Project/Assessment Task:
Task 1: (Total 45 Marks) – Learning outcomes A,B,C & D Scenario:
Quick homes Ltd, a housing developer is bringing forward proposals for a new community park and upto 250 family homes on land off Seaton Street in Huddersfield. The new community park will encourage wildlife to settle in the area and provide a pleasant setting for walking and recreation. In addition, there will be a children’s play area, pedestrian walk ways and a recreation centre built predominantly to the benefit of the new families moving into the newly built homes. It is anticipated that the work on the new community park will commence first before the first phase of houses. The overall project is scheduled to start work at site on 1st January 2018 with the first phase of housing (100 units of 3 and 4 bedroom properties) to be completed on time for Christmas with the official deadline being 1st of December 2018. Due to the 11-month construction period of the project, it is anticipated to use offsite manufacturing techniques to ensure timely completion. You are required to write a report where you;
I. Identify the relevant stakeholders within the context of the above project both at the pre- construction and construction stages and discuss their success measures and how best outcomes are implemented. (Learning outcomes A and B) – 15 marks
The main purpose of hiring subcontractors is to combat issues that often occur at short notice, for example a sudden lack of labour to replace the loss and to ensure the programme is not delayed. Subcontractors can be called upon quickly and begin work quickly whilst being self managed and can be relied upon to reach targets.
The use of subcontractors is paid for out of either the contingency budget if the programme faces delay or from the original trades budget therefore not massively affecting the programme or budget.
Organisational structures exist in all firms, the shape of which normally depends on the type and size. Each person generally has a clear understanding of theirs and others responsibilities in a small firm, but in a large firm employees tend to be unsure of exacly where they fit in, and do not readily appreciate other individuals positions regarding line, lateral, functional or staff relationships.
A manager or any other supervisor is entrusted with a charge for which he/she is accountable. The success or failure of the charge/task will be entirely his/her responsibility. It is necessary, therefore, for each to know clearly and precisely what his/her duties are. Normally he/she must bear in mind the policies as laid down by the many others.
ARCHITECTS
Architects are involved from the earliest stages of a building project, which can start with developing ideas with the client, establishing budgets, assessing the needs of the building and its users, and its impact within the local environment.
They assist with site selection and work closely with contractors on site, ensuring that works are carried out to specific standards and that, above all, the building is sustainable, functional and aesthetically pleasing. They also need to have an awareness of commercial and financial considerations.
Responsibilities vary but typically include:
• discussing the objectives, requirements and budget of a project;
• consulting with other professionals about design;
• preparing and presenting feasibility reports and design proposals to the client;
• advising the client on the practicality of their project;
• using IT in design and project management, specifically using computer-aided design software;
• keeping within financial budgets and deadlines;
• producing detailed workings, drawings and specifications;
• specifying the nature and quality of materials required;
• preparing tender applications and presentations;
• negotiating with contractors and other professionals;
• preparing applications for planning and building control departments;
• drawing up tender documents for contracts;
• project managing and helping to coordinate the work of contractors;
• controlling a project from start to finish;
• regular site visits to check on progress, ensuring that the project is running on time and to budget;
• resolving problems and issues that arise during construction;
• ensuring that the environmental impact of the project is managed.
Landscape Designers
Typical work activities
The role of a landscape architect commonly includes some or all of the following:
• overseeing the design of a variety of projects, including urban regeneration schemes, pedestrian schemes, road or retail schemes, and maintaining the character of sites of natural beauty;
• establishing general landscape requirements with clients;
• conducting preliminary studies of the site (including contours, soil, ecology, buildings, roads);
• assessing a site’s potential to meet the client’s specifications;
• carrying out environmental impact assessments;
• seeking and taking into account the views of local residents, potential users, and parties with a vested interest in the project;
• accurately preparing and presenting detailed plans and working drawings, including applications, construction details and specifications for the project using computer-aided design (CAD) packages or similar design software;
• presenting proposals to clients, dealing with enquiries and negotiating any amendments to the final design;
• matching the client’s wishes with your knowledge of what will work best;
• contacting and coordinating manufacturers and suppliers;
• putting work out to tender, selecting a contractor and manager (mainly for larger projects), and leading cross-functional teams;
• making site visits;
• ensuring deadlines are met;
• liaising with other professionals on the project;
• monitoring and checking work on-site (on large projects, landscape managers may do this type of supervisory work);
• authorising payment once work has been satisfactorily completed;
• attending public inquiries to give evidence if necessary;
• generating new business opportunities.
