Specifications

Technical Specifications: Materials and Processes

Basic Considerations

If one were to pick at random a number of technical specifications for an assorted variety of jobs and compare them, it might appear at first that there was a little similarity between them. Fundamentally, however, each, if well written, will have as its goal the presenting of certain definite information arranged in the manner which will make this information of maximum value to those for whom it is intended. A satisfactory arrangement for a given set of technical specifications must therefore be based on the type of operation which it is intended to control.

A technical specification for an item of supplies, such as coal for a power station, will be different from a specification for construction work which will include labor as well as materials. In either case, however, the technical specifications should be organized so that the party or parties whose work or supplies it will control can find the information which they require quickly, easily, and without reading through pages of material which does not concern their part of the work.

Outlining Technical Specifications for Construction Work

In technical specifications for construction work the material which should be included and the manner in which this material should be organized must be consistent with the organization of the trades and industry which are to construct the work and supply materials.

Construction work is at the present time formalized into rather definite trade lines, each trade specializing in some particular type of work. Trade unions have encouraged this trend; and on work on which all labor is union controlled, the mechanics will work at only one trade. Just as labor has specialized and the activities of mechanics are restricted to one type of work, so also have the contracting companies specialized; and it is now extremely rare to see a construction project on which all the work is done by only one company. In...