Digital Traceability in AEC for Project Success

Preventing a $400 Million Mistake: Why Digital Traceability is Critical in AEC

On November 19, 2025, Amazon announced the indefinite closure of its LIT1 fulfillment center — a $400 million hub at the Port of Little Rock — eliminating 4,100 planned jobs. The reason cited? “Unfixable flaws” in the structure (see article). It turns out that the company’s largest fulfillment center in Arkansas that has been operating since 2021 wasn’t designed to be compliant with the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code that includes seismic safety provisions relevant to the New Madrid Seismic Zone that includes Arkansas.

For engineering leaders, project managers, and project/building owners, this scenario is a nightmare. It serves as a stark reminder of why rigorous requirements management and end-to-end traceability are not just bureaucratic checkpoints — they are essential safeguards for capital investment. Here’s why a digital engineering platform like Jama Connect^® is critical in helping prevent such costly outcomes.

The High Cost of Disconnected Requirements

In large-scale construction and engineering projects, disjointed data often leads to failure. When requirements, such as state building codes, safety regulations, or load-bearing specifications, live in static documents or spreadsheets, they become disconnected from the actual design and verification processes.

If state mandated structural requirements conflict with an architectural design, manual processes often fail to flag the issue immediately. By the time the error is discovered, the structure is built, and the flaw may be deemed “unfixable.”

Jama Connect mitigates this risk through Live Traceability™ that creates a digital thread connecting regulatory and other requirements directly to specific design elements and verification tests across the project software toolchain. If a requirement changes or a test fails, the impact is immediately visible across the entire project. This allows teams to identify non-compliance issues in the digital design phase — long before they become physical, expensive, “unfixable” problems.

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Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

Building codes are not suggestions; they are mandates that involve complex layers of fire safety, seismic durability, and occupancy standards. Engineering designs used to construct buildings successfully used in some states may not be reusable as is in other states. As one of seven states in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, Arkansas mandates that structures be designed to adequately resist seismic forces during earthquakes.

Using a requirements management platform allows teams to:

Decompose Regulations: Break down the state’s specific complex safety, fire and other building codes into individual, trackable requirements.
Link Verification to Requirements: Ensure every single code requirement has a specific test or verification method linked to it.
Monitor Compliance Status: View real-time dashboards showing exactly which parts of the build are compliant and which are at risk.

In the case of Amazon’s Arkansas hub, a digital engineering compliance framework could have flagged the non-compliant design elements during the building design stage, prompting a relatively quick fix with a cost measured in hours of engineering time, rather than closer of an occupied, active building surrounded by uncertainty about the possibility and cost of bringing the building into compliance.

Reducing Risk Through Collaboration

Complex projects involve diverse teams — architects, structural engineers, regulatory bodies, contractors, and owners. When these stakeholders operate in silos, critical information falls through the cracks.

Jama Connect serves as a single source of truth providing everyone with access to the latest information and enabling collaboration that is crucial for risk management. When a regulatory requirement lacks verification, the lack of traceability is called out. When an engineer proposes a change, the platform analyzes the downstream impact: Will this change violate a safety code? Will it conflict with a mechanical system requirement?

By centralizing communication around the requirements themselves, organizations ensure that everyone is building toward the same, compliant outcome. This alignment is the primary defense against the late-stage discovery of structural failures.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: How to Select the Right Requirements Management and Traceability Solution

Moving Beyond Manual Processes

The elimination of 4,100 jobs and the abandonment of a major fulfillment hub underscore a critical industry lesson: manual documentation methods that are prone to human error are insufficient for modern, high-stakes engineering.

To avoid a similar fate, organizations must embrace digital engineering tools that automate traceability and compliance checks so that their teams can reduce manual effort and focus on innovation and safety. Using Jama Connect will help ensure that by the time construction begins, a successful outcome is guaranteed. In an industry where mistakes cost hundreds of millions, digital traceability is the most effective insurance policy available.

Note: This article was drafted with the aid of AI. Additional content, edits for accuracy, and industry expertise by Joe Gould, Kevin Andrewjeski, and Mark Levitt.

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Mark Levitt

Product Content Marketing Manager at Jama Software

Experienced B2B Product Marketing, Competitive Insights, Market Research & Analysis and Analyst Relations Leader highly skilled at researching and analyzing customer, market and competitive data to produce GTM strategies, content and enablement.