CAMP Questions and Answers - Part 2
| This article complements the previous articles “What are good practices for Commissioning Acceptance and Maintenance Plan (CAMP)?” and Questions and Answers to CAMP – Part 1. Here are Questions and Answers to CAMP – Part 2. What are the CAMP deliverables? Typical contract sections or project plans for CAMP deliverables are:
Who is responsible for CAMP? CAMP is a cross-functional process and it is correlated with various activities and the creation of various project records. As established by the project in the Schedule Work Breakdown Structure, the CAMP process monitors work across several managerial silos. In some Electronic Document Management Systems, the managerial silos or project phases include: Design: The development and refinement of project product requirements, and the creation of contract documents and performance metrics for the product meeting the Buyer’s criteria and business case results. Construction: The physical fabrication/manufacture of systems, brick & mortar assembly of a structure for the systems, and the integrated start-up and testing the entire product for Buyers acceptance. Quality: The control and assurance on the product, processes and documentation meet the Buyer’s requirements for the project product, including design and construction submittals and deliverables and the content for CAMP. Commercial: The management of project finances, contract payments and closeout, contract changes and of contractor performance to schedule milestones, which includes monitoring incentives for beating milestones and liquidated damages for missing milestones. What typical CAMP activities should be in the Detailed Contract Schedule? A sample of the critical cross functional activities with responsibilities by Buyer/Seller are:
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CAMP Questions and Answers - Part 2
| This article complements the previous articles “What are good practices for Commissioning Acceptance and Maintenance Plan (CAMP)?” and Questions and Answers to CAMP – Part 1. Here are Questions and Answers to CAMP – Part 2. What are the CAMP deliverables? Typical contract sections or project plans for CAMP deliverables are:
Who is responsible for CAMP? CAMP is a cross-functional process and it is correlated with various activities and the creation of various project records. As established by the project in the Schedule Work Breakdown Structure, the CAMP process monitors work across several managerial silos. In some Electronic Document Management Systems, the managerial silos or project phases include: Design: The development and refinement of project product requirements, and the creation of contract documents and performance metrics for the product meeting the Buyer’s criteria and business case results. Construction: The physical fabrication/manufacture of systems, brick & mortar assembly of a structure for the systems, and the integrated start-up and testing the entire product for Buyers acceptance. Quality: The control and assurance on the product, processes and documentation meet the Buyer’s requirements for the project product, including design and construction submittals and deliverables and the content for CAMP. Commercial: The management of project finances, contract payments and closeout, contract changes and of contractor performance to schedule milestones, which includes monitoring incentives for beating milestones and liquidated damages for missing milestones. What typical CAMP activities should be in the Detailed Contract Schedule? A sample of the critical cross functional activities with responsibilities by Buyer/Seller are:
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CAMP Questions and Answers - Part 1
| This article complements the previous article “What are good practices for Commissioning Acceptance and Maintenance Plan (CAMP)?” Tailored to rail transit projects, this article follows with Q&A on CAMP definitions, description of CAMP deliverables, integrated managerial functions supporting CAMP, and the general activities and sequence for CAMP. Here are Questions and Answers to CAMP – Part 1. When Does the CAMP Process Start? CAMP starts with the design of the project and the creation of construction documents, and it continues through the closeout of the contract/project. The process will consist of iterative development of a content a Matrix that lists the components that will form the constructed product as described in the project scope and objective. The Matrix also lists the expected CAMP deliverables, such as Operation and Maintenance Manuals, Warranty, Training, As-Built Drawings, Spare Parts, Software, and GIS/Asset Management data. Starting the work in the design will assure that at the time of the construction contract award, the Seller and Buyer have the same expectations for the CAMP deliverables. What are the definitions for CAMP? Commissioning: This is the pre-requisite activities and deliverables for starting the CAMP package and deliverables for Acceptance, and it is the Buyer’s (Owner) process for verification of project/contract scope and the Seller’s (Contractor) compliance with requirements. The activities typically include Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), On-Site Acceptance Testing (SAT), In-progress Inspections, Start-Up and Burn-In. Commissioning activities should be integrated into Project Control schedules and Quality Plans, which contain quality control test and inspection plans. Acceptance: This is a predecessor activity for contract closeout, and it refers to the Final Acceptance by the Buyer/Owner, which follows completion of Commissioning activities and A) Final formal inspection of the Seller’s work. B) Seller’s completion of punchlist work. C) Buyer’s confirming resolution of Submittals and Non-Conformance Reports (NCR). D) Buyer’s receipt of Seller’s training, As-Built drawings, Spare parts, Warranty, Operation and Maintenance Manuals (Inspection and Maintenance). E) BIM/GIS and Asset Management Data. Contractually, Acceptance equates to Construction Completion, which its tied directly to commercial provisions, Final Payment and Warranty, and is a milestone for the Project Control schedule. Maintenance: This is a post-contract closeout activity and it refers to Buyer’s readiness to conduct periodic inspections and maintain the Seller’s accepted work. The Buyer’s readiness includes A) Allocating operating budget and assign management responsibility. B) Purchase and inventory of special tools, consumable items and spare parts. C) Assign new or reallocate operation/maintenance staff and resources. D) Update company asset inventory and insurance. What are CAMP requirements? The requirements for the items cited in the definitions above are typically embedded in the contract document. Typical contract sections or project plans for CAMP technical requirements or inputs in rail transit are:
