copy manuals and searchable electronic manuals.

The Operation and Maintenance Manuals as a part of the project health and safety files are designed to be a comprehensive information source that guides the employer and end users in the understanding of the building. The manual should define the building construction and its systems, along with the processes and procedures required for it to be operated and maintained efficiently and safely.

The O&M Manual, along with the completed project are often the final experiences left by a contractor for the client, and that by which they are often remembered. Problems and frustrations that are encountered post completion by the occupier in their understanding and operation of the building are a reflection back onto the contractor and the design team.

Clients know the importance of the effective management and operation of a building during its operational service.  Increasingly commercial implications for the failure of contractors to deliver comprehensive manuals are being included in Contracts.

Our Service - aptly summarised as "…they pulled the thing together". The service we provide however extends further. Our aim is to provide contractors with a cost and resource efficient service to satisfy their contractual obligations by delivering to clients a manual of the highest quality.

We provide a designer experienced in the production of the manuals to work on the management, co-ordination and production of the manuals from start to finish.  They will work with the design and construction teams to ensure that a manual with the appropriate and necessary content of the highest quality is produced. Thereby satisfying the end users needs and ensuring that the contractual and professional obligations are timely discharged by our clients to the Employer. Management, Co-ordination & Production – Our involvement in projects has identified a number of common issues affecting the production and quality of manuals including:

• Produced by "construction" professionals who are not qualified or experienced in the production of manuals, thereby reflecting in the quality, content and usability
• Produced by individuals, often project managers or quantity surveyors, who see the function as a "bolt-on" task to their role
• Prepared and submitted late, attracting financial penalties for contractors
• Produced by a variety of parties without any uniform structure to the finished manual

• Financial penalties for late delivery of manuals
• Increased costs in producing manuals with staff costs often masked in site project costs
• Increased cost of maintenance through irregular, unnecessary or missed routine maintenance
• Breaches of Health and Safety Regulations and CDM Regulations arising from employers using safety equipment with lapsed test certificates
• Construction staff unnecessarily retained on projects to undertake what is often perceived as an "administration" task rather than "being out building"
• Increased costs of investigating and correcting latent defects due to none availability of construction information

Whilst our team will not be familiar with the technical aspects of individual projects, our service compliments the construction and technical team.  We co-ordinate, facilitate, manage, collate and edit information received from the parties involved, and produce in a uniform format a manual which is clear, structured and easy to maintain and update as and when required.
We can also produce full electronic versions of the manuals which can be hyperlinked and produced with indexed and searchable text.

Maintenance - On completion, we can maintain full backup copies of the electronic files which can then be updated or amended to suit current information and contents as required.
This can be undertaken on a quarterly contract or ad-hoc as required basis. We can also duplicate, prepare and distribute hardcopy loose information.  Alternatively we can provide a full service to amend your existing files at your offices, maintaining QA registers of updates to your manuals

Copies & Duplication - Lost or damaged disks or data? No problem, from our secure data validated copies we can reproduce disks as required.
Hard copies of manuals can also be reproduced with low to medium volume documents duplicated by ourselves, or for economies of scale, large volume manuals are duplicated through our agreements with our supply chain at competitive rates

Online Solution – We are drawing on our experience of working on a number of projects and are currently developing an online solution to the collation and production of operation and maintenance manuals which will address the problems that we have experienced and witnessed in the provision of a system to the end users.

Contact us to discuss any further requirements that you may have.