UC #2 (1)
UC #2 (1)
ON SITE BUILDING
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
Level IV
Learning Guide # 06
Unit of Competence: Manage Construction Site Operations
Module Title: Managing Construction Site Operations
LG Code: CONBCM4 M02 0718 Lo 01-06
TTLM Code: CONBCM4 0718 TTLM 0718v1
Human Resources / WORKMEN / Labor: All works involved, including the operation of
equipment cannot be executed without human labor. Labor in the form of technical and managerial
personnel and work forces in various trades and professions are essential to carryout projects
efficiently and effectively. All other resources are coordinated and generally the work itself is
executed by labor. Therefore careful planning, organizing and monitoring of workmen are mandatory.
These resources are very much necessary and for the successful accomplishment of a project, the
availability of workmen from the top management including project manger to the daily laborer staff
level is very vital. These include professional, skilled, semi skilled and unskilled laborers. Human
resources can be understood in two values: Capacity and Capability. While the first refers to the
quantity of labor for the scope defined; the second covers knowledge, technology know-how and skill
as per the demands of the scopes ability. Human resources need to be attracted, selected, developed,
motivated and retained if an organization needs to successfully accomplish project objectives. They
do need also be capable of:
Financial Resources / FUND: It is obvious that one of the basic resources in the construction industry is
Fund, which should be arranged before starting any project. The project to be conceived shall be with in the
fund available for it. Usually funds are available from among Governmental institution, Private institutions
and Donors in the form of loan or assistance.
In the case of Governmental entities, since budgetary resources are scarce it is advisable and in almost all
cases that a priority shall be given to projects which are very useful and necessary to the society. However,
in the case of private organizations it is the business what mater.
The objective and goal of the project is achieved successfully if and only if the fund is sufficiently flowing to
carryout the project as planned. That is, it is the regular supply of fund that keeps projects moving
progressively. It is necessary to ensure financial planning for smooth cash inflow and outflow to avoid delays
in project activities. Financial resources shall be planned and managed with special care due to the fact that
all other resources very much depend on the availability of funds.
Information Resources: Information can be understood in two terms: data whether processed or not; and its
technology. Both are vital for the successful implementation of projects. Contextual information, data useful
for estimating duration and costs; etc are some of informational resources used in projects.
Information technology both the hard and soft wares have brought the processing and management of such
information becomes important and helpful in facilitating the comparison of several alternatives. This helps
in optimization or maximization of uses of project resources. As a result, informational resources need to be
managed. PMIS, MS-Project, Think tool, etc are some of the soft wares developed in managing information
resources.
Physical Resources:
MATERIALS: The very large portion of a project cost is gone to material cost. As the material cost
component of the construction industry covers between 55-70% of the total construction cost, proper
consideration shall be given in the planning stage to design with easily available material with out
compromising the quality for the intended purpose and for proper flow and storage of materials. Care
shall be provided for materials easily spoiled by climatic and expiry conditions. This undoubtedly
will affect the project if not properly managed.
➢ EQUIPMENT: These days various plants, equipment, tools etc., are used very often in construction
activities. Provision of equipment replace the hard work that can be made by human labor taking much
time within reasonable period of time. Therefore it increases efficiency and economy. Its initial cost
though high, it works for long period of time under adverse conditions with less manpower than working
in its absence which will result to be economical for long term investment. Depending on the types and
nature of construction, machinery at site includes batching plant, mixers, trucks, tractors, excavators,
dampers, cranes, vibrators, pumps etc.
➢ OTHER ASSETS: Physical Infrastructures and Owned Land are assets which can be collaterals
for capital base enhancement and credit facilities and are useful to develop the scarce financial
resources and getting into business access.
✓ Schedule enables forecasting of input resources and earned value to indicate the pattern of
requirement and the financial state of the project in terms of investment, expenditure,
output and income.
✓ Schedule brings out implication of time and resource constraints.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations – known as ‘the Management
Regulations’. ‘The Framework Directive’ which was passed to encourage improvements in the
health and safety of workers at work. Regulations they are what have been called the ‘Six Pack’
Regulations. The further Statutory Instruments are:
• The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare)
• The Provision and Use of Work Equipment
• The Personal Protective Equipment at Work
• The Manual Handling Operations
• The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment)
These regulations are fundamental to modern principles of health and safety management and deal
with assessment of risk and arrangements for competence in the measures needed to protect
individuals and prevent accidents. Management Regulations further requires not only that risks
should be avoided and combated at source, but also that those which are unavoidable should be
evaluated. This is a new requirement and should be read in conjunction with CDM Regulation on
the duties of designers.
