Assuring a Smooth Turnover from Design and Construction

DOE-STD-1073-2003

Configuration Management

3.9

Assuring a Smooth Turnover from Design and Construction

To ensure a successful turnover of new facilities or new modifications, the design

contractor and the construction contractors should interface with the operating contractor

early in the design and construction phases. When an effective interface is established

early in the design process, it is more likely that the design contractor and the

construction contractors will provide the needed design products to the operating

contractor and turnover will be successful. The design and construction contractors,

together with the operating contractor, should establish and agree upon the formal criteria

for construction turnover. At a minimum, the criteria should include the following

provisions:

specify at design inception the format and content of design basis and design

output documents to ensure that they will be compatible with the operating

contractor's work processes,

periodically monitor the preparation of design basis and design output documents,

specify the review and approval process for the format and content of final design

basis and final design output documents, and

accept responsibility for their configuration management at turnover.

Although it is highly desirable, it is not always possible for the operating contractor to be

involved with the designer/constructor during the design and construction phases. For

example, a major new facility might be ordered and designed before final assignment of a

management and operating (M&O) contractor. In such cases, the designer should be

responsible for ensuring that the operating contractor has the necessary design

requirement information at turnover. If the operating contractor is not involved in the

design/construction process or if the design and construction contractor fails to provide

an effective interface, the operating contractor should identify and implement the actions

necessary to recover the missing information.

3.10 Grading

The initial grading of SSCs for the configuration management process begins with the

identification of the CM SSCs. That process separates the SSCs that will be assessed

through the configuration management process when changes are made from those that

will not.

Additional grading may be appropriate. For example, the contractors may want to apply

a more stringent configuration management process to safety SSCs, than to costly SSCs.

If so, then the contractor must clearly document the different processes being used and

the SSCs to which each process applies.

Contractors should also consider that developing and implementing multiple levels of

configuration management is not always more cost effective than developing and

implementing a single, consistently-applied configuration management process.

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