There comes a moment in every construction project when somebody asks: - “Where are the O&Ms?”

 

This is usually followed by frantic searching, several enormous file transfers and the sudden appearance of documents nobody remembers asking for.

 

• Eventually, several thousand pages arrive.

• Everybody relaxes.

• The O&Ms have been delivered.

 

Except there is one small problem.

 

Somewhere, sometime, somebody is actually going to have to use them.

 

An engineer will need to find an isolation point. A facilities manager will need a maintenance requirement.

 

Somebody will need a commissioning record, a replacement part number or an answer to the wonderfully simple question:

​

“What does this thing actually do?”

 

That is when the difference between a collection of information and a properly written O&M Manual becomes painfully obvious.