The principles of prevention set out in the Management Regulations are as follows:
(a) Avoiding risks;
(b) Evaluating risks which cannot be avoided;
(c) Combating risks at source;
(d) adapting the work to the individual, especially as regards the design of workplaces, the choice
of work equipment and the choice of working and production methods, with a view, in particular,
to alleviating monotonous work and work at a predetermined work-rate and to reducing their effect
on health;
(e) Adapting to technical progress;
(f) Replacing the dangerous by the non-dangerous or the less dangerous;
(g) developing a coherent overall prevention policy which covers technology, organization of
work, working conditions, social relationships and the influence of factors relating to the working
environment;
(h) Giving collective protective measures priority over individual protective measures;
(i) Giving appropriate instructions to employees.
• Organizing • Monitoring.
These functions are seldom well established in the construction industries in Ethiopia. And each
management levels are operating their construction activities not beyond the output with individual
inborn gifts and social experience capabilities. However, it should not be over passed that wider
application in the industry is in practice led to grow the management concept and application
development nationwide.
PLANNING: Planning involves setting visions, missions and goals of organizations or projects
or programs together with the activities to achieve them. All levels of managers develop goals that
corresponds to the efforts of the top management overall goals and strategy. This requires
operational plan aimed at administration and coordination of Stakeholders, Processes and
Resources. Planning is beneficial in that it makes better coordination, focuses on forward thinking,
creates participatory work environment and good for effective monitoring and feedback systems.
ORGANIZING: It is the process of arranging people and physical resources to carryout plans and
accomplishes organizational objectives. This helps how responsibilities of individuals who are
required to execute the works are defined and staffing and directing can be performed. Such things
can easily be shown by the use of Organization Chart. Organization makes sure the flow of
information resources and tasks logically and efficiently. Besides, the organization of sites,
specifically to construction, together with the physical resources is also considered as the part of
the organizing functions of management.
IMPLEMENTING: It is the process whereby the actual work is executed. This helps in executing
the task defined in the planning stage with proper organization system together with monitoring
quality, time and cost of the works. Proper inspection and supervision, recording data of executed
works, availing all necessary resources at the right place and at the right time with their proper
coordination are necessary to achieve the required goal efficiently and successfully. The most
important aspect in implementation of works is leading / directing. Leading is the act of motivating
or causing people to perform certain tasks intended to achieve specified objectives. In general, it
is the art of making things happen. Leading requires to understand the dynamics of individual and
group behaviors, motivation of employees, effective visionary and effective communication
capabilities.
MONITORING: Monitoring is the process by which executives and legislatives determine or
evaluate whether organizational objectives are being achieved and actual operations are in
consistent with plans or not. This helps for checking mechanism and used as a feed back for future
planning. Such things are done against the planned data with the help of communication in the
form of reporting, assessment and checking mechanism of any kind which is suitable for the
purpose of the executed works. Effective management can take place when proper planning,
organizing, implementing, continuous communication, feed back for monitoring purpose and
future planning are carried out successfully.
According to widely known references, Henry These roles are related to formal authority base of
Mintzberg brought forward three primarily managers. Roles related to ceremonial in nature.
managerial roles: Interpersonal, Informational Roles related to ensuring achievement of goals.
and Decision Making Roles (Table …). Roles related to communication with internal and
Interpersonal Roles Figurehead Leadership external stakeholders to develop favorable
Liaison relationships and networks.
Informational Roles Monitor Disseminator These roles are related to availing sufficient
Spokesperson information to carryout jobs effectively. Because
they are information centers for information and
communication source. Roles related to scanning
internal and external environments of their
Managerial Roles
Globalization of markets
Increasing predominance of Entrepreneurial Firms
Growth in Service - based organizations
Increasing Diversity
New organizational Model, and
Increasing customer focus.
This has brought new competencies in the managerial roles. These are Effective Communicator;
Team Player; Technology Master for information age; Problem Solver; Diplomat and politically
astute; Change Maker and Promoter of Empowerment and Delegatory roles.
construction management of the planned project starting from the feasibility study to the hand-over of the
project by the investor or the owner. The type of this professional services selected depends to a large
degree on the type of construction and the experience of the owners the profession in dealing with various
professionals services in the previous projects undertaken.
▪ Internal customers are the owners of the next phases in the process who
must wait for the delivery of a product or service before completing work;
✓ Who are the process owners?
