Advertising for luxury cars and watches would lead you to believe that a never-ending quest for perfection is a good thing. But in real life, perfectionism can only lead to disappointment. In a sense, good engineering is a search for adequacy. That may not seem very inspiring, but it’s a lot healthier. It’s also more sustainable, as it leads to the most efficient use of the resources. Instead of letting the best be the enemy of the good, we consider that “good enough” is best.
Optimization and trade-offs
Optimization necessarily entails trade-offs. The classic project management triangle balances budget, schedule, and quality. You can have any two. That is, high quality delivered quickly will be expensive. Fast and cheap will be of poor quality. Good and inexpensive will take longer.
To optimize, you need to understand what matters most to your client. It can take some work on your part to figure out what your client is really asking for. They may not know what’s possible. Or they may know what they want but not articulate it clearly. Also, they may not understand the trade-offs inherent in the various materials and practices.
For example, as we seek to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete, we’ll use more alternative cementitious materials and less portland cement. These materials can yield great results, but we may need to adjust our concreting practices. Or we may just have to wait longer for the concrete to gain strength. Make sure your client and your crews know what to expect and how to accommodate the differences.
There may be some things you didn’t realize you needed to specify. For example, your client may not care what color the concrete is, but they may not like the color variations that come with high dosages of fly ash. The more they know going in, the fewer unpleasant surprises. Mockups can help manage their expectations. They can also help in deciding what’s good enough.
Pre-construction meeting
A pre-construction meeting of all parties will ensure that everyone understands their responsibilities. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association has a pre-construction checklist to help you make sure you’ve covered everything you need to. It includes an overview of the entire project so you can coordinate the work of the various trades on site. You can discuss tolerances and go over the practices for hot- and cold-weather concreting so everyone understands what’s good enough. Discussing these matters ahead of time can help you avoid a lot of problems. It also helps just to make sure everyone knows who the other players are so they know whom to call when concerns arise.
In our work in forensic engineering, we’ll normally review the project documentation, including meeting minutes. It’s not uncommon on jobs that went wrong that no one set up a pre-construction meeting, or that they failed to invite key personnel.