Hello, everyone.

This is Enta.

When you hand documents to others, are they easy for them to understand?

Whether it's Excel or Word, can others tell at a glance, "Oh, I see what this is about"?

If it's just a document you're doing for your own satisfaction, your work might be done once you hand it over to someone else, but,

The person who receives it then reworks it so that others can understand it. It takes more than twice the effort.

 

Is that really okay for your job?

 

Something a senior colleague once told me bluntly when I was young was,

Think about whether the documents are clear enough for a layperson to understand the process at a glance when they come to the site and look at them.

Whether it's a drawing or a bill of materials, can you tell the specifications and quantities at a glance?

Does that make sense?

 

I often receive documents from others as well.

Some people have taken it to the point where it’s ready to hand off as-is (from right to left), so I’m just so grateful.

However, if we receive documents that don't meet the requirements, in the worst-case scenario, we'll have to start over from scratch.

This is just a lot of extra work. (Well, I wouldn't actually say that, though...)

Moreover, if I’m the site representative undergoing the inspection myself, I can explain things verbally, so there’s no problem, but

If you are a first-tier subcontractor, this will affect the prime contractor's evaluation.

 

And since it also depends on how well the general contractor understands the documents, it’s best to aim for documents that are as clear as possible, right?

So, what exactly constitutes an easy-to-understand document?

If it were a quantity table

The clarity of the vertical and horizontal entries, and the display of the calculation formulas.

Even though it’s a bit of a hassle for me, I often use the FIXED function in Excel.

This function converts numbers in Excel into text. It's easy to use, so I highly recommend it.

 

And then...Consistency between the bill of materials and the drawings.

I think this is the key point.

Since the drawings are the definitive source for quantities, if anything is unclear, add a note to the quantity table and indicate the same number at the corresponding location on the drawing.

 

It's not as difficult as you might think, but,

I’ve had a really bad experience before, so I try to be as careful as possible myself.

 

If you look at the documents you're submitting and think, "Huh?", then other people definitely won't understand, lol.

If a document is inherently difficult to understand, please add notes to it.

This story isn't just about the completion documents!

It's the same for any document, no matter the format, lol.

Those ??? documents are a real headache, so let's be careful ^^

 

See you later.