13 Pages
3345 Words
Introduction : Introduction To Construction Management
The dynamic and multidimensional discipline of construction management is essential to managing and carrying out intricate building projects. The main objectives of construction management are to create a high-quality structure within predetermined time and financial limits. This is achieved by the planning, coordinating, and monitoring of a project from its beginning to its conclusion. Project planning, which involves developing specific methods to guarantee the effective use of labor, materials, and resources, is a crucial component of construction management. During this preliminary stage, risk analyses, feasibility studies, and detailed plans outlining the project's timeframe and milestones are created. Competent construction managers make sure that laws are followed by navigating through a variety of regulatory requirements and permitting processes.
Another crucial role of construction management is coordination, which entails managing the efforts of several teams, suppliers, and subcontractors. Good communication skills are necessary to keep the lines of communication open amongst stakeholders, which promotes cooperation and problem-solving. This comprises schedule management to prevent delays, quality control to maintain building standards, and cost control for managing budgets. Using technology to improve accuracy and efficiency in these control processes—such as project management software and Building Information Modeling (BIM)—has become essential. Building projects always involve risk management, and construction managers are skilled at seeing, evaluating, and reducing any hazards. To reduce the effect of uncertainty, these experts use preemptive methods, such as supply chain interruptions and unplanned weather occurrences.
Define and describe a Construction Manager (CM)
i. Detailed background of a CM
A construction manager usually has studied architecture, engineering, construction management, or related subjects in school. Many have a bachelor's degree and have gained practical experience by working in construction roles such as project engineer for numerous years. It is important to have strong problem-solving, multitasking, communication, and leadership skills. CMs need to be extremely well-organized, meticulous, and skilled at interpreting blueprints. CMs have to be able to perform successfully under pressure to meet deadlines and adhere to stringent budgets. It is essential to have knowledge of building codes, rules, construction software, cost estimation, and scheduling. Maintaining up to date with the latest techniques, technology, and legislation requires ongoing study (Kerzner and H., 2019). To obtain practical experience, many CMs have also held positions as project engineers or other construction-related roles in the past. Strong organizational, problem-solving, communication, and leadership abilities are crucial. CMs need to be proficient with both reading designs and utilizing construction management software. Considering the high-stress atmosphere, CMs need to be capable of handling pressure.
ii. Roles and responsibilities of a Construction Manager in the construction industry
The three primary roles of a construction manager are:
Planner: Master schedules, budgets, and project plans are painstakingly created by construction managers (Jackson and B.J., 2020). CMs take care of hiring contractors, obtaining permissions, and acquiring materials, setting the stage for a project's effective completion.
Coordinator: To promote effective cooperation and advancement, construction managers coordinate duties, plans, materials, teams, and communications. CMs also organize a unified and coordinated project environment.
Issue-Solver: Construction managers are skilled problem solvers who consistently recognize project risks and concerns. CMs use analytical abilities to evaluate problems and put workable solutions in place. Their proactive strategy mitigates obstacles, guarantees good outcomes, and maintains projects on schedule.
The three primary responsibilities of a construction manager are:
Budget Management: Construction managers are excellent at managing their finances, from coming up with detailed cost estimates to setting up and keeping track of budgets. In order to guarantee that project finances are in line with objectives, CMsmanage expenses, manage deviations, and offer thorough cost reports.
Quality Control: Construction managers who are attentive in quality control create detailed plans, carry out painstaking inspections, impose strict standards, record problems, and supervise the rework process to ensure the completion of construction projects of the highest caliber.
Safety Management: Construction managers are responsible for prioritizing safety, creating project safety plans, making sure OSHA laws are followed, carrying out comprehensive checks for safety, ensuring the utilization of personal protective equipment (PPE), and conducting investigations into occurrences to keep the workplace safe.
iii. Challenges that Construction Managers face at their workplaces
Overhead costs, supply chain problems, shortages of workers, weather delays, crises, scope modifications, deadlines that are tight, client demands, liability concerns, and staff disputes are just a few of the many difficulties that CMs deal with. It's challenging to balance priorities and manage stakeholder expectations. Good multitasking skills are necessary to deliver quality and safety on time while keeping projects within budget and schedule. Every day, construction managers deal with a variety of difficulties, such as Overspending and maintaining project budgets; fulfilling strict deadlines and timetables in spite of delays (Harris et al. 2021). Problems in the supply chain, such shortages of materials. Adjusting to crises or last-minute customer adjustments. Organizing several stakeholders and moving pieces. Making sure that quality requirements are fulfilled. Preserving workplace safety. Handling challenging personalities or conflict among teammates. Concerns about liability and avoidable mishaps. Unexpected events frequently arise in the field, challenging CMs' capacity for multitasking, planning, stress management, and problem-solving.