Management roles
A. Contracts Manager
The role of the contracts manager is to consider health and safety protocol and to maintain upkeep contracts including sales, tendering and negotiating subcontracts. Risk management assessments are also carried out with insurance companies whilst overseeing the project to reporting contract changes. Contract managers also authorise disciplinary action if required to subcontractors where needed.
Works with estimators to discuss overall cost and production method costs
Works with QS for cost monitoring and onsite expenditure
Works with planners to monitor and control schedule of works
Works with site manager to deal with overall site issues whilst monitoring progress of work.
B. Quantity Surveyor
To fulfil the roles and responsibilities is to compose Bill of Quantities with estimation of resources and to conduct feasibility studies of project during the design stage only but can also be done during alterations of the plan, cost consultations with valuations on amendments of plans will be needed through the duration. Quantity Surveyors also work with contracts managers to whilst negotiate and analyse tenders. Allocation of works is also key with the acquisitions for resources being finalised whilst liaising with the client(s) to arrange payments and schedule due dates for staggering whilst looking down the hierarchy to measure work and award bonuses to tradespersons. Site expenses is also key and must be controlled to allow for the completion of a project.
Works with contracts manager for site expenditure control
Works with estimator for production costs predictions
Works with site manager to aid control over site expenditure and production valuation
C. Site Manager
Site managers must supervise and coordinate subcontractors whilst suppliers and utility providers must be sourced for the construction phase to begin. Health and safety inductions and authorisation on implementations must be conducted at the beginning of works to ensure safety and care is considered throughout the project. Schedules of work must also be created with target deadlines but must also consider and implement company policies, procedures and instructions whilst instructing on new ideas and methods. When it comes to subcontractors, site managers must lead, motivate, communicate, develop, appraise and performance manage to ensure that efficiency and smooth running of operations. For this to be achieved day to day work planning is essential to achieve time target and to also prevent delays. If delays do happen and reparations to the contract are necessary, a site diary must be kept and filled on a daily basis to show evidence that mitigating circumstances such as weather conditions, alterations and amendments to plans, cancellations and anything that may delay, prohibit or increase progress for liquid damages if/when construction over/underruns.
Works with QS for cost expenditure analysis
Works with planner for monitoring progress and changes in plan and scheme
Works with contract manager to report site issues and note progress
Works with tradesperson for day-to-day delegations and tracking progress
Planning Roles
D. Planner
Planners are usually based at head office and must perform risk assessments for the construction project whilst outline and define programme of works to plan works which will also allow the planner to begin to plan delivery and use of material, plant and labour. During the construction process reviews are undertaken and reported during the various stages of work. If any delays occur, resolutions must be created to resolve delayed time problems to get construction back online in the form of recovery plans.
Works with site manager to resolve work delay issues and
Works with contracts manager to create programme of works
E. Buyer
The buyers’ role can sometimes be merged into other roles such as estimators or quantity surveyors as these roles can often overlap in responsibilities or can derive from the same skills. Buyers are to consider and plan resources in the form of arranging discounts for the construction company when buying materials and hiring plant. Delivery of plants and materials must be planned to reduce waste of storage space and to also reduce waste of money when hire charges are accruing whilst the plant is in site storage.
Works with quantity surveyor to provide production costs and pricing
Works with contracts manager to finalise build costs and production method costs
Works with estimator to negotiate for materials and plant for tendering process
F. Estimator
The role of an estimator is to calculate and accurately present costs so that bids can be placed onto perspective tenders to obtain work. Clients or potential clients will also need to have a breakdown of costs to show expenditure layout which is done by taking apart drawings to define costs. The final number will also include assessments of plant, labour and material.
