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College
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
NTQF LEVEL V
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MODULE DESCRIPTION:
This module provides the skills, attitudes and knowledge required in supervising the
planning process and the organization of on-site construction operations including medium-rise
commercial and wide span projects according to Ethiopian construction codes of standard.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of the module the trainee will be able to:
LO1 Appraise the contractual documentation and delegate the planning of operational
requirements
LO2 Initiate strategies and delegate the implementation of medium-rise construction operations
LO3 Supervise the preparation of project schedules
LO4 Ensure the provision of all the resources required for the project
LO5 Review existing onsite structures
LO6 Supervise staff and maintain an effective work environment
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LO1 Appraise the contractual documentation and delegate the planning of operational
requirements
INTRODUCTION
Supervision
Monitoring and regulating of processes, or delegated activities, responsibilities, or tasks.
Management by overseeing the performance or operation of a person or group.
Construction Supervision
Construction supervision provides the critical link between project management and skilled
workers who perform building tasks.
Benefits
Construction supervision ensures that projects are built according to design and
specification takes care of the quality of construction, oversees on the safety of the works.
Execution planning and monitoring, quantity surveying and cost monitoring services are
fundamental issues of the assignment.
Construction management
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sector from one in another is the knowledge of the construction site. This may include different
types of equipment, materials, subcontractors, and possibly locations.
Functions
Planning
Planning: Deciding what needs to happen in the future and generating plans for action (deciding
in advance).
The construction industry is the largest industry in the world. It is more of a service than
a manufacturing industry. Growth in this industry in fact is an indicator of the economic
Conditions of a country. This is because the construction industry consumes a wide employment
circle of labor. While the manufacturing industry exhibit high-quality products, timelines of
service delivery, reasonable cost of service, and low failure rates, the construction industry, on
the other hand, is generally the opposite. Most projects exhibit cost overruns, time extensions,
and conflicts among parties.
In general, the construction industry is more challenging than other industries due to: its
unique nature; every project is one-of a kind; many conflicting parties are involved; projects are
constrained by time, money and quality; and high risk.
The Construction Project
A project is defined, whether it is in construction or not, by the following characteristics:
➢ A defined goal or objective.
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➢ Specific tasks to be performed.
➢ A defined beginning and end.
➢ Resources being consumed.
The goal of construction project is to build something. What differentiate the construction
industry from other industries is that its projects are large, built on-site, and generally unique.
Time, money, labor, equipment, and, materials are all examples of the kinds of resources that are
consumed by the project.
Most construction operations are carried out on buildings and structures, or could be
works forming part of the land. The operations fall into six main areas of work; Construction,
alteration, repair, extension, demolition and dismantling.
Installation of systems such as air conditioning, lifts etc, is included as a construction
operation, but the manufacture, delivery, repair or maintenance of those systems isn’t included.
Communication
is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of ideas, feelings,
intentions, attitudes, expectations, perceptions or commands, as by speech, non-verbal gestures,
writings, behavior and possibly by other means such as electromagnetic, chemical or physical
phenomena and smell. It is the meaningful exchange of information between two or more
participants (machines, organisms or their parts).
Communication requires a sender, a message, a medium and a recipient, although the
receiver does not have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of
communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space.
Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative
commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver understands the sender's
message.
Communicating with others involves three primary steps
✓ Thought: First, information exists in the mind of the sender. This can be a concept, idea,
information, or feeling.
✓ Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols.
✓ Decoding: Lastly, the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept or
information that a person can understand.
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Communication Flow in the Workplace
Workplace communication is the transmitting of information between one person or
group and another person or group in an organization. It can include emails, text messages,
voicemails, notes, etc.
Communication flow is directional. Communication can be downward, upward, or
horizontal along the workplace hierarchy. When your boss shares information with you, it’s
downward communication, because your boss, as your supervisor, is communicating with you as
an employee. Conversely, when you give your supervisor feedback about a new system or
patron, it’s upward communication. When you share information with a coworker, it’s horizontal
communication because it is along the same hierarchical plane. However, communication often
isn’t so clear-cut. Your boss may tell you about a new policy, but your feedback to your boss is
communication, too. In situations like this there is simultaneously upward and downward
communication.
Communication flow is formal or informal. Formal communication messages are official
workplace statements. These can include publications, official memos, and annual performance
evaluations. Informal communication is all workplace communication that is not official in
nature. This includes phone calls, quick e-mails, and water cooler discussions. Today’s
information environment can sometimes cause confusion. E-mail may span formal and informal
communication, allowing for the formality of a written record but also the informality of a quick
chat. This may lead to miscommunication if the sender believes a message to be more or less
formal than the recipient.
Communication flow takes place along networks. Just as the nature of communication
can be formal or informal, networks can also be formal or informal. Formal networks are
established by the institution and include hierarchical organization, departmental groups, and
team structures. Informal networks are formed by employees along social lines and may emerge
as “the grapevine” or cliques. Both formal and informal networks play important roles in
workplace interaction. Formal networks communicate official information, policies, and goals
for the organization, while informal networks allow for sharing information that’s not official,
such as workplace norms and social mores.
