Coordinating all the information between design and construction professionals is one of the greatest challenges in the project lifecycle. According to an article in Architectural Record, The perils of poor document quality and incomplete document coordination are numerous and costly.

To avoid perpetuating these wide format printing errors, the architects and contractors leading the project should develop a document quality management plan. In order for these plans to foster productivity through effective communication, each plan must be tailored to suit individual projects. Goal-specific guidelines for these color coded construction documents should be generated based on the needs of both the architects and the contractors assigned to the project.

Though these document coordination efforts might seem tedious, the sheer volume and complexity of the data makes quality management plans critical. If architecture and construction firms ignore this need, they're at risk for errors that can be detrimental to the budget and timeline of their construction projects. According to the American School & University Magazine article Paper Chase, "Unresolved coordination issues account for 15 to 35 percent of change orders." The cost incurred as a result of this lack of effective communication is unnecessary, especially since these coordination issues can be easily corrected by strengthening construction documentation.

Some firms outsource the document coordination review process to a third-party company that offers such preconstruction services. This is the specialty of the Nigro Firm, which offers a full suite of "KeenLook" and "RediCheck" review services. They offer service tiers from interdisciplinary reviews up to full service reviews for anywhere from $40 to $180 per sheet.

However, even if an architectural firm employed these kinds of services, a team member would likely have to reproduce those color notations by hand on black-and-white sheets for multiple recipients. If the construction documents were in color in the first place, the document coordination process would be much easier to tackle. In fact, benefits listed on the Nigro Firm's homepage correlate with the benefits derived from using color construction documents, which include a reduction in change orders and fewer requests for information.

If architecture, engineering and construction firms invest in preconstruction services that produce color mark-ups, it would be a waste of resources to scan or reproduce the markups using black and white wide format printers. If document coordination and review is worth the initial investment, these quality documents deserve to be printed in color.

Resource Center Home Printing Construction Documents in Color