Architects and Reprographers - Adversaries or Allies

posted on January 6, 2010 under General

Architects and Reprographers
Adversaries or Allies
by Thomas J. Sansone

Before a shovel ever breaks the ground on a construction project there has been an multi-billion dollar industry busy at work creating and reproducing project documents in order for a construction team to be assembled to stick that first shovel in the ground.

  General Contractors increasingly rely on professional Reprographers to provide a valuable service of printing & managing projects documents. The Reprographer will often provide an ‘online plan room’ for sub contractors and suppliers to view the project documents.
   Once an architect has completed drawing a set of plans and specifications for any given project there begins a pirouette of sorts between the Architect and the Reprographer. The Reprographer exists to distribute that information to the construction professionals who will eventually build the building. With the increasing ability for files to zoom through cyber space at the click of a mouse, architects are often overly protective of the project files in an attempt to ensure they are not compromised in any way. The Reprographer on the other hand wants that information in as many hands as possible, whether that information is delivered as a printed plan or an electronic file. Stuck in the middle of this ballet is the GC – his interest usually lies with the Reprographer since it is the GC who has sought assistance in document printing and management.
   Many forward thinking Architects will provide electronic bid sets to a prospective GC or a Reprographer recognizing that the “genie is out of the bottle” and there is no way to control the electronic dissemination of the project information. However many Architects cling to an old school notion of requiring the GC to purchase a printed “bid set” rather than providing the documents in digital form. The theory is that this method assures the Architect that the GC has obtained “the entire scope of work”. What happens to the project documents after they leave the Architect’s office? They are usually taken to a Reprographer who immediately scans the documents and turns them back into digital form so that additional printed sets can be provided to all the sub-contractors to make their bids. This cost, of course, is passed on through the GC’s bid and drives up the cost to the building owner. Even knowing this is happening Architects will often stubbornly refuse to provide the documents electronically, treating the Reprographer as some sort of thief who will peddle their intellectual property on the street corner. Architects often foster adversarial relationships with Reprographers rather than accept them as industry professionals.
    The printed plan is not going away anytime soon, but, for example, why should an Electrical Contractor go to the expense of buying a complete plan set or driving to the GC’s office to view printed plans on a project that they may not even bid on. It is exponentially more efficient to view a plan set ‘online’ then if a bid will made an order can be placed for only the ‘electrical’ plans since “the entire scope of work” can be viewed online at any time. This saves considerable time and expense for the sub-contractor allowing for a more qualified bid to the GC. In addition it is environmentally responsible to avoid the needless waste of paper of frivolous printed sets.
   It is time for Architects to recognize that project information needs to be widely disseminated to effectively move a project forward and that professional Reprographers will responsibly manage their “intellectual property”. It is not my intention to paint the Architect as a villain; they may have legitimate concerns and issues that I have not covered here. Perhaps the industry needs to open a dialogue between the two. When Architects and Reprographers work together as allies the entire bidding and post bid document management process works more efficiently to the benefit of all involved.
   Tom Sansone is owner of PlanroomDirect.com a Reprographic and Document Management business for the AEC industry.