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LO2 Initiate strategies and delegate the implementation of medium-rise construction
operations
Planning Manpower Requirements
Manpower Planning
Estimating or projecting the number of personnel with different skills required over
time or for a project, and detailing how and when they will be acquired.
Manpower Planning which is also called as Human Resource Planning consists of putting
right number of people, right kind of people at the right place, right time, doing the right things
for which they are suited for the achievement of goals of the organization.
Once these factors are registered by a manager, he goes for the future forecasting.
2. Making future manpower forecasts- Once the factors affecting the future manpower
forecasts are known, planning can be done for the future manpower requirements in
several work units.
i. Expert Forecasts: This includes informal decisions, formal expert surveys and
Delphi technique.
ii. Trend Analysis: Manpower needs can be projected through extrapolation
(projecting past trends), indexation (using base year as basis), and statistical
analysis (central tendency measure).
iii. Work Load Analysis: It is dependent upon the nature of work load in a
department, in a branch or in a division.
iv. Work Force Analysis: Whenever production and time period has to be analyzed,
due allowances have to be made for getting net manpower requirements.
v. Other methods: Several Mathematical models, with the aid of computers are
used to forecast manpower needs, like budget and planning analysis, regression,
new venture analysis.
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3. Developing employment programs- Once the current inventory is compared with future
forecasts, the employment programs can be framed and developed accordingly, which
will include recruitment, selection procedures and placement plans.
4. Design training programs- These will be based upon extent of diversification,
expansion plans, development programs, etc. Training programs depend upon the extent
of improvement in technology and advancement to take place. It is also done to improve
upon the skills, capabilities, knowledge of the workers.
1. Key to managerial functions- The four managerial functions, i.e., planning, organizing,
directing and controlling are based upon the manpower. Human resources help in the
implementation of all these managerial activities. Therefore, staffing becomes a key to all
managerial functions.
2. Efficient utilization- Efficient management of personnel becomes an important function
in the industrialization world of today. Setting of large scale enterprises requires
management of large scale manpower. It can be effectively done through staffing
function.
3. Motivation- Staffing function not only includes putting right men on right job, but it also
comprises of motivational programs, i.e., incentive plans to be framed for further
participation and employment of employees in a concern. Therefore, all types of
incentive plans become an integral part of staffing function.
4. Better human relations- A concern can stabilize itself if human relations develop and
are strong. Human relations become strong trough effective control, clear
communication, effective supervision and leadership in a concern. Staffing function also
looks after training and development of the work force which leads to co-operation and
better human relations.
5. Higher productivity- Productivity level increases when resources are utilized in best
possible manner. Higher productivity is a result of minimum wastage of time, money,
efforts and energies. This is possible through the staffing and its related activities
(Performance appraisal, training and development, remuneration)
1. Shortages and surpluses can be identified so that quick action can be taken wherever
required.
2. All the recruitment and selection programs are based on manpower planning.
3. It also helps to reduce the labor cost as excess staff can be identified and thereby
overstaffing can be avoided.
4. It also helps to identify the available talents in a concern and accordingly training
programs can be chalked out to develop those talents.
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5. It helps in growth and diversification of business. Through manpower planning, human
resources can be readily available and they can be utilized in best manner.
6. It helps the organization to realize the importance of manpower management which
ultimately helps in the stability of a concern.
3. It is difficult to forecast about the personnel with the organization at a future date. While
vacancies caused by retirements can be predicted accurately other factors like resignation, deaths
are difficult to forecast.
4. Lack of top management support also frustrates those in charge of manpower planning
because in the absence of top management support, the system does not work properly.
5. The problem of forecast becomes more occur in the context of key personnel because their
replacement cannot be arranged in short period of time.
The process that links the human resource needs of an organization to its strategic plan to ensure
that staffing is sufficient, qualified, and competent enough to achieve the organization's
objectives. HR planning is becoming a vital organizational element for maintaining
a competitive advantage and reducing employee turnover.
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LO3 Supervise the preparation of project schedules
Preparation of Construction Schedule
Scheduling is placing of the plan on a calendar and showing the allocation of the
equipment and manpower that will put the plan into effect;
▪ establish the start and finish time of each and every activity and the overall project
Project Management
A project is ‘a temporary endeavor to produce a unique product, service, or result. Project
management (PM) techniques were originally developed for waterfall-type projects like
building construction.PM focuses on planning, scheduling, monitoring, and controlling the
complex interdependencies among subtasks.
Project management tasks
Need to figure out:
• What needs to be done
• What order they can be done
• How long each will take
• How long the whole project must take in principle
• How long the whole project is expected to take, given finite resources
Work Breakdown Structure
A WBS is a diagram showing the major subtasks of the project:
▪ What? a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the works to be executed by
the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the project deliverables
▪ How? via systematic decomposition of the overall job into smaller chunks which are
easily manageable
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▪ It is a methodology for converting a large-scale project into detailed schedules for its
thousands of activities for planning, scheduling, and control purpose
The objective of developing a WBS is to study the elemental components of a project in detail
▪ Using a WBS, a large project may be broken down into smaller subprojects which may,
in turn, be further subdivided into another, lower level of more detailed sub component
activities, and so on.
