We believe a technical specification should do more than just be a legal contract document that defines the seller’s technical responsibilities to the Buyer.  Defining legal obligations is obviously necessary, but a specification can be far more valuable if it also serves as an excellent communication tool for all parties working on a project.  Those parties include sub‑contractors, vendors, the Original Equipment Manufacturer's (OEM’s) engineers and construction managers, and also the Owner and OEM.

 Crane technical requirements are never static.  They change with new technology, new applications, and lessons learned from past accidents, performance defects, and communication problems.  The importance of the latter cannot be over emphasized.  We believe most people want to do what is right; but that is not always possible when poor communication leads to misunderstandings, claims, and a disappointing final result.

So how does CP&A achieve better communication?  Our modular specification format helps by subdividing the project into individual, stand‑alone segments thus providing a valuable management tool for the OEM’s managers and second tier entities as well as for the Buyer’s agents.

By modular, we mean that every major component, system, or topic is given an individual, easily read section.  For example, consider the attached rope drum section from our specification.  This, as a stand-alone document, can accompany an OEM’s purchase order to the hoist vendor.  From there it could go to the vendor’s engineering department for detailed design.  It might even go further down to the flame hardening specialist and the independent testing inspector.

A further communication advantage of a modular format is the ability to quickly look up a specification detail that you know is somewhere within a large document but cannot remember where.  For a narrative format you might have to skim through page after page and you may even find conflicting requirements from one place to another.  That could still be the case for a modular format but not after it goes through our final proof editing.  For even more convenience, it is possible to provide a sophisticated “smart search” feature for those who are familiar with such searches.