Management techniques employed by Construction Managers
i. Management techniques employed by Construction Managers
Construction managers use a variety of methods and abilities to complete projects successfully:
Scheduling: Creating thorough Gantt charts, timetables, and critical path schedules for every activity and stage of the project. monitoring the timetable and progress on a regular basis.
Budgeting: Creating precise estimates and budgets, monitoring all expenses against the plan, examining deviations, reining in spending, and projecting overall costs are all part of budgeting.
Risk management: It is the process of thoroughly analyzing prospective risks, determining the likelihood and significance of such risks, and creating strategies for risk reduction and contingency.
Resource management: It includes figuring out how many people, what tools, and what supplies are needed. acquiring competent subcontractors and contractors. arranging for the delivery and acquisition of supplies.
Quality assurance: It includes creating thorough quality control plans, carrying out inspections, upholding standards, recording problems, and making sure rework is done correctly.
Safety management: It includes developing safety plans tailored to each site, making sure OSHA regulations are followed, conducting security checks, enforcing PPE usage, and looking into occurrences.
Relationship management: It is the process of establishing trusting bonds with stakeholders, suppliers, inspectors, team members, and clients. preserving open lines of communication.
ii. Three advantages of effective management techniques
Construction managers may effectively complete projects by utilizing numerous important benefits that come with using efficient management techniques:
Better control over costs and schedules: Methods like budget management, progress tracking, and precise scheduling increase the chances that projects will be finished on time and under budget. Vigilant observation guarantees that problems are detected early on before CMs worsen.
Higher quality: Construction satisfies specifications and prevents expensive rework from faults through methodical quality assurance methods that involve checks, control strategies, and process controls.
Increased safety: Fewer occurrences are the result of careful safety planning, instruction, enforcement of PPE, incident investigation, and regulatory compliance. Workers are safeguarded, and OSHA fines that may drive up expenses are avoided.
Construction managers may successfully execute intricate and high-risk projects while adhering to schedule, price, and quality standards by utilizing tried-and-true project management strategies. This requires a great deal of control and cooperation. Adhering to excellent management principles is essential for construction success and significantly more productive than a disorderly approach.
iii. Three disadvantages of poor management techniques
For construction managers, ineffective management approaches have several negative effects:
Cost overruns: When scheduling, budgeting, and cost management procedures are inadequate, budgets are frequently surpassed and earnings are decreased.
Late deliveries: When there is a lack of thorough planning and progress monitoring, delays go undiscovered until CMs have an irreversible effect. Dates of completion are not met.
Quality problems: Defects are not discovered until final inspections if strict quality assurance protocols are not followed. To fix this, there will be delays and a lot of rework.
In conclusion, using inadequate management strategies increases the dangers and complexity that come with building projects. CMs lessen the possibility of achieving important cost, time, quality, and safety targets. To properly manage every component of a project, construction managers need to use good practices.
Overview of the behaviors of Construction Managers at the workplace
i. Ethics guiding construction management
When leading teams and projects, building managers have a legal obligation to respect moral principles including integrity, responsibility, obedience, and equity. Sincerity and openness are essential; the real status of the project must be reflected in all correspondence, reports, business transactions, and contractor bills. Belief is destroyed by deceit. Being accountable entails taking ownership of choices and their results as opposed to placing the blame for problems elsewhere. Taking responsibility increases credibility. Respecting all rules, conditions of contracts, building codes, environmental standards, and relevant legislation is what compliance entails. Public safety may be compromised by violations. One must treat each contractor, supplier, employee, and stakeholder equally, without bias or preference. Decisions made by the management must be made objectively in order to benefit the project as a whole.
