Adelaide, South Australia
The University of South Australia (UniSA) maintains one of South Australia’s largest and most diverse tertiary education estates, with campuses located at City East, City West, Magill, Mawson Lakes, Mount Gambier and Whyalla. To support ongoing teaching, research and campus operations, the University delivered a continuous programme of capital works ranging from minor refurbishments and room relocations to major building upgrades and departmental relocations. These projects required consistent, high-quality construction documentation to support the University’s Facilities Management team in operating and maintaining an extensive portfolio of education assets.
Dewick & Associates was engaged by various Mechanical Contractors to prepare project-specific Operations & Maintenance Manuals and associated Asset Registers using the University’s own documentation template, together with As-Installed Drawings where required. The documentation supported compliant building handover, preventative maintenance and long-term asset management across multiple campuses and project types.
By Louise Gardner
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Founded in 1991, the University of South Australia is one of Australia’s leading universities, recognised for its industry partnerships, applied research and contemporary teaching environments. UniSA operates six campuses across metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia, supporting tens of thousands of students across disciplines including engineering, health, business, education, information technology and the built environment.
Managing a diverse estate of teaching spaces, laboratories, research facilities, commercial areas and student amenities required a consistent approach to facilities management and construction documentation. Accurate Operations & Maintenance Manuals and Asset Registers play an essential role in supporting building performance, statutory compliance, preventative maintenance and lifecycle asset management, enabling facilities teams to efficiently manage infrastructure across multiple campuses.
Delivering Operations & Maintenance documentation across a multi-campus university programme presented challenges that extended well beyond individual construction projects.
The University’s capital works programme encompassed projects of varying scale and complexity, from minor room relocations and teaching space refurbishments through to major building upgrades and departmental relocations. Each project generated different documentation requirements, while all completed manuals needed to remain fully consistent with the University of South Australia’s established Operations & Maintenance Manual template, document structure and facilities management requirements.
Maintaining this consistency was critical. Facilities personnel relied on a standardised documentation format across all six campuses, enabling them to quickly locate maintenance procedures, equipment information, statutory records and manufacturer documentation regardless of which building or project the manual related to. Introducing different document layouts or navigation structures would have reduced efficiency and created unnecessary complexity for the University’s maintenance teams.
In addition, the documentation needed to support compliance with the National Construction Code (NCC), the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA), relevant Australian Standards and manufacturer maintenance requirements. Every manual also needed to accurately reflect the specific scope of works while remaining aligned with the University’s broader asset management and preventative maintenance processes.
Rather than applying a standard documentation template, Dewick & Associates adopted the University of South Australia’s own Operations & Maintenance Manual format, ensuring every project was delivered in a familiar, consistent structure that integrated seamlessly with the University’s existing facilities management processes.
Working closely with project teams, contractors and specialist subcontractors, our dedicated Client Coordinators coordinated the collection of project information while ensuring documentation complied with both project requirements and the University’s documentation standards.
Using nucleus, Dewick & Associates’ cloud-based documentation management platform, technical information from multiple trades was collected, tracked and quality assured through a structured workflow. Manufacturer literature, commissioning records, compliance certificates, warranties, maintenance schedules and as-installed information were centrally managed, providing complete visibility of documentation progress throughout each project.
Our experienced Technical Writers then authored and formatted every manual using UniSA’s prescribed template, rather than converting information into a generic document format. This ensured consistency in document layout, navigation, section numbering and presentation across every project delivered throughout the campus works programme.
Depending on the scope of works, Dewick & Associates prepared project-specific documentation including:
Each manual was tailored to the completed works while maintaining the University’s standard documentation framework. This enabled facilities management personnel to quickly locate operating procedures, preventative maintenance schedules, equipment data, statutory certificates, warranties and manufacturer literature using a familiar structure, regardless of which campus or project they were managing.
By combining project-specific technical information with a client-specific documentation standard, Dewick & Associates delivered a consistent body of Operations & Maintenance documentation that supported efficient facilities management, statutory compliance, lifecycle asset management and the long-term operation of the University’s extensive education estate.
Dewick & Associates delivered a coordinated programme of Operations & Maintenance Manuals and As-Installed Drawings that supported the University of South Australia’s ongoing capital works programme across all six campuses.
By producing every manual in the University’s prescribed format, the completed documentation integrated seamlessly with UniSA’s existing facilities management systems and documentation library. This provided facilities personnel with a familiar, consistent structure that enabled them to quickly locate operating procedures, maintenance schedules, equipment information, statutory records and manufacturer documentation, regardless of the campus or project.
The consistent presentation of information across projects also simplified ongoing asset management, reduced the time required to access critical building information and supported a more efficient approach to preventative maintenance and lifecycle planning.
By combining technical authoring, documentation coordination, rigorous quality assurance and client-specific documentation standards, Dewick & Associates created a reliable and consistent body of construction documentation that continues to support the University’s facilities management team in maintaining a diverse portfolio of education assets.
The content in this case study has been informed by project documentation and client communication provided to Dewick & Associates during and following the completion of the project. Where external sources have contributed to our understanding of relevant standards or industry practice, these are listed below.
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Note: Some content in this case study draws on a combination of sources rather than direct quotation. Where this is the case, contributing sources are acknowledged above rather than cited inline.
Technical authoring of O&M Manuals enabling efficient plant operation and effective maintenance for equipment longevity, including:
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