CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Construction Project Management
Synopsis
Expansion projects are difficult because there are many things to consider. There is the budget, the time-frame, the supplier and the resources (human and tangible resources). The firm is planning to expand by constructing a serviced apartment – a feat that requires extra preparation and research. This paper will assess the probability of that process by identifying key variables that would be problematic in the process. By knowing how much budget is needed, how much timeframe is needed and how much man-power is needed, this study would be able to predict the success of the expansion in Hong Kong. Further, identifying the advantages that an integrated supply chain approach can contribute to the project would help in its development.
However, despite the improvement of the performance of many companies, these changes also contributed to the distress of some, which are not apt for these changes. From this, it can be understood that, existing and persisting in the business industry is not as easy as it seems. Because of these, many business organizations and companies are encountering a variety of problems and issues that determine their success or failure in the business arena and in the industry. These problems and issues arise from the external and internal changes that the company encounters.
From these, this paper discusses the construction of a serviced apartment in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR), which encountered a number of issues. In relation to the construction of a serviced apartment as part of the changes that happened in the internal and external environments of the firm. The general issues and problems that the organisation faces was evaluated and discussed. Actually, the discussion covered the issues pertaining to serviced apartment construction, project planning, human resources, managers’ leadership, and challenge of change management. Moreover, the issues identified were tackled in relation to the scope of its change.
Introduction
According to and (1994), projects should transform an unsatisfactory (existing or future) state to a better state within a certain time, using a limited effort. In a more pragmatic terms, a project means that there is someone who always has the unique needs for something new tangible outcomes (the creation) of it, and requires knowledge and resources to conduct the realization of the concept within the specific constraints of time, money and specifications (, 1997). Furthermore, required expertise and resources are needed, either in-house or from the market, need to be pooled together to create the change – the transition from the idea to the creation, according to the client’s expectations, which are provided by professionals, consultants, contractors and sub-contractors (, 1997).
Rationally, project management plays an important role in the process of the project because it is the only way to organize the activity process within the project effectively. Project management is simply the process of managing, allocating, and timing resources to achieve a given goal in an efficient and expedient manner (, 1993). Projects come in simple or complex. Moreover, the objectives that constitute the specified goal may be in terms of time, costs, or technical results. Several techniques have been created in order to execute this type of management with ease. Project management techniques are used widely in many enterprises, including construction, banking, manufacturing, marketing, health care services, transportation, R&D, public services, and so on. Some examples of project management techniques include: the statement of requirements; work breakdown structure; dependency structure matrix; cost management approaches; and resource allocation matrix. Because requirement gathering is an important part in project management, statement of requirements would be a valuable tool in avoiding problems (, 2003). On the other hand, the work breakdown structure is also important in a sense that it identifies terminal elements in project management, or the actual items to be done in a project (, 2004). The dependency structure matrix then identifies relationships within particular tasks and orders them in a fashion that is organized, less costly and saves time. On the other hand, resource allocation matrix is specific because it helps in the consolidation, efficient utilization of resources, etc. (, 2004). Finally, cost management approaches helps the project team estimate and manage the cost of the project. Aside from those, there is a multitude more of techniques pertaining to effective project management. This is perhaps due to the difficult nature of managing an ongoing project. Models and techniques basically guide project managers along the way. In this paper, the discussion of the construction of serviced apartment in regards to project management was initiated.
Construction of Serviced Apartment
Managing projects put the manager into a difficult position because of the weight of responsibility associated with the task. Based on existing studies, the rate of project failure is high (, 1997). (1997) enumerated the reasons on why projects fail. (1997) stated that reasons include: poor understanding and identification of the client/customer/end-user needs; inadequate specification of project requirements and project constraints; consequently, setting unrealistic project goals altogether; organizational behavior factors including structure, functions, performance, and associated behavior of groups and individuals; bounded rationality in the process of project planning and project implementation, i.e. the lack of appreciation of dynamics and change; poor monitoring and control during the project implementation phase; and measurement and assessment of project progress against the plan ().
The success of a project would most likely depend, one way or another, on how the project manager addresses the lifecycle. It mainly includes the management of information, technology and people. Perhaps, due to the reason to specify what are the specific important factors that should be considered within those three variables, researchers have identified several success factors in project management. For instance, and (1996) identified several critical success factors such as: project mission; project planning; project control; top management support; and customer involvement. Almost similarly, (1998) identified five critical factors for success in new product development projects, which include: the commitment of senior management acting through a culture that gives importance to innovative and entrepreneurial individuals; organizational structure and processes that supports cross-functional teams and provide guidelines for their operation; encouraging new product ideas to be generated; providing effective venture teams and leaders; and a tactical planning process for innovative projects. (2003) adds that project managers should also give importance to learning and innovation to ensure the success of the project.
From the discussion, this paper aims to conduct a project plan regarding construction of serviced apartment. Basically, the firm is planning to construct a serviced apartment. Some of the activities needed to get the Construction of serviced apartment started are:
A. Negotiation with the city government
B. Shipping the equipment
C. Recruitment of Staff/Workers
D. Construction of serviced apartment
E. Pilot operation
Project Plan
From the list of activities presented previously this part of the paper will show the critical path analysis as part of construction project Plan. As previously discussed, this project contains of five separate activities. A, B, C, D and E. The time required and precedence relations among them are listed in the following table:
Table 1. Precedence Relation
|
Activity |
Activity Time |
Preceding Activity |
|
7 weeks |
None |
|
B. Shipping the equipment |
8 weeks |
None |
|
C. Recruitment of Staff/Workers |
6 weeks |
A |
|
D. Construction of serviced apartment |
5 weeks |
A |
|
E. Pilot operation |
4 weeks |
B, C |
These activities and their precedence relation are presented by the following network:
Figure 1. Activity Network
Actually, the notation (A, 7), indicates that the arc in question represents activity A, whose completion moths is 7 weeks. A path is a sequence of arcs connecting two nodes as a path.
