by Everyone has their own idea of a dream home, right? So taking the first step into that dream mansion should be with utmost satisfaction. But Cost overrun and time delays are sure to gives all of us headaches.
Thus Construction management planning by identifying suitable measures to finish the project on time, with required quality materials and on a fixed budget is a must.
Understanding cost overrun
If the client has to spend more money on completion of the project than the originally estimated cost, then the project goes over budget, which is not at all a good practice. Slow decision making and poor schedule management leads to cost overrun.
Understanding schedule overrun
Schedule overrun happens when a project gets delayed beyond it’s expected completion time. This can happen in two phases: the planning phase and the execution phase. Other than these, time buffer for extra works needs to be calculated for unforeseen natural causes.
3 pointers to reduce cost and time overrun
- We should always mandate a fixed estimate before starting any construction and make sure its contractual. Client or the service provider should not encourage any further changes once an estimate is fixed. From a client perspective, we may see a million options for our dream home all around us and this for sure leads to confusion. Therefore, it is always better to take help from an experienced Architect. He/She will help you realize your dream within your budget.
- Always go for a professional architect rather than taking a random design from the internet and consulting a construction partner to build you a home. This Construction partner may or may not be able to contain the budget and time delays within the expected range. Cost and time wastage happen often when service provider gives a poor design or delays providing expected design and detailed drawings. Therefore, you will find the design cost of an Architect worth the money by the end of your project!
- You should make sure all your ideas and requirements are identified and clearly communicated to your consultant Architect. Always make up your mind and choose what you need from all the suggested ideas. Increasing the number of corrections and redo will further delay the process. You should not have frequent corrections (definitely not more than 3 or 4) from initial draft to final design stage. You should freeze the design as soon as you have final design and estimated cost is known. That’s the first major step towards cost and time delay.
Below are 7 quick pointers to keep in mind:
- Planning, planning and more planning – pay a lot of attention to preparatory work.
- Keep a note on fluctuating material prices and rates.
- Give sufficient time to designing, planning etc to get planning right and avoid reworks.
- Attempt to stay within the scope. Late improvising on estimated plan will always end up costing you.
- Constantly track and measure the progress, if possible take help of service providers who give real-time updates via mobile.
- Reduction in wastage is key.
- Collaboration and real-time communication with project participants are very important.
In conclusion, careful planning can help you avoid cost and time wastage. What do you think?