In order to be sustainable, project decisions must take into account social and environmental effects, such as energy use, material selection, and community disruption. Building trust among the construction manager and every one of the project participants is facilitated by these ethical concepts (Fellows et al. 2019). Ethical transgressions such as fabricating reports, disregarding safety, or treating contractors unfairly compromise the team's common goal of completing the project successfully. It is imperative for construction managers to set a positive example by consistently exhibiting integrity, accountability, honesty, and fairness. Every member of the project team is influenced by their moral leadership.
ii. Evaluation of positive ethical behavior supports in collaboration in a project
Construction managers must uphold ethical standards in order to promote cooperation, trust, and security. Important moral behavior involves:
Accountability: Assuming accountability for actions taken and results achieved increases credibility and confidence (Marnewick et al. 2019).
Fairness: Treating every contractor, stakeholder, employee, and project participant equally, impartially, and without preference.
Compliance: Adhering strictly to all laws, agreements, rules, specifications for the environment, construction codes, and standards.
Sustainability: Making decisions with an awareness of the effects on water, materials, energy, and society in mind.
The demonstration of ethical behavior by construction managers encourages other project participants to maintain the same standards. Team members are involved in the caliber of their job, feel respected, and have the confidence to voice concerns. Stakeholders have the confidence to know that choices are made with honesty, equity, and their greatest interests in heart (Erdogan et al. 2019). Collaboration, output, and production are all maximized in this way. Dishonesty, disobedience, or partiality are examples of unethical behavior that undermines trust and undermines collaboration.
Overview of health and safety in construction sites
i. Details of ‘Work at Height’ regulations and their importance
In construction, working at heights is naturally dangerous. Even at six feet below the surface, falls can result in life-threatening or deadly injuries. To stop these tragedies, strict adherence to work at height laws is essential.
Figure 1: The comprehensive performance index system for the sustainable construction project management (SCPM).
(Source: Dong et al. 2019)
The work is done at or above six feet above the ground, appropriate fall protection such as railings, nets for protection, or individual fall arrest devices must be installed. Using sturdy ladders that are correctly fastened, inspected for flaws, and positioned at a 4:1 angle. Complete planking of scaffolds with robust railings, toe boards, and damage assessment before usage. When utilizing aerial work platforms, safety harnesses should be anchored to the lift apparatus with a lanyard. Barricading and posting warning signs to deter unwanted entry near below-ground construction locations. When designing a project, construction managers need to account for safe working at heights. CMs guarantee that the appropriate equipment is purchased and that appropriate usage is taught (Dong et al. 2019). It is essential to regularly assess PPE and fall protective equipment and to enforce their usage. People who disregard safe work procedures need to face consequences.
By abiding by these rules, catastrophic and perhaps fatal falls are avoided. CMs shield employees from dangerous or lethal injuries. It is the moral and legal duty of construction managers to supervise, teach, and set an example for complete compliance on their project sites. These laws prevent fatalities.
ii. Details of ‘Manual Handling Operation’ regulations and their importance
In construction labor, moving large items by hand is commonplace. Important guidelines to reduce the dangers of injuries to the muscles from incorrect lifting include:
Carrying out thorough risk assessments for manual handling repetitive jobs in order to detect potential dangers and put preventative measures in place to reduce lifting strains. Offering mechanical lifting assistance, such as hoists, trolleys, and cranes, to lessen physical strain. Teaching employees the correct lifting techniques, which include keeping a straight back, flexing the knees, bringing weights near to the body, and using the muscles in their legs (Lock and D., 2020). Determining appropriate weight restrictions for loads according to their dimensions, composition, and weight. Preventing fall hazards by keeping walkways clear, adding enough illumination, and wearing shoes that won't slip.
It is important for construction managers to proactively plan their projects to reduce manual handling by ensuring that equipment and materials are available (Bilge et al. 2022). Training and supervision are required to ensure that safe carrying limits and procedures are strictly followed. Examining documented strains finds their underlying reasons to stop recurrence. By implementing safety-focused planning and execution, observing these standards contributes to the creation of an environment that protects workers from lost time and back injuries that can terminate a career.
iii. Analysis of the role of a Construction Manager in managing health and safety at the workplace
A crucial and diverse function that construction managers play in maintaining health and safety is as follows:
Creating thorough, site-specific safety strategies and overseeing their execution. Ensuring that all work adheres precisely to local, state, and federal safety laws, rules, and standards of conduct. Giving all employees thorough instruction on safety precautions, personal protective equipment, emergency protocols, and risks. Regularly examine the materials, tools, work procedures, and site circumstances to detect potential hazards. Making the use of PPE, such as respirators, helmets, harnesses, and eye and hearing protection, mandatory. Monitoring safety data in order to spot patterns in risks, injuries, events, and high-risk activities (Aureliano et al. 2019). Carefully considering safety in all planning and on-site operations to establish a robust safety culture.
