Quality Control means that the plan that has been made and the standards that has been set by the engineers, architects, contractors, the work is carried out according to that plan and standards.
Quality control is important in a way that if the plan that is decided and standards that are set are not followed then in this case failures may cause. In minor failures, re-construction may require but in worst case personal injuries may cause. Project manager tries to carry out the project perfectly in the first attempt so that no changes are required afterwards.
The step that is most important in carrying out a project is that designing and planning the project. Deciding the equipments that will be used, materials that are needed during the construction. A good construction manager makes sure that the materials that the materials and equipments that are decided during the planning should be used in the construction.
The main focus of quality control is to work according to the design and set standards but if some changes are desired by the owner then we have to change the design but keeping quality control as our priority. In the second case, during the construction process if some design is not looking appropriate so we can re-evaluate the design but again keeping quality control and safety our first priority. The standards and the designs that are being confirmed should be very clear so that all parties that are part of the project can easily understand them.
Quality control is checked during the whole construction process that the standards that are being set before the construction process are being met. Supervisors must check the employee’s working skills. In any stage of the construction process, if the supervisors find out that the set standards are not being met then they should look into that cause and must develop a policy to fix it.
ANS 2. In a conventional construction contract consultants are being employed by the employer to carry out the project, to design it and set the quality standards while in the construction management contract, a construction manager is employed that handles the whole project and get paid for it.
In conventional construction contract all the tasks are handled by the employer itself while in construction management contract all the tasks are done by a construction manager.
In conventional construction contract, the contractor is hired by his skills and specialities means what is his field of interest. The second thing is the amount that he is asking for carrying out the project. After the employment of the contractor, he has to fill an undertaking that he will carry out the project on the owner’s terms and conditions.
The primary difference between these two contracts is that in conventional construction contract the price is in lump sum and this contract uses 100% completed drawings to establish a set price for the construction of a project. General Contractor is rewarded to the extent that the project costs are less than the bid price. This is the case because the difference between the project costs and the bid amount is Fee for the General Contractor. As a result, it becomes the objective of the GC to construct the Ownerʹs facility at the least cost possible. In a Construction Management contract on the other hand, the Fee is established as a fixed amount. Beyond the fee, everything else is a ʺcost of the workʺ providing no other opportunities to the Construction Manager for additional fee. As a result, the Construction Manager and the Owner share a common objective to get the best price, from the right contractor or supplier, for the cost of the work.
ANS 3. Following are objectives that a construction engineer should keep in mind while carrying out a construction project.
A construction engineer should plan and each and every step in a sequence and should set proper timings for each and every step to get the project done in time.
Different construction methodologies should be decided for the construction process. Different tools should be selected for the work and changes can be made if required.
One of the important step in a construction project is selecting the right construction equipments. Most of the cost of the project that has been decided before the construction process is spent on these equipments. A construction engineer should plan and schedule the whole project in a way that the use of these heavy machineries that are being rented per day is made to the maximum because the rent of these machineries is very high per day.
Another important step that a construction engineer should keep in mind that the material cannot be kept unused at the site for a long time so he schedules and plans the project in a way that the material are not kept unused at the site.
Next step is that the construction engineer employs different people for different tasks and the construction engineer should make sure that those people are skilled too for their specific tasks.
The construction process is carried out on the basis of the designs and drawings so a construction engineer should make sure that these drawing are available on the site when required so that the project work can run smoothly without any hinderance.
The most important step of construction process is financial planning. A smart construction engineer smartly spend the amount that has been set for the project. If the whole budgeted amount is spent during the first phase of the construction then engineer would be facing problems in the next phases of the construction and then the project could not run smoothly, therefore the budgeted amount should be spent smartly in every phase of construction when required.
ANS 4. Following are the construction applications that would be valuable to a construction professional.
1) ESTI-MATE :
Controlling costs is one of the most important requirements during a construction project. To achieve this, contractors and subcontractors mudt first make accurate cost estimation. For this purpose, we can use this software named Esti-Mate. Esti-mate Software has been designed by Estimators for Estimators and is perfect for other construction professionals such as Quantity Surveyors, Project Managers, Contract Managers, Building Surveyors, Buyers and Site Staff.
2) GEST :
Construction works require careful planning and skillful management of human and physical resources. Computer systems can assist on-site managers to plan ahead, evaluate different options and adopt and execute the most efficient construction operation. For this purpose we can use this software GEST for proper planning of project.
3) SketchUp:
This software is not particularly used for construction drawings but this is a good software to draw 3D and 2D models. SketchUp Pro lets you add model views to pages, choose drawing scales, adjust line weights, and add dimensions, callouts, and graphics. Make a change to your SketchUp model, and find it reflected automatically in LayOut. And when it’s time, export pages as PDFs, images and CAD files.