Works with buyer to negotiate for materials and plant and prepare for tendering
Works with quantity surveyor to provide production costs and pricing
Works with contracts manager to finalise build costs and production method costs
G. Trades Foreperson
The trades foreperson must supervise the various trades when working on site, this could be in the form of delegation of daily tasks, setting daily aims and targets, ensuring correct equipment is available. Implementation of health and safety is also key to ensure the smooth operation of the daily running of the project. This is passed down using daily and weekly meetings with gangers, other trade forepersons and site manager in which they take direction from.
Works with site manager to set daily targets and issue directives but to also overview the progress of the progress.
Production Roles – due to the nature and scale of many projects, these roles, otherwise known as tradespersons, often work in gangs with labourers attached to each gang to aid and assist work where necessary. These people will answer to foreperson or gangers depending on the role.
H. Bricklayer
Bricklayers not only lay bricks, blockwork and a majority of masonry wall work but may also do some concreting work. Brickwork is completed in different designs and cosmetic work can often come into play but work is mostly revolved around brick and block work including, chimneys, rendering, jointing and pointing, sealing foundations, scaffolding may need to be set up as the work level increases. Bricklayers may also be required to construct boundary and retaining walls. Due to the nature of the work, bricklayers will often have to adjust the work schedule if weather conditions are not permitting to the progress.
I. Joiner
Joiners tend to work from raw materials and will often create carpentry items such as floor boards, skirting boards, window frames, doors, staircases and will often do shop fitting. This is generally done off-site and fitted during the first and second fixes but joiners are still essential for the early stages of construction as formwork is often required for concrete pouring.
J. Plasterer
Plasterers will finish surface walls with the appropriate finish, this could be dry-lining, various types of insulation plasterboard, coving and decorative work, all done during internal surface finish stage however, a plasterer may be required earlier for screeding and finishing of the floor.
K. Labourer
Labourers tend to provide a supportive role to other trades but are still as essential as trades themselves as without them work is completed. Labourers bring materials to work areas and bring supplies to tradesmen, they also begin prepping materials for use, for example mixing cement, mixing plaster, cutting boards.
L. Groundworker
Also key to the construction of a build, groundworkers perform site clearance and utilities preparations for the sub-structure up to the damp proof course at the beginning of a property takeover but are also brought back onto the project for external works and landscaping if so required in the project design scheme.
M. Steel Fixer
Due to the modern use of concrete, reinforcement is required and this is where the steel fixers come into play, frame works and fixing spacers and steel to concrete is often required whilst installations of beams is key. The nature of this work will required heavy plant machinery throughout the duration of a steel fixers work including hydraulic jacks, welding tools where health and safety is a key element of consideration.
– Subcontractors
Bricklayers – for completion of their jobs, bricklayers will require bricks and mortar therefore labourers will be required to assist the preparation of mixing and transportation of of bricks and blockwork to ensure a consistent and productive stream of work progress.
Plasterers – plaster and plasterboards must be brought into the work space and also mixed ready to be worked with. Labourers must be ready to assist where needed with plaster mix, plasterboards and mixing equipment.
Groundworkers – to complete jobs, groundworkers must use heavy plant such as excavators and dumping wagons to clear sites and stockpile valuable and reusable resources such as topsoil. Concrete and framework for the substructure is also constructed by the groundworkers up to the damp proof course which will require concrete mixing trucks, vibrating compactors and cranes.
Steel fixers – welding equipment will be used to create framework and steel chairs whilst hydraulic jacks will often be used to support structures during completion.
Labourers – these play a key role to the smooth work progress of a project as work can often stutter without them as they normally support other roles but they often participate with the other workers to complete targets.
Joiners – for the structure to have a final finish level, floorboards need to be created which will require wooden boards to be cut and be fitted. In some cases, cranes are needed to lift materials onto various storeys.
– Materials
Plant Materials Labour
Excavators
Dumper wagons
Vibrating compactors
Cranes and lifting plants.
Hydraulic jacks
Drills
Mixers
Concrete mixing trucks
Forklift truck Masonry brick
Concrete
Cement
Drainage
Pipework
Flashing
Wall ties
Insulation
Gypsum plasterboard
Steel beams
Damp proof course
Damp proof membrane
Steel framework
Screed
Brick layers
Plasterers
Groundworkers
Steel fixers
Labourers
Joiners
I. Discuss how risk and value is managed within the project due to the use of offsite manufacturing techniques [you may discuss effective and efficient management of time, cost, quality as well as resources such as human / financial etc.,] (Learning outcomes C and D)
• Monetary (financial and economic)
The money aspect of a building project can easily be changed. The economy can go into a economic depression resulting in prices rising. This may mean the stock that was estimated by the quantity surveyor may increase. This means the budget that was in mind for the project may become a lot more expensive and it may not be an feasible operation to fund the project any further. This could affect more than just the cost as the project maybe a house for someone. They could’ve sold their old property and they are waiting to move into this.
