The standardisation of construction snagging: Fid-Bau Portal

The standardisation of construction snagging

Sommerville, James / Craig, Nigel / Bowden, Sarah

Construction projects have become larger and more complex and yet still maintain a high drive for quality. As a result of this increase in size and complexity, the quantities of documentation and information required to control the overall project process have themselves become more complex. Underpinning the goal of construction quality is real time information flow to and from the construction site along with communications between all the parties involved. Project information integration and collaboration is the key to achievement of coherent quality management and this can be attained through electronically sharing of information during the construction process. The residential sector of the construction industry continually experiences significant numbers of “snags”. Many site issues including snagging need to be resolved quickly and efficiently to avoid dispute and more importantly cost overrun. However, the distinct professions and artisans within the industry rarely acknowledge the needs of others. Indeed the snagging information they produce is often so incompatible that the next stage in many processes is to reconstruct the information into a workable format. Analysis of a range of organisations' approaches to snagging shows that they have their own distinct snagging process. What is required is a coherent approach to the use and implementation of an IT based, industry wide, snagging format which would revolutionise and streamline the recording and approval process of construction snagging.