2.4.9 Submittal Log

It is simply not important to record the manner in which submittals are processed from each subvendor, through the constructor’s review, to the design professional and/or the owner for approval, back to the constructor for coordination, and ultimately returned to the subvendor for their use. This process can and should be orchestrated as a proactive management activity to compel all of these things to occur in their proper form and content, and within the specific requirements of the progress schedule. In other words, it is wholly insufficient to simply expect the submittal/approval process to occur just because the contract requires it to be so. The project manager and project engineer are to assume complete responsibility for the management and enforcement of the proper and timely completion of this most important project management function.
The Submittal Log Book will be the focal point about which management activity will be orchestrated. It will be the location at which the specification requirements for submittals will be cataloged, the dates of performance identified, and action by responsible parties summarized.
As Submittal Log systems have become computerized in recent years, the biggest problem that has crept into such management systems has been a dramatic loss of visibility. The nature of these records that include voluminous and tedious detail have been allowed to overwhelm the record system. While it is true that the information is almost always there, it is too often arranged in a manner that can make it difficult or impossible to use the data on a day-to-day basis in order to compel performance. Instead, these cumbersome computerized systems can too often be useful only in a de facto analysis in a claim situation. In all of these cases, the problems with records retrieval and use boil down to the form of reporting and presentation. The objective, therefore, in the development of the form and format for the Submittal Log information will be to allow information to be presented to the project staff in its most effective, useful form. Logged data can and should be arranged in a manner that will identify all necessary requirements, clarify relationships, present actual performance relative to required performance, and allow a mechanism for expediting. They should be arranged and presented to management in a way that restores visibility of the data, instead of burying the information in an unusable mass of technical complication. Again, the details of these procedures are presented in the respective sections of this Operations Manual. This section here only prepares the vehicle (Log Book) for its eventual use toward these objectives.
For use, then, by the project manager and project engineer at the central project engineering location, prepare either a 1″ or 2″ (depending on project size) hard-cover three-ring binder (color to match the project set), and label as Sub-mittal Log. Insert the starting set of a minimum of 30 sheets of the Submittal Log Form as described in Section 4.9 of this Operations Manual. The Submit-tal Log Book is now ready to fill this important function.