Do you need active project management for your construction project? Well you do, if you want a handle on your total cost and time. There are several things that could go wrong over the duration of a project. The following key points will assist construction stakeholders in identifying the important areas and data to focus on. In addition, this article will give you a beginners guide to construction project management.
1. How can I track Current Vs Expected project progress?
Just like any other project, construction project management has phases, from design to planning to scheduling to the finished stage itself. Each of these phases are complicated enough by themselves. Though in congress with the whole project, they grow exponentially more complex. The current and expected project progress is to be analysed to ensure the progress of work as planned. There are various project management tools available in the market to help you do this.
2. How to estimate and find the right project cost?
Every project boils down to money. You will get more people to finish your project more quickly and deliver more, only if you had a huge budget.
Are you planning to make major home improvements? It might cost you huge but you can reduce the budget by negotiating the contract price and terms.
- Many contractors are willing to lower their cost or negotiate particular contract terms if they’re competing for the work, but there are a few who will actually give you the exact contract price beforehand.
- Make sure you are comparing apples to apples when assessing competing quotations, the competing for the work guys usually charges you extra citing the contract omissions and thus you incur cost overruns at the end of your Construction.
- Before making any hiring decision, always make sure to verify a contractor’s experience and credentials.
- You may think its a good idea to buy the supplies on your own if you are absolutely confident you can get the right deal. But it’s not the case in reality, Construction supply chain model is different, which I will explain later. To keep things simple, materials rate – you get individually vs a trustworthy builder gets are way too different. It’s better to stick with a builder who is transparent and trustworthy than taking up the hassle yourself and losing the extra money you could have saved.
- The cost factor on your home improvement project will also partially depend on the season in which the project is executed. You may be able to save money by seeking estimates during that time. Because the construction work is generally slower. So, the contractors will be more willing to negotiate costs with you.
3. What are Technology Enabled work schedule and timetables?
You can’t know the progress of your project if you don’t have a way to monitor it. There are different ways to track the progress of project. This includes
- Cloud-based Solutions
There are cloud based solutions to effectively track the construction process. These are mostly paid software and are used mainly for commercial purpose.
- Gantt charts
Gantt chart provides a visual timeline for your construction project. This chart also makes the editing process of the construction project schedules simple and quick.
- Team scheduling
Team scheduling and resource management are other essential features you’ll want, to help you chart the availability, skillset, cost and allocation of your workforce and your construction materials in real-time.
- Timesheets
Another way to manage your team’s hours is through timesheets. No matter where your team is located, either onsite or in the office, they can update their timesheets fast. They can submit them instantly. Then, managers will review and approve all with a keystroke.
- Mobile Construction app
Construction professionals like field engineers, site managers or designers use certain mobile apps to track construction. These apps can be used for management of construction team timesheets, construction daily reports, for viewing, managing and commenting drawings or maybe even for simple communication and chat.
Benefits of Construction App
- The main benefit for a mobile app is the digitization of documents. Through mobile apps, documents can be assessed digitally.
- It makes finding information much faster and easier.
- Mostly construction apps allow cloud storage of documents.
- These apps can be used for time-sheets updations, project tracking, cost comparison etc.
4. How to effectively manage resources?
In project management, you need resources to carry out project tasks. There can be workers, funding, equipment, facilities, or anything else capable of required for the completion of a project activity. unless you plan and procure adequate resources, you cannot execute an activity based on a prefixed time schedule.
- While implementing a construction project, not only the quality and quantity of work is the vital factor, but also the availability of resources
- Resources are major contributors to project success because each project task must have sufficient and adequate resources allocated for the activity to finish on time and within budget
- You need to make sure about the adequate resource deployment to each level of construction activity.
5. How can I map causes for delays?
Delays are among the most crucial adversaries to the success and performance of construction projects. The most frequent causes of project delay are found to be connecting work, change in work plans, workforce, external conditions, and material and construction design.
Here are a few suggestions to avoid unforeseen project delays and efficiently handle projects
- Pay a lot of attention to project planning
- Constantly track and measure the progress
- Time overrun is the difference between the estimated time of the project and the actual time taken for completion of the activity or project. You need to control this strictly
- You need to continuously analyze potential cost overrun, which is also known as cost escalation
The mapped delays are:
- Excusable delays: Unexpected delays outside the control of anyone
- Concurrent delays: Neither contractor nor Owner will be responsible for such delays
- Compensable delays: Either contractor or Owner is responsible
- Critical delays: They generally affect the schedule and activities.
6. How to do the quality review?
To improve the quality of your resulting work, you shall recheck processes, procedures, and practises. Also, identify areas for change if necessary. As we know that, without quality control, there is no economic benefit.
Construction projects are a difficult processes which involves a wide range. It includes a variety of factors affecting the construction quality, such as design, hydrology, machinery, materials, geology, meteorology, topography, construction technology, methods of operation, technical measures, management systems, and so on.
Because of the large project volume, fixed location, and different location of different projects, the poor control of these factors may produce quality problems. It’s always helpful to have a Quality Checking process defined that can be tracked using technology tools as mentioned earlier.
7. How can I foresee the impact of weather?
The weather is one of the main risks in construction, and ignoring it can have severe consequences. Modern weather forecasts are more accurate than a few decades ago, but they are not 100% accurate. Weather forecasts provide a general picture of what to expect. There are a number of measures we can take to at least mitigate some of the delays caused by bad weather.
- The activities which rain impacts such as earthworks, plan accordingly.
- Make sure to close up buildings in prior tonthe rain season or cold weather
- Make sure to plan the activities which include roofing and lifting large loads outside the windy season
- Understand the expected weather conditions and allow additional time in the schedule to compensate for delays caused by inclement weather
- Put protection measures in place
- Reschedule tasks in anticipation of bad weather
- Have adequate water pumps on site and have a system in place to dispose of water
- Modify your construction working times
8. What are the Health & Safety impacts?
The construction industry is characterized by a relatively high injury and death rate compared to other industries. Hence, health and safety have to be given the utmost importance. In construction projects, safety risk assessment is a critical step in identifying potential hazards and evaluating the risks associated with the hazards. While planning, budgeting, and management of safety related risks, safety risks have to be given priority in risk assessment.
In conclusion, it is important that you have a project management approach to track construction of your project however small or bit it may be. You should choose a construction partner accordingly.
Do you think project management in construction is mandatory? Share your thoughts below.