CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT – BEST PRACTICES

1.0     WHAT IS CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT?

Construction is complex, and many factors influence the outcome of a construction project. The job of a construction engineer is to understand the requirement of project, make the plan, take a set of written plans & specifications and a raw piece of land and then coordinate all the materials, manpower, & equipment necessary to complete the project on schedule, within budget, according to specified quality standards, in a safe environment, regardless of weather conditions, interest fluctuations, acts of god, or any other unforeseen conditions; so that deliverables can meet scope requirements.

Today the pressure for speedy delivery, cost efficiency, and high quality is immense. The success of any construction project depends on the men & women who plan, organize, and perform the work that transforms someone’s dream into a reality. The process of constructing a building or a bridge does not happen in a factory under controlled conditions. It occurs in a dynamic environment where risk is inherent and the decision making and problem solving abilities of the construction management team are crucial to the success of the project.

Construction management entails the planning, scheduling, monitoring, and controlling of construction tasks or activities to accomplish specific objectives by effectively allocating and utilizing resources and time in a manner that minimizes costs and maximizes customer satisfaction.

2.0     WHY STUDENTS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IT?

In last few years various surveys were conducted by different organizations across the country to get insight into the hiring trends of the market while understanding the needs of the job seeker and organizations. To capture the skill levels of the supply side they assessed lacs of graduate students through employability skill test and to capture the demand side of talent they approached thousands of corporate players of different industry sectors. The corporate job survey questioned the employers about the most important thing they want in their prospective employees.

India produces about 1.5 million engineering graduates every year. The fact, however, remains that only about 25% - 30% of them get right jobs while the rest either go for higher studies in absence of a welcoming job market, take up jobs that are not related to their field and would be underpaid, or remain unemployed. While on one side there is a skill dearth, on the other side hundreds of millions of young people will flood India’s job markets in the next decade.

To meet the demand for delivering the results in definite time, the industry needs manpower that is effective in their role and expects them to deliver from the very first day. Because of probable gap between demand and supply there will always be a demand for fresh engineers but the industry will obviously choose those who have some exposure and can meet their needs. In general, beyond the academic knowledge that the colleges impart, industry expects graduates to possess following employability skills-

• Knowledge beyond the text books
• Restricting yourself to bookish knowledge does not make you a good engineer.
• Industry awareness
• Industry expects graduates to possess foundational professional skills in their core domain. Students should be encouraged to spend a bit of time with industry to find out what they are actually looking for, and tune themselves accordingly.
• Updated with latest technology
• Students must be prepared to upgrade their skills to match with latest technology. The technology existing today may become obsolete some day.
• Communication skills
• An engineer must possess effective oral and written communication skill.
• Ability to lead
• While there are many engineering graduates who score well in their papers, there are very few who are true leaders. An engineer must be able to work in a team and collaborate.
• Positive approach
• The job of an engineer is not easy. It is a path full of many challenges and you need to possess the courage to face these challenges.
• Ambitious
• The never say never attitude is expected from most engineers. An engineer must be committed, dedicated, self-disciplined and self-motivated.
• Ability to multitask
• An engineer may have to shoulder several responsibilities at the same time. He / she should have ability to multitask.
• Aptitude & analytical reasoning
• Some of the most critical capabilities that the industry expects from the students are quantitative skills, data interpretation, logical reasoning and willingness to learn.
• Willingness to travel
• The expectation from an engineer is that he / she is ready to work in any part of the country.
• Ethics
• A strong work ethic is vital to an organization achieving its goals. Industry expects ethical conduct and professional accountability from its employees.

So to fill the skill gap, there is need to shape Students for a Sound Corporate Future and they must be aware about best practices for managing the construction projects.

3.0     WHY PROFESSIONALS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IT?

As you ask your project managers how things are going, their responses include some of the following.

• Everything is okay.
• Most of the works are complete, just a few little things left and that will be finished on time.
• The paperwork is almost done.
• I will be getting all the signatures tomorrow.
• We are performing close to budget.
• Only few issues are left to resolve.
• No problem, I can handle.

From above answers, it seems that all of your construction projects must be running smoothly. But, are things really going as well as you were told? A few days later, you get a call from an angry client screaming that his project is progressing late. Another is upset because he is not getting the quality and service for which he contracted. Another client demands you drop everything and fix his problem first. Your commercial team tells you that some project managers are not doing their required paperwork timely and several change orders have not been approved in advance by the client. An irate subcontractor calls threatening to pull off a job unless they get paid for work they had completed six months ago. On an important job, there are some technical issues which are to be resolved urgently. You find out that certain works already executed has not been approved by client as they were not executed according to the provision of contract. Some of your clients still owe your company final retention payment on projects completed over a year ago. There are some outstanding change orders which a client now refuses to pay. The job cost reports show the estimated final profit of some of the projects has slipped again.

Typical management problems are encountered when you don't have standardized systems in place that guarantee everyone does business the same way. Even if you have great managers, they will do things differently unless you have best written construction management practices in place for all to follow.

