Submittals are an essential part of pre-construction and construction that
can sometimes get disjointed. With the volume of documents used for
clarifying material selections and ironing out details like color choices, it’s
easy to assume they’re low priority and have little impact. Yet a mistake
on a submittal form can lead to unimaginable accidents and losses,
such as what occurred in the 1981 Hyatt Regency Skywalk collapse.
The skywalk collapse was caused in part by submittal documents
offering a suspension option that wasn’t approved by the engineers. If
a better process for handling submittal documents had been in place,
the skywalk collapse and resulting losses could’ve been prevented. With
a better understanding of the importance of the submittals process,
let’s explore how to optimize it and the workflow producing them.