In some projects the money may have been borrowed from a bank. Due to the economic depress the interest rate may have suddenly changed this meaning it has substantially increased making it unaffordable for a person. This would end up resulting in the project being terminated due to lack of funds.
• Legal
Generally in a construction projection you will have all the legal formalities out the way and any planning permission approved so there an no delays in a project. With construction anything can happen so someone may fall or injure him or herself resulting in a delay on the project. This could put the project on hold for a while. It could result in a company being sued if nothing came of it due to time being wasted and this could result in a fine. Every project has to comply with building regulations so generally speaking all work may be planning approved but it is up to the contractor to ensure work is done to a professional safe standard.
• Environmental
The environmental impact of the construction project will be things such as noise pollution or it can also be things that aren’t aesthetically pleasing. Some projects may have banners around the area being worked on resulting in people being put off what is being built as if someone is selling a property in a locality where work is being done if someone sees these banners they may be putting off buying a house. The noise pollution maybe things such as diggers or bulldozers causing a lot of disturbance as well as noise nuisance drawing locals away from work going on.
• Discuss what to do to eliminate the idle time of some teams (4 points)
• Discuss why using LoB is more suitable than CPM in this project (10 points)
Repetitive projects require schedules that ensure the uninterrupted usage of resources from a unit to similar units in a repetitive activity while maintaining logical dependency constraints. The critical path method (CPM) is the most widely used and accepted planning and scheduling method for traditional (nonrepetitive) projects. However, CPM does not suit the planning and scheduling needs of repetitive projects. Consequently, resource-driven techniques, such as line of balance (LOB), have been used to schedule repetitive projects that ensure work continuity. LOB is primarily a graphical technique that lacks the analytical qualities of CPM scheduling. A need for an analytical technique fulfilling characteristics of repetitive projects has been reported in the literature. Few attempts have been made to combine the benefits of CPM and LOB techniques in planning and scheduling of repetitive projects. In this paper, an integrated CPM and LOB model has been developed to schedule repetitive projects in an easy nongraphical manner, considering both logic dependency and resource continuity constraints. Overlapping activities of a single typical unit are used to model duration and logical relationships of repetitive activities. The proposed model essentially consists of four steps. In the first step, basic LOB calculations are performed to ensure resource continuity. Activity duration along all repetitive units is calculated in the second step. In the third step, overlapping activities are used to model logical relationships between consecutive activities. Next, CPM time analysis is performed to specify activities’ timings and floats and project completion time. An example application is presented to illustrate implementation and features of the proposed model.
Critical Path Method (CPM): the Critical Path Method is the most popular scheduling method in the PMP® Exam which involves the calculation of early start (ES), early finish (EF), late start (LS) and late finish (LF) through forward and backward passes in the project schedule network diagram. This will facilitate the project manager to estimate the buffers (floats) or the lack of for individual activities on the schedule network path.
The Critical Path Method focuses on the sequence of activities/tasks to allow the project team to visualize the overall flow of the tasks.
he Critical Path Method allows the project team to easily visualize the sequence of tasks and the estimated duration of individual tasks in a straight-forward manner, something most people are familiar with. However, since there are no overall buffers to be added to the critical path, project team members may, while estimating for the duration of individual tasks, try to add “implicit buffers” conservatively to each task with a view to protect the overall schedule. This may result in “too much” buffers added to the critical path and make the estimation not efficient. The project manager need to monitor closely the progress of individual tasks as one task progresses at a slower than expected pace will adversely affect the whole project schedule.
Terms used in Critical Path Method:
• Forward Pass
• Backward Pass
• Early Start
• Late Start
• Early Finish
• Late Finish
• Slack / Float
• Total Slack / Float
• Calculate the Duration
Critical Path