This case study describes the manufacturing of advanced, high-value maritime vessel equipment as an opportunistic, dynamic, knowledge-needy and collaborative process, in which planning and construction is closely integrated, rather than as a repeatable physical assembly that takes place in phases, for each of which planning is pre-hoc and pre-emptive. We assert that this is one reason that the anachronistic perspective of “documents as documentation”, contributes to actors’ conflicting views of their project. This paper examines these difficulties, offers a theoretical examination and design implications for next generation industries to consider.