Engineering firms aim to put their best resources on their most complex design projects. That is, they assign their top notch engineers and best software to meet the time and cost requirements. But even the most experienced design engineers need a few good rules of thumb to ensure the constructibility of the deliverable. We’ll share four of our team’s checkpoints that help deliver projects that streamline the processes to service activation.
Don’t assume:
1. the design goes to the backbone.
The backbone is the more important part of the network because it provides the central support for the rest of the network. This is no more evident than when the end point is designed without availability to the backbone. Having software that can QA/QC trace connectivity of your designs will save time and verify the path.
2. the network design and construction project is a greenfield.
Those brownfield projects - even if the existing network is only a year old - may not have previous designs available. So when you are assessing the time and resources for designing a network, conduct discovery to see what access you’ll have to previous designs or concurrent designs in the specific area.
3. the field data has been posted.
The gap of time between a field mark-up and posting the as-built construction of the system is a prime factor for inaccurate network data. Field mark-ups that are not made with a mobile application that automatically “near-real time” updates the system of record will create situations where the system data will not be up to date. In this case, check the backlog of as-built updates in the specific design area.
4. the bill of materials (BOM) is accurate.
BOM management is critical for cost management. Having software to automatically create BOMs in templates allows for standardization and traceability, so it is a tool that design engineers seek to use. A checkpoint is to confirm the BOM reports are reconciled to be accurate.
Now most of the design engineers reading this post will be thinking, “obviously.” This checklist is to give you a bit of pause to your hectic process. 3-GIS offers engineering services for customers who would like support with their network design and fiber build process. You can read more about 3-GIS engineering services here.
As always, if you have questions about how 3-GIS products and/or services can help ensure you have a good design and deliver constructible documentation, feel free to reach out to us here.