▪ The people who actually do the job and those empowered to do work,
improve how they do the work, and accept accountability;
✓ Who improves processes-process owners, customers, suppliers?
▪ People who knows the most about processes and who are most capable of
evaluating and improving them (i.e. the process owners);
➢ Essential questions in process thinking are;
✓ How do you improve processes?
▪
Improvement might be gradual & continuous (i.e. kaizen, a continuous process
improvement)
▪ or it might be a dramatic process redesign (i.e. process reengineering)
✓ What might not add value for customers?
▪
Customers only want to pay for activities that add value to products and services,
and to process and relationships that impact the products and services;
✓ What role does measurement play?
▪
Results to systematic identification & elimination of root causes of problems,
process constraints and activities that do not add ;
➢ Essential elements in process management are;
✓ Understanding process thinking including process ownership;
✓ Identifying and satisfying customer’s requirements;
✓ Establishing process baselines and measurement;
✓ Analyzing and improving processes through the use of quality concepts and tools;
✓ Understanding how to use gradual, continuous process improvement and rapid,
dramatic process redesign or reengineering;
➢ Is the job of every employee of every organization in every industry;
its environmental distribution, exposure can occur through inhalation of polluted air (either indoors
or outdoors), direct ingestion through water or food, ingestion of material through pica or
accidental transfer to food materials, or by skin contact. Most concern about exposure to chemicals
in the environment from the human health perspective is directed towards those that are man-made,
although many naturally occurring substances are highly toxic and some chemicals of concern,
such as dioxins, can arise from both natural processes (e.g. forest fires) and human activities.
Modern techniques of chemical analysis now allow exceedingly low levels of chemicals to be
routinely detected in the environment, which makes it increasingly important to understand the
concepts of exposure and dose, and the difference between hazard and risk.
2.5. Supervising and maintaining on site communication.
Directing People on the Job
Office Orders
➢ What is an order ?
✓ A specific message conveyed by a leader to a follower for the purpose of
influencing the follower to take desired action;
✓ A specific message conveyed by a leader to a follower for the purpose of
influencing the follower to take desired action; Establishing process baselines and
measurement;
✓ Analyzing and improving processes through the use of quality concepts and tools;
✓ Understanding how to use gradual, continuous process improvement and rapid,
dramatic process redesign or reengineering;
➢ Is the job of every employee of every organization in every industry;
2.6. Monitoring safety associated with process, including chemical handling.
Chemicals in the environment may be natural or synthetic, organic or inorganic, may arise from
point or diffuse sources, and be locally or globally distributed. Human exposure can be through a
multitude of routes and may be a result of deliberate release, accidental release or the everyday
use of chemicals. Depending on the physicochemical attributes and behavior of the chemical and
its environmental distribution, exposure can occur through inhalation of polluted air (either indoors
or outdoors), direct ingestion through water or food, ingestion of material through pica or
accidental transfer to food materials, or by skin contact. Most concern about exposure to chemicals
in the environment from the human health perspective is directed towards those that are man-made,
although many naturally occurring substances are highly toxic and some chemicals of concern,
such as dioxins, can arise from both natural processes (e.g. forest fires) and human activities.
Modern techniques of chemical analysis now allow exceedingly low levels of chemicals to be
routinely detected in the environment, which makes it increasingly important to understand the
concepts of exposure and dose, and the difference between hazard and risk.
2.7. Supervising and maintaining on site communication.
Directing People on the Job
Office Orders
➢ What is an order?
✓ A specific message conveyed by a leader to a follower for the purpose of
influencing the follower to take desired action;
✓ Has four (4) distinct categories;
a. A request c. Asking for volunteers
b. A suggestion d. A direct order
✓ Can either be verbal or written
➢ When to use verbal orders?
✓ When the order is simple and the message can be clearly heard;
✓ When privacy is important;
✓ When the follower is intelligent and reliable;
✓ When a demonstration is involved;
➢ When to have written orders?