For example:
is a path between 1 and 3
is a path between 1 and 4
An observation of the network diagram will show that the seventeen weeks represent the longest path between nodes 1 and 4, which is called the critical path. Because it is wanted to expedite some of the activities in order to lessen the total completion in seventeen weeks. Thus, reduction of the completion time of some of the activities lying on the critical path; say activity C for two weeks must be done. Then the chances of reducing the completion time of the whole project by two weeks are possible.
Unforeseen delays in the activities not on the critical path may affect the completion time of the entire project. Any delay in the activities on the critical path will lengthen the completion time of the entire project.
From this network analysis, finding the earliest event times, earliest finish times, latest event times and slack may contribute in determining the critical path for these activities. The complete event including the critical path of activities that should be observed in this project is presented in the following table.
|
|
|
|
Start Time |
Finish Time |
|
|
||
|
Event |
Activity |
Activity Time |
Earliest |
Latest |
Earliest |
Latest |
Slack |
Critical Path |
|
1, 2 |
A. Negotiation with the city government |
7 weeks |
0 |
0 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
|
|
1, 3 |
B. Shipping the equipment |
8 weeks |
0 |
5 |
8 |
13 |
5 |
|
|
2, 3 |
C. Recruitment of Staff/Workers |
6 weeks |
7 |
7 |
13 |
13 |
0 |
|
|
2, 4 |
D. Construction of serviced apartment |
5 weeks |
7 |
12 |
12 |
17 |
5 |
|
|
3, 4 |
E. Pilot operation |
4 weeks |
13 |
13 |
17 |
17 |
0 |
|
If the firm wanted to reduce the completion time of the entire project, then they must reduce the completion times for some of the constituent activities. Such an action is called crashing of activities. If activity is to be crashed, it should be on critical path.
While every organisation seems to invest in technology, there are other aspects that should be considered in attaining a holistic performance of their respective organisation. One aspect that needs as much, if not more attention and investment than technology is human capital management. An organisation’s human capital management philosophy must value the workforce as a key asset that will define an organisation’s character and performance capacity (, 2001).
Furthermore, organisations must realise that in order for them to recruit, develop, and retain employees for future missions, they need to unleash their human resource employee relation’s imagination to create capability and flexibility to institutionalise a well-defined system to expedite the handling of disputes and grievances. Therefore, it is imperative that human resource departments adopt a modern day progressive employee relation’s paradigm that embraces and enhances the recruitment, development, and retention of employees in concert with human capital strategic management planning initiatives.
Potential Problems
From the previous analysis, several factors can be determined, which need changes. Primarily, the management in the firm must be changed, which suits the style and preferences of its employees. The management style of the company’s managers must then be given enough attention to ensure the organisation and control of the company’s employees. The scope of this change must be rooted to all of the functions of the company’s manager or its chief executive officer, whom includes planning that, involves defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing sub-plans to coordinate activities (, 2005). Function also includes organising, which determines what needs to be done, how will it be done and who will do it, leading to directing and motivating all parties and resolving conflicts, controlling, and making sure that the organisation has achieved its stated purpose (, 2005). In short, the scope in the change of management entails the refreshing and reinforcing of the tasks and responsibilities of the manager of chief executive officer of the company.
Another factor that needs changes is the company’s strategies of taking care of their employees or workers. Workers are the company’s valuable assets, for they are able to hasten the production and operation of the company. Without the company’s workforce, its functions and goals in the industry will never be attained. The scope of the change needed in this aspect must include the development of employees as a whole, to be able to contribute to the operations of the company. Changes are needed in the managing staffs or employees for based on the problems encountered by the company some of the members of the workforce of the company lack the capacity to perform well and take the pressure of the responsibilities assigned to them. For this reason, some of them were laid off. In addition, laying off employees is not always an answer to reduction of costs, for sometimes, the debt of the company can be repaid through the efficiency of the operation and the increase in production.
Due to the problems and the target project plan that have been distinguished by firm, this company decided to create a plan in relation to construction of serviced apartment measures. As mentioned earlier, the top management of the company wanted to construction of serviced apartment.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Based on the discussions above, it is found out that planning is a key resource of the organisation, together with people, finances and material assets. Thus, it is accepted to state that project plan is a business issue. The discussion above revealed that through effective project planning management of the organisation’s resources and systems, organisation administrators can add value to the services delivered to customers, reduce risks in the organisation’s business, reduce the costs of business development and service delivery and encourage improvement in internal business processes and external service implementation. On the other had, it is recommended that when constructing a serviced apartment, it is better to build a report that is ideal for a specific need then to make a report based on a predefined concession.
Finally, the use of the quantities in decision-making model helps us to minimise mistakes. Aside from the steps above, it is also recognised to list all the alternatives, identify future events that may occur, and construct a pay-off table in making effective decisions.
References:
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