Turning a verbal site instruction into a priced variation
Change control across six to ten concurrent projects, where the commercial record is created after the work has already started.
A specialist fit out contractor turning over under three million pounds, running six to ten concurrent commercial refurbishments.
A delivered Orchyn engagement. The client is anonymised at their request. The company and the people are not named. The operation, the workflow, the controls and the outcome are as delivered.
The commercial problem
The company loses time reconstructing what was requested, who approved it and whether a site instruction became a priced variation. Information arrives by email, drawing, phone note and photograph.
The commercial risk is not a lack of work. It is weak control over changes already in motion. The record is built retrospectively, after the decision or the work has begun.
How the work runs before
- A client or architect sends an instruction by call, email or message.
- The site manager receives it while running the site.
- The team starts discussing or doing the work.
- The contracts manager later searches drawings, emails and site notes for context.
- The quantity surveyor prepares a variation record by hand.
- If written approval is missing, clarification is chased after work has started.
What makes it hard to automate safely
- The model must not interpret design intent, approve work, certify value or replace a contractual notice.
- A time critical safety instruction needs immediate human escalation, never a queue.
- Project documents are version sensitive. Source and date matter more than a summary.
- Recording behaviour on site had to improve before automation could help at all.
What we change first
A project intake and source register was created so every instruction has a recorded origin, date and channel. The behavioural change on site came first. Without it, the system would simply have organised an incomplete record faster.
The redesigned workflow
- An instruction is received and logged into the intake register with its source.
- The model extracts project, request, date and source, then checks it against the current drawing revision.
- A safety or contractual trigger routes immediately to the site manager and the contracts manager.
- Anything commercially material is proposed as a draft variation record with its evidence attached.
- The quantity surveyor prices it. The contracts manager confirms whether contractual notice is required and issues it.
Where the model stops
The model captures, extracts and proposes. It does not interpret design intent, approve a variation or serve notice. Contractual notice is a legal act performed by a person within the contract terms.
What we learned
The technology was the smaller half. The change that mattered was capturing an instruction at the moment it arrived rather than reconstructing it weeks later. A system cannot retrospectively create evidence that nobody recorded.