✓ When precise figures or complicated details are involved;
✓ When orders must be passed on to someone else;
✓ When the workers involved are slow to understand and forgetful;
✓ When you want to hold the receiver strictly accountable;
✓ When particular sequence must be followed exactly;
✓ When a notice board can be suitably used;
✓ When you are quoting general instructions on higher authority;
✓ When record is desirable, perhaps the order may need to be referred to in the future;
Categories
➢ Request
Must be used when you want specific actions from people like:
✓ Anyone who is interested in his work, or an older person;
✓ Someone who welcomes responsibility;
✓ Someone who is interested in advancement;
✓ A group of personnel with good morale;
✓ Someone whose initiative you want to develop;
➢ Ask for volunteers
You should ask for volunteers for:
✓ Jobs that are dangerous or disagreeable;
✓ For extra heavy work;
✓ For jobs that requires overtime;
✓ When you ask a skilled worker to do a special unskilled job;
✓ Stakeholder Engagement
▪ Primarily focused at getting to know and understand each other, at the Executive
level;
▪ It is the opportunity to discuss and agree expectations of communication and
primarily agree a set of Values and Principles that all stakeholders will abide by;
✓ Communication Information;
▪ Expectations are established and agreed for the manner in which communications
are managed between stakeholders, who receives communication, when , how, and
to what level of detail;
▪ Protocols may be established including security and confidentiality classifications;
➢ Stakeholder Agreements;
A collection of agreed decisions between stakeholders which should be signed by key stakeholder
representatives
Problem solving is one of the most important skills for success in the workplace and at home.
The ability to identify a problem, evaluate all of the relevant factors and develop a good solution
is essential. Whether you are experiencing conflict with a co-worker, dealing with multiple tasks
that need to be prioritized, or trying to track a shipment that hasn’t arrived, problem solving is
a part of everyday life.
3.1. Facilitate meetings to identify methods to solve process problems.
How We Deal With Conflicts: It is normal for people to live and work well together. But it is
normal also for us to have conflicts from time to time. We disagree with each other because we each
see the world differently, and we have different ideas about what we want and how to do things. To
be human is to have conflicts. If we all agreed on everything, life would be boring! We don’t have
a choice about whether conflict will happen in our lives. But we do have a choice about how we will
deal with it. We really have three choices: flight, fight, and unite.
Once you have determined the root cause(s) of the problem, take the appropriate steps to resolve the issue.
PROACT TECHNIQUE
The PROACT Technique encourages a thorough problem-solving approach. The problem is
examined in detail and potential solutions are carefully reviewed before any decisions are made.
Answer the questions in each of the steps to work towards a solution.
When you have completed the steps, choose a solution and take action.
CREATIVE TECHNIQUE
It can be helpful to include a variety of people and ideas in the problem-solving process. The
Creative Technique uses group work and brainstorming to develop solutions.
Brainstorm • List as many potential solutions to the problem as possible. At this point, all ideas should
be considered valid.
Incubation • Before choosing a solution, abandon the problem for several days (if possible). Allow enough
time to adopt a fresh perspective, but not long enough to forget earlier work.
Identification
• Determine the root cause of the problem — the real problem.
Perspectives • Create a list of the people, groups and/or organizations impacted by the problem.
• Consider how each of them is affected by the problem. (Note: Include anyone who is affected by the
situation directly or indirectly. It might be necessary to make some assumptions for this step, stressing
the importance of involving as many opinions and perspectives as possible in this process.)
Challenges and • With the different people, groups and/or organizations in mind, consider the individual or
Opportunities organizational challenges and constraints within which the problem must be solved (e.g.
company policy). How will these affect the problem-solving process?
• Consider the learning and growth opportunities presented by the problem for everyone
involved. What can be learned? What progress can be made by solving the problem?
Strategies • Brainstorm possible solutions. Think of everyone involved and remember that any solution could
affect everyone differently.
• Listen to and respect each other's ideas. Record every idea, no matter how
unreasonable it may sound to individuals in the group.
Solutions • Using the brainstormed ideas, come up with at least two or three specific solutions. They can focus
on the individual or the underlying issues at a group or organizational level.
• Develop a formal plan of action. Keep in mind the different people and perspectives involved.
Expected • List the outcomes you expect as a result of the solutions you identified.
Outcomes
• Revisit the Perspectives step to ensure the solutions are fair and respectful to everyone involved.
Quality Control
➢ Feigenbaum (1991) defines control as;
❑ Appraising Conformance;
Comparing the conformance of the manufactured product, or the offered service to the standards;
❑ Planning of Improvements;
✓ Quality control is a collective term for activities and techniques, within the process that
are intended to create specific quality characteristics;
➢ The control process is the nature of a feedback loop as proposed by Gryna (2001);
✓ Choose the control subject, that is, choose what we intend to regulate;
✓ Establish measurement;
✓ Data Collection;
✓ Pie Chart;
✓ Run Chart;
In order to minimize construction cost while meeting all of the specifications in the plans and
design requires that the advertising for bids and awarding of contracts be closely monitored. The
qualifications of the contractors and subcontractors to perform the services advertised and meet
the quality requirements should be examined carefully all during the construction phase of the
project. This is an element in the program for quality assurance in construction.