Construction projects entail a multitude of intricate risks and hazards. By incorporating health and safety throughout every aspect of management procedures and steadfastly seeking safety excellence, construction managers protect employees, the general public, and buildings (Sherratt et al. 2022). CMs set the example for the safety environment on the job site through supervision, rules, and personal behavior.
Figure 2: Safety at workplace
(Source: Self-created in MS word)
Conclusion
To produce effective projects, construction management combines engineering, project management, leadership, and problem-solving skills. Planning, budgeting, organizing, and supervising every facet of a building project holistically is the responsibility of construction managers. By utilizing methods like careful planning, risk assessment, and quality assurance, CMs maximize the possibility of accomplishing projects within budget and on schedule. The culture of the construction site is also shaped by the construction managers' honesty, hard work, and dedication to ethics and safety. Their direction and control guarantee the well-being of employees while guaranteeing that constructions adhere to sustainable standards. There are never two similar days in the rewarding yet challenging field of construction management (Volker and L., 2019). This is a demanding and fulfilling profession that calls for multidisciplinary knowledge, flexibility under duress, and a strong desire to produce outstanding results in a complicated business. The obstacles are beneficial when structures and infrastructure are developed to improve communities.
In conclusion, construction management effectively completes projects by integrating several disciplines. Overseeing safety, quality, and teams systematically across the construction lifecycle, as well as planning, budgeting, coordinating, and problem-solving, is the responsibility of construction managers. By utilizing management strategies such as risk analysis, scheduling, and standard assurance, CMs maximize the likelihood of completing projects on schedule, within budget, and without any mishaps. CMs also create the culture of the site by their actions and dedication to morality, responsibility, and high standards of safety. For projects to be lucrative, long-lasting, and safe, their leadership is essential.
References
Journals
- Aureliano, F.D.S., Ariellen Ap F, C., Júnior, I.F. and Rodrigues, R.A., 2019. Application of lean manufacturing in construction management. Procedia Manufacturing, 38, pp.241-247.
- Bhosale, A. and Konnur, B., 2019. Use of artificial neural network in construction management. Int. J. Innov. Eng. Sci, 4, pp.73-76.
- Bilge, E.Ç. and Yaman, H., 2022. Research trends analysis using text mining in construction management: 2000–2020. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 29(8), pp.3210-3233.
- Dong, N., Fu, Y., Xiong, F., Li, L., Ao, Y. and Martek, I., 2019. Sustainable construction project management (SCPM) evaluation—A case study of the Guangzhou metro line-7, PR China. Sustainability, 11(20), p.5731.
- Erdogan, S.A., Šaparauskas, J. and Turskis, Z., 2019. A multi-criteria decision-making model to choose the best option for sustainable construction management. Sustainability, 11(8), p.2239.
- Fellows, R.F., Langford, D., Newcombe, R. and Urry, S., 2019. Construction management in practice. John Wiley & Sons.
- Harris, F., McCaffer, R., Baldwin, A. and Edum-Fotwe, F., 2021. Modern construction management. John Wiley & Sons.
- Lock, D., 2020. Project management. Routledge.
- Marnewick, C., Silvius, G. and Schipper, R., 2019. Exploring patterns of sustainability stimuli of project managers. Sustainability, 11(18), p.5016.
- Puolitaival, T., Davies, K. and Kähkönen, K., 2019. Digital technologies and related competences in construction management in the era of fast-paced digitalisation. In Proceedings of CIB World Building Congress 2019. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
- Safa, M. and Hill, L., 2019. Necessity of big data analysis in construction management. Strategic Direction, 35(1), pp.3-5.
- Sherratt, F. and Farrell, P., 2022. Introduction to construction management. Routledge.
- Volker, L., 2019. Looking out to look in: inspiration from social sciences for construction management research. Construction management and economics, 37(1), pp.13-23.
Books
- Jackson, B.J., 2020. Construction management JumpStart: the best first step toward a career in construction management. John Wiley & Sons.
- Kerzner, H., 2019. Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for project management. John Wiley & Sons.