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Value of Knowledge Management and Contract Deliverables
| Recently I was asked to estimate the cost of the various deliverables that are contractually required from Sellers to Buyers. The estimate included the Seller’s material cost, software cost, labor and administrative effort to prepare, publish and deliver multiple copies of knowledge deliverables, labor for knowledge transfer services, and administrative costs for post contract liabilities. The knowledge deliverables consisted of As-Built drawings and Operation and Maintenance Manuals. The knowledge transfer services consisted of training and organized handover of project records. The post-contract liabilities consisted of Warranty services. From previous contract experience in the rail transit domain, the contract deliverables are usually covered in the Buyer/Seller agreement and the value is covered by the retainage withheld by the Buyer from the Seller’s approved progress payments. The retainage is typically 5% and it’s released from the Buyer to the Seller at the completion of Final Payment, which is dependent on the Seller meeting the contract requirements. What the preliminary estimate showed was the cost to produce the end-of-contract deliverables expected by the Buyer from the Seller was within the 5% retainage amount. As a result, the historical use of 5% retainage in contract payment transactions provided high confidence that the Seller would fulfill the requirements or in theory, risk the Buyer using the retainage to fund another professional service contract for completing the deliverables. After further review, the estimate did not though, account for the value of the knowledge and services to the Buyer’s operation. Most of the end-of-contract deliverables will outlast the initial Buyer’s use and continue to provide knowledge for the operation and maintenance of the contract product. For contract producing sophisticated systems or cutting edge technology and services, the value to the operations may be far more that the 5% retainage. Long after the Seller’s contract is closed out, the knowledge created will help the Buyer in training new employees on operating the system, conducting preventive, predictive and routine maintenance and in coordinating as-built conditions for future projects. As a result, the Buyer will need to secure the knowledge for safe storage and quick retrieval and provide all resources needed for an operational asset. In order to assure the continued value of the end-of-contract deliverables, the Buyer will need to protect these legacy documents and establish knowledge management processes and resources. Deliverables such as As-Built drawings, O&M Manuals and training lesson plans and materials will continue to provide the Buyer with critical knowledge to share with employees for years to come while the product continues through its use-life cycle. What was once a paper exchange is now being replaced by paperless alternatives that are environmentally conscientious and take up less space and cost less. Digital libraries on off-properties are replacing storage and retrieval of paper documents. However, this transition is not yet complete and many companies still require a combination of paper and digital copies of project and contract documents. Like the intangible value of a Warranty, the value of the knowledge from the end-of-contract is hard to quantify. And its true value will only be appreciated when needed and usually at an inconvenient time. But the qualitative value to a typical railroad organization includes:
TIP: Most projects funded by the US government are required to retain project records for a defined period, and thereafter can determine the disposition of the records, including disposal. Buyer’s should have a plan for selecting the records and the medium for longer term storage and retrieval of project knowledge. TIP: Buyer’s should review contract requirements to assess if the paper focused deliverables are more cost effective than a digital approach for the scope of the project. For smaller, lower budget projects, paper may still be the best medium for contract deliverables. For larger, high budget projects, digital software and licenses may be a more effective solution, which can be accessed and searched by the Buyer from any computer location 24 X 7. Feedback to Comments A. On estimated cost: The evaluation of estimated cost for deliverables was favorable because it was a Design-Build contract, where the value of the design allowed for a buffer. The estimate relative to a fixed bid/lump sum may require the Buyer consider a large retainage percentage to cover expectations on a contract with systems. The estimated value does not include the spare parts, which would be itemized separately in the bid price of the contract. B. The closest rail transit projects consider knowledge management is as-built deliverables and O&M Manuals. Historically, rail transit projects deal with paper and hammers. As system projects increase the volume of paper, Buyer’s in the rail transit domain will need to consider management and sharing knowledge via electronic/digital medium. C. On IT initiatives for KM: Historically commuter railroads with budgets that are funded by the government, which off-set actual operating expenses to fare revenue ratio, tend to lag with leading edge IT practices in other industries. However, as the volume of paper increases with the size and complexity of mega projects, it will be inevitable for railroads to consider paperless approaches. While limiting paper, the are still projects that will require paper copies and software hard drives on-site for immediate use in recovery and restoring operations. |
Good practices for Commissioning Acceptance and Maintenance Plans (CAMP)?