4.5. Assessing building work against construction standards.
The actual construction activities should be closely monitored to ensure that the engineering plans
and specifications are being met or exceeded throughout the construction process.
Process Technical Resources has experienced quality assurance personnel that can develop a
quality assurance in construction program that meets the needs and requirements of the project
owner.
• In Quality Assurance, processes are planned to avoid the defects and assure quality.
• Quality Control deals with finding the defects and correcting them while making the
product.
• Quality Assurance is a Proactive approach.
• Quality Control is a reactive approach.
• Quality Assurance is a process based approach.
• Quality Control is a product based approach.
The main purpose of the Quality Control Process is to see if the deliverables are defect free, and
acceptable as per quality requirements and standards set in the Quality Assurance process. If
deliverables are not as per the requirements, suitable corrective action will be taken.
Quality Assurance and Quality Control processes are dependent on each other. The Quality
Control receives the input from the Quality Assurance, and in turns gives feedback to the Quality
Assurance so that Quality Assurance could validate the process.
For example, if the project team finds any defects while executing the project, it will correct the
error by work around, and this feedback is sent to Quality Assurance for further investigation to
take corrective actions in the process so that this error should never happen again in future.
In the same way the Quality Control people will follow the process defined by Quality Assurance
so that these defects do not recur.
Once the construction contract is executed, it is the goal of the construction management team to complete
the project for the contracted money amount and within the agreed time frame. This goal seems reasonable
enough. After all, the superintendent and field crews can be counted on to do their jobs and we can assume
that our estimates and schedules are accurate. All we have to do is get out there and get the job done, hoping
that everything turns out all right.
If only it were that simple. Once the construction starts, the “keeping score” element of construction
management. Every purchase order, subcontract, material invoice, and employee time card must be
monitored, tracked, and recorded to ensure that the project plays out according to plan and has a reasonable
chance of meeting the project goals for time, cost, and quality. If any one of these goals appears to be headed
in the wrong direction, the project manager and superintendent will work together to determine the best
course of action to correct the situation.
5.1. Monitoring improvements and variations to process to ensure outcome:
The project control cycle begins with the project plan and ends with the final project debriefing and
evaluation. There are seven fundamental steps to the process:
•Act empowered; be accountable. As individuals and members of teams, function as process owners and
consider process management and improvement an integral part of daily work. Don't say, "They won't let
us …" Make decisions, not excuses.
•Document and publicize improvements. Success breeds success. Continue to monitor and evaluate
processes to identify additional opportunities for improvement.
•Ask (and teach others to ask) what, where, why, who, when, and how questions about each step in a process
(or job).
a. Meets specifications
b. Meet production schedule
c. Meet workplace requirements
5.2. Collating and analyzing data
At the heart of every project control system is information and a good reporting process.
Successful construction management and project control depend 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. Some of the sources of information used to
track job performance and feed back into the project control system are:
◆ Delivery tickets
● Leadership ● Entrepreneurship
The Consultant/client determines substantial completion of work or designated portions thereof and prepares
a list of incomplete or unsatisfactory items and a schedule for their completion.
Acceptance Stage
Provisional Acceptance Stage: During the provisional acceptance stage, items are temporarily completed.
The project owner receives written statements that the work is ready for preliminary inspection. They secure
and transmit required guarantees, affidavits, releases, bonds and waivers to the engineer. As well, they
submit all keys, manuals, record drawings and maintenance stocks to the project owner.
Final Acceptance Stage: In this stage all remarks given during provisional acceptance are rectified by the
Client. The remaining retention, performance bond and guarantee bond is released to the contractor. Finally,
after a successful handover to the client, a letter of good performance is submitted to the contractor.
Post construction Stage
After completion by the contractor, it is of the client that handover the project to him. The Company also
prepares a project completion report which includes the scope and the schedule of the work, the important
events, the contract executed, as built drawing, the cost involved, problems encountered during execution,
the defects noticed during handing over. Finally they perform the following duties:
Property Valuation
• studies the current market value of handed over buildings
Modification and Renovations
• Contract documents are prepared to fl oat tender.
Facility Management
• Follow up on the building utilities workability.
• Prepare maintenance and repair schedule for the building