Getting ready for Turnover starts at the beginning of the project
Turnover is a pivotal point in any project. It’s where the proverbial rubber meets the road, and owners, contractors and CxPs must agree on whether project deliverable requirements have been met and the owners’ teams are ready to assume control of the building.
While effectively an end-of-the-project task, turnover needs to be an integral part of project planning up front to ensure downstream success. At the beginning of the project, stakeholders need to be aligned on the format, the information and the recipients/participants for the turnover process. And in the case of critical projects such as hospitals, airports and data centers, there is little room for error or misalignment. The building must be fully operational, the staff must be ready and all of it must meet the original owner project requirements (OPR).
So, start at the beginning, define your end-of-project needs up front and capture them in a system so that you can be building towards turnover throughout the entire project. This brings me to the next point – use Cx software, not a spreadsheet.
Move beyond the spreadsheet and get out of the “boxes”
Successful turnover ultimately hinges on the successful documentation of the project. Using spreadsheets, emails and homegrown systems often results in a tedious, time-consuming process of tracking down materials to support the final handoff. And there is a considerable risk that materials will be lost or incorrect versions will be utilized. A system like Facility Grid provides a single source of truth for all the relevant information associated with operating building equipment and systems – capturing the requirements up front and providing a shared repository for all documents and images as well as issue resolution, tests and test results. There is no searching through inboxes, dropboxes, or any other box. The information is readily accessible and aligned with the original project requirements. Also, the transfer of this information to the building owner and the creation of the systems manual can be automated because all of the required data is already in Facility Grid. Additionally, valuable asset data can be transferred to the owner’s CMMS to be available for Day Two testing and ongoing operation and maintenance.
A successful project turnover can often define the perceived overall success of a project and whether there may be follow-on business. Thus, it is imperative to start and finish strong.
Additional Resources
To learn more, we invite you to join us on August 16 for a review and discussion of all the best practices in our webinar, Survival of the Fittest: Best Practices Webinar.