| Until recently, Commissioning, Acceptance and Maintenance Plan (CAMP) deliverables on major projects were delegated to the contractor for determining format, content, level of detail and the submittal date. Typically, the compilation of the associated deliverables was part of final acceptance of contract products by the Buyer and achieving the performance milestone by Seller for contract completion. At contract completion, the withheld retainage by the Buyer, which can be 5% deducted from all Seller’s progress payments through 100% earned contract value, becomes part of the contract closeout. As a result, contractors typically leave the CAMP deliverables until the end of the contract. Contract closeout means the Buyer’s Project Manager (PM) can close the remaining administrative office, package the files for storage, and be reassigned to other projects on a full-time basis. For the Seller’s PM, it means all financial reimbursement obligations are complete and they can close files and financial bookings, and reassign any remaining staff to other contracts. However, there are numerous Lessons on contracts from closeout experiences that reflect poor quality and incomplete CAMP deliverables. The situation is compounded by the urgency of the Buyer’s PM to closeout the contract and of the Seller’s PM to collect all retainage due from the already approved payments. At this time on the contract lifecycle, CAMP deliverables can easily become secondary, as both PM’s are usually focused on closeout and moving on to new projects or contracts. In order to mitigate the risk of poor quality and incomplete CAMP deliverables on rail transit projects, a major United States (USA) commuter railroad updated its requirements for consultant design contracts and contractor construction contracts. The scope of work for design contracts specify that a CAMP Matrix be developed and submitted with each level of deliverables. The Division 1 Specifications for the construction contracts specify the CAMP as a deliverable with scope, product and execution requirements that include the CAMP Matrix – developed by the design consultant. The CAMP Matrix includes the major systems constructed, and for deliverables, such as Training, Operation and Maintenance Manuals, Spare Parts, Software, Software Licenses, Warranty, and As-built drawings, which are itemized in the Divisions 2-16 Specifications of the construction contract. Some Mega projects also include deliverables for BIM/GIS, Asset Management and service contract agreements. As the Matrix progresses from the design contract and into the construction contract, more detailed descriptions of the components /systems of the constructed product are incorporated. This creates better understanding of the CAMP deliverables. Since implementing in the late 2000’s, the USA commuter railroad has collected Lessons Learned on CAMP requirements, which are used during the development of new projects and contracts. Enhancing the contracts was proven to enable Buyer’s PMs to better manage the Seller’s PMs and realize higher quality and comprehensive CAMP deliverables that met the real expectations of the Owner’s operating departments. The CAMP Matrix makes it clearer to both PM’s on the scope of deliverables and it provides the foundation for expanding the use into alternate delivery contracts such as Design Build (DB). Thanks to designing CAMP into the deliverables, the Seller for DBB contract has well defined requirements and deliverables scope for CAMP. In DB contract, the Seller will develop the CAMP scope during the design phase and compile the source documents from construction contract submittals from the DB prime and all its subcontractors and vendors/suppliers. Due to the size of scope and contract values on mega projects, the planned intermediate use of contract products for operational use ahead of the contract completion/final acceptance milestone is a practical necessity. In the current rail transit environment in USA, the project leadership commitments to funding partners, stakeholders, politicians and influencers create urgency to place products in-service for Ribbon Cutting ceremonies and press conferences. As a result, Owner’s assume responsibility for maintenance well ahead on the scheduled contract or project completion. This requires that the usual end-of-contract CAMP activities become incremental and intermediate, and the project team needs to adjust project management staffing by Buyers and Sellers to expedite CAMP deliverables. Good Practices for CAMP
Topics for Further Consideration at Closeout:
TIP: CAMP deliverables should be tailored to the Owner’s expectations and to SAMPLES of CAMP documents accepted to the Owner on previous contracts. TIP: CAMP deliverables should utilize as many of the documents reviewed during construction contract Submittals, which typically include detailed instructions for start-up, operation and maintenance as well as a list of recommended consumable parts, replacement spare parts, inspections, warranty and trouble shooting information. TIP: Owner/Buyer should compile a set of SAMPLE documents – proven acceptable to Owner POCs, that can be used by Buyer/Seller PMs to create and distribute CAMP deliverables. TIP: Buyer’s CAMP Manager should have access to information across various functional silos of the project management organization and data management system software, including design (CAMP development), construction (CAMP implementation and training records), quality (Product/system tests, inspections and various reports) and commercial (Contract changes, requests for acceptance, payment for spare parts, and requests for release of retainage). TIP: Since final acceptance of products initiates the start of the Seller’s warranty period, Seller’s PM, Buyer PM’s and Owner should create a post contract completion team to monitor the warranty lifecycle, which may occur while construction is on-going and extend after contract completion is achieved. TIP: Since receipt of spare parts is in the CAMP scope, Buyer’s and Seller’s PMs need to establish a formal process and documentation to manage the transfer of spare parts to support the incremental final acceptance of contract products. TIP: Typical projects start with a Kick-Off Meeting, the completion of CAMP including the warranty period one-year after contract final completion, should be finalized by a Closeout Meeting between the Owner, Buyer’s PM and Seller’s PM. As may be required, Owner’s final evaluation of Seller’s performance should record and assessment for CAMP and Warranty. TIP: Mega projects always start with a ground breaking ceremony where top officials from the Owner, Buyer’s PM team, Seller, Funding Partners, politicians and other influencers are smiling and holding shovels. The CAMP deliverables and the completion of warranty – one year after full contract completion should be equally ceremonial, such as a press conference with similes, hand-shakes and words of satisfaction between the Owner, Buyer’s PM and Seller’s PM. As may be required, Owner’s final evaluation of Seller’s performance should record and assessment for CAMP and Warranty. |