4.0    WHAT ARE CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT – BEST PRACTICES?

To execute a construction project successfully, you need answers of the following FOUR basic questions.

• What is to be done?
• How it is to be done?
• When it is to be done?
• How to ensure that it is done?

A systematic series of steps in planning the future course of actions, doing according to what has been planned, maintaining the evidence that we are doing what we said we will be doing, 

detection & reaction to deviations and managing changes to the plans will help in getting the answers of above four questions and in completing the project successfully. Let’s understand all the processes required to manage the construction project through PDCA cycle. The PDCA cycle was originally (in the late 1920s) developed by Walter A. Shewhart and later (in the 1950's) W Edwards Deming had oversimplified the diagram to illustrate this continuous process and advocated its use as a process improvement and quality management tool.

 4.1     Steps in PLAN

(1) Planning, (2) Estimating, and (3) Scheduling.

Planning is the process of thinking in advance the future course of actions to achieve desired goals. It begins with an understanding of the current situation and the desired situation. Trying to take on a construction project without a well-thought-out plan is like trying to drive to an unknown location without a map. Without a plan, there is no way to coordinate resources, no way to schedule deliveries, no way to track progress, and no way to take actions when you do get off track. As a matter of fact, you won’t even know that you are off track unless you have a plan. Successful projects start with clear objectives and measurable results to achieve. Without clear targets, you can't make your project team accountable or responsible for their results. The other tools associated with project planning are estimating and scheduling.

PLANNING defines WHAT and HOW. It identifies activities but does not specify start and end dates. ESTIMATING determines the size & duration of activities i.e. HOW MUCH and HOW LONG. It is usually applied to quantity, project costs, resources, effort, and durations. SCHEDULING defines WHEN and WHO. It adds specific start and end dates, relationships, and resources.

However, a good start helps significantly to finish the forthcoming project correctly, fluently and efficiently, on time and under control. So prior to start of detailed plan, it is necessary to understand the REQUIREMENT -

• Study the scope of work in detail from contract document and available drawings.
• Understand the purpose of the project.
• Identify & analyze the project constraints. The constraints in construction projects are:

• In any construction project, the scope and quality of work in terms of quantity and specifications are specified. These parameters are not subject to change and can thus be treated as constants. Therefore, in such situations time, resources and costs are the core parameters. So understand any limitation and/or flexibility in time, resources, cost, or outcomes.
• Set-up goals & project objectives. Before any attempts to implement a project, the planners and implementers should set-up goals & objectives. A goal defines broadly, what is expected out of a project. Objectives are finite (limited) sub-sets of a goal and should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound.
• Identify stakeholders. Stakeholders are any person(s) or organization(s) who are involved in the Project or whose interest may be affected by the performance or completion of the Project.
• Refer previous learning and consider the preventive action(s) while planning the project.
• List-out the assumptions you are going to consider while making the project plan.

Once the requirement is understood and established, do the following -

• Create WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) by cutting down project into smaller, manageable components that can be scheduled, estimated, easily monitored and controlled.
• Define and list out the activities resulting from the lowest level of the project WBS.
• Prepare work procedure for all the major activities.
• Forecast approximate durations for all identified project activities.
• Note-down the cycle time considered for each major activity including productivity norms.
• Prepare the construction schedule.
• Estimate manpower, material, and equipment requirement.
• Prepare cash in-flow.
• Prepare cost estimate, freeze the project budget and establish the system for tracking actual project costs.
• Prepare quality assurance & control plan, finalize the forms & formats, and inspection checklist. Quality is planned by identifying quality requirements in accordance with the specifications and/or standards for the project and product.
• Identify hazards, do risk assessment, prepare safety, health & environmental plan, do’s & don’ts, and checklist. Safety is planned by identifying safety requirements as laid down in contract and in accordance with general practice for the project and activities.
• Depending on the size of project, geographical configuration of site, and duration of construction period, prepare an appropriate site infrastructure set up plan for the operation of site activities.

4.2     Steps in DO

(1) Communicate and Consult the Plan, and (2) Implement the Plan.

DISCUSS and COMMUNICATE your plan with Execution Team. IMPLEMENT PLAN – it is the process of performing the work defined in the plan to achieve the project’s objective.

4.3     Steps in CHECK

(1) Monitoring, (2) Recording, (3) Reporting, and (4) Gap Identification.

MONITORING is day-to-day follow up of activities during implementation to ensure timely mobilization and deployment of resources, to measure progress & results, and to identify deviations.

We are to ensure that the activities in the project are being carried out in accordance with the approved plan, policy, schedule, budget, quality standard, procedure and utmost safety. Hence, it is absolutely necessary to monitor the project at regular intervals and adopt suitable controlling measures in order to keep the project on track. Even projects that are well designed, comprehensively planned, fully resourced and meticulously executed will face challenges. No matter how well you had planned your project schedule; there is always the possibility for delay. Simply because we know that things don’t always go according to plan no matter how much we prepare; because unexpected always happens. Therefore, we are to monitor following to identify deviations in what was planned and what is actually happening-

• Scope
• Monitor change in scope. Change in Scope is defined as, “where a request is considered to change the agreed scope and objectives of the project to accommodate a need; not originally defined to be part of the project”. Allowing the project's scope to change mid-course usually means re-planning, and change in costs & duration.
• Assumptions and cycle time
• Check whether assumptions considered while making project plan are still valid.
• Productivity
• Conduct resource utilization & performance evaluation of all the resources. Check whether actual productivity is more or less than planned.
• Schedule
• Monitor the status of the project to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline.
• Cost
• Monitor the status of the project with project budget and manage changes to the cost baseline. Project budget is an authorized cost baseline made after estimating the costs of individual activities or work packages.
• Quality
• Check quality of materials when they arrive to make sure they are what is ordered and required. Also check quality of finished works / product and assess the performance.
• Safety
• Monitor works to enable early detection and correction of unsafe practices and conditions. Maintain appropriate safety records, prepare the statistics and take the action to prevent the recurrence of accident, wherever necessary.
• Risk
• The risk changes as the project matures, new risks develop, or anticipated risks disappear. Check whether project assumptions about risks are still valid. Monitor identified risks and re-assess probability and impact of residual risks. Identify new risks too.
• Contract performance
• Track dates of submission of various important submittals to client and their review / acceptance by them. Follow-up for timely mobilization and deployment of resources as per tender stipulation and/or approved project schedule. Follow-up for timely inputs from clients as per tender stipulation and/or approved project schedule. Conduct delay analysis and identify the reasons for delay. Check the validity of various bank guaranties for performance security, mobilization advance, plant advance and retention etc., as applicable. Check the validity of labour license, workmen compensation and other relevant insurance policies like contractor’s all risk (CAR) insurance policy, design insurance etc. Update the quantities, whenever revised / additional drawing(s) are received and notify to client if any variation in BOQ quantity and / or in contract value found beyond the contractual provisions. Find out, if any alternations, additions and omissions in scope of work, it may lead to contractual claim.

RECORDING is a process of capturing data or translating information to a format, often referred to as a record. A record is a document which acts as an evidence or a guideline. Monitoring shall be recorded, so that updated information is always available.

Information and good REPORTING process is the heart of every project control system. Successful project control depends on sound information, which comes from actual project performance data. This data originates in the field and is reported on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Collect and distribute performance information with stakeholders based on monitored data and use learning’s to improve activities & services. The following are some of the sources of information used to track job performance and feedback into the project control system.

• Daily progress report (DPR).
• Programme and progress.
• Reports on finances.
• Minutes of progress review and resource requirement meetings.
• Drawing register.
• Test results and inspection reports.
• Records of submissions including date of submission and receipt of approval
• A record of the original site conditions, including photographs.
• Labour allocation sheets.
• Plant movements / usage.
• Material usage / receipt / issue.
• Productivity results alnogwith resource utilization data.
• Actual cycle time of major activities.
• Wastage on account of various major materials.
• Rolling margin in reinforcement and structural steel.
• Change orders and field orders issued by client.
• Safety statistics.

IDENTIFYING GAP between the present state and the desired or target state.

4.4     Steps in ACT

(1) Controlling, (2) Root Cause Analysis, (3) Corrective Action, and (4) Preventive Action.

CONTROLLING is the process by which it is ensured that the activities are being carried out in accordance with the approved plan, policy, standard and procedure. Once a gap is identified, it has to be controlled. Correction is taken to eliminate a detected non-conformity. ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS (RCA) is a method of problem solving that is used to identify the root causes of a problem or non-conformance. In order to solve a problem, it is important to first find out the causes. Only when the causes are discovered and understood we can prevent the problem from occurring again. If you only fix the symptoms - what you see on the surface - the problem will almost certainly happen again, which will lead you to fix it, again and again. Instead, if you look deeper to figure out why the problem is occurring, you may identify the origin of a problem, in first attempt. Identifying root causes of a problem is the key to prevent similar recurrences. CORRECTIVE ACTIONS are steps that are taken to eliminate the cause(s) of a detected nonconformity or undesirable situation. It will target the root cause so that the non-conformity or undesirable situation does not re-occur. PREVENTIVE ACTIONS are steps that are taken to remove the cause(s) of potential non-conformities or potential situations that are undesirable so that non-conformities do not occur.

5.0    CONCLUSION

Project management is composed of several different types of activities such as planning, assessing risk, estimating resources, organizing work, assigning tasks, directing activities, monitoring, tracking, reporting progress and finally analyzing results. Pro-active project management systems control all project activities and deliver the desired and targeted results on time and on budget, as per the contracted scope of work, while minimizing risk.

Early detection of actual or potential performance deviations in field construction activities is critical to project management as it provides an opportunity to initiate proactive actions to avoid these deviations or minimize their impacts. The continuous feedback loop of PDCA allows analysis, measurement, and identification of sources of variations from customer requirements that enables taking corrective action.

• Writer is author and publisher of book, "Basics of Construction Management" 1st Edition, (2014).
• This paper is published in ‘National Conference on Technical Advancements in Civil Engineering (NCTACE-2016)’ organized by Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, Punjab, India.