▪ Eventually, all the tasks for every activity are identified, commonalities are discovered,
and unnecessary duplication can be eliminated.
▪ Thus by applying the WBS approach, the overall project planning and control can be
improved.
▪ Individual components in a WBS are referred to as WBS elements and the hierarchy of
each is designated by a level identifier.
▪ Elements at the same level of subdivision are said to be the same WBS level.
▪ Each WBS component is successively broken down into smaller details at lower levels.
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– Activity level: An activity is a sub division of a work package and is defined as a
work which has a definite start and end and consumes resources.
Operations level. Operations are sub-divisions of activities and generally are comprised of
particular types and a fixed group of resources associated with it
Schedule development
▪ Scheduling
▪ Placing of the plan on a calendar and showing the allocation of the equipment and
manpower that will put the plan into effect;
▪ What? establish the start and finish time of each and every activity and the overall project
▪ How?
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▪ Line of Balance Chart
Gantt chart
Henry Gantt is the father of the Gantt chart. Gantt chart is a bar chart used to illustrate a project
schedule, including start and finish dates of activities and a summary of activities of a project.
These activities form what is usually called the work breakdown structure of a specific
construction project.
▪ Henry Gantt is the father of the Gantt chart. Gantt charts are used to illustrate the start and
finish dates of tasks that make up a project. Gantt charts use colored bars to visualize the
individual and summary elements that make up the project. The tasks and summary tasks
comprise the work breakdown structure of a project. Gantt charts today can be used to show
percent complete, dependencies and a "today" indicator to visualize the current health of a
project.
• Gantt charts can be used to represent phases and activities of a project so they can be
understood by general audience.
• It can be useful to indicate the critical points on the chart with bold or colored outlines of the
bars.
• An updated Gantt chart helps manage the project and head off schedule problems.
▪ Computer software can simplify constructing and updating a Gantt chart.
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Drawbacks of Gantt Charts
• A Gantt charts is not recommended to define the work and the schedule activities at the same
time.
• It has some limitations for large projects, or projects having more than 30 activities.
• Gantt charts are not useful if they are intended to display information.
• Gantt charts do not represent the complexity of a project.
• Horizontal bars of Gantt charts misrepresent the actual resource requirements of a project.
• Gantt chart with percent-complete shading may actually miscommunications the true
schedule performance status.
Gantt charts have a variety of uses among construction professionals. Gantt charts must be used
under the following circumstances:
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6. Select a proper time scale to represent the length of tasks.
7. Prepare a column on the left side of the paper; write down each activity and milestone of
the project in their corresponding order of occurrence.
8. Activities or milestones that occur at a specific point in time represent them using a
diamond under the time the activity must happen.
9. Activities that occur over a determined period of time draw horizontal bars, or an empty
rectangle starting from the first day the activity will take place and finishing the day the
activity ends. Do not fill inside the rectangle.
10. Each activity or tasks must be listed in the Gantt chart.
11. Fill up the diamond or the rectangle as each activity is being performed.
12. Use a weight or plumb as vertical marker to illustrate that actual time and progress of the
project.
Example project
Consider building a garden shed, which involves designing the shed, figuring out what materials
are needed, ordering or purchasing the materials, and putting together the various parts.
Some of these tasks depend on the others, some must be scheduled, some take labor, etc.
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GANTT DAYS
PROJECT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Design
Make materials
list
Order materials
Deliver materials
Site Preparation
Build foundation
Build frame
Install siding
Install roof
finishing
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2. Determine the proper sequence of the activities. This step may be combined with the
activity identification step since the activity sequence is evident for some tasks. Other
tasks may require more analysis to determine the exact order in which they must be
performed.
4. Estimate the time required for each activity. Weeks are a commonly used unit of time
for activity completion, but any consistent unit of time can be used. A distinguishing
feature of PERT is its ability to deal with uncertainty in activity completion time. For
each activity, the model usually includes three-time estimates:
▪ Optimistic time – generally the shortest time in which the activity can be
completed. It is common practice to specify optimistic time to be three standards deviations
from the mean so that there is a approximately a 1% chance that the activity will be
completed within the optimistic time.
▪ most likely time – the completion time having the highest probability. Note that
this time is different from the expected time.
▪ Pessimistic time – the longest time that an activity might require. Three standard
deviations from the mean is commonly used for the pessimistic time.
5. Determine the critical path. The critical path is determined by adding the times for the
activities in each sequence and determining the longest path in the project. The critical
path determines the total calendar time required for the project. If activities outside the
critical path speed up or slow down (within limits), the total project time does not change.
The amount of time that a non – critical path activity can be delayed without the project
is referred to as a slack time.
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BENEFITS of PERT
▪ PERT is useful because it provides the following information:
▪ The critical path activities that directly impact the completion time;
▪ The activities that have slack time and that can be lend resources to critical path activities;
Install
Siding
1 Day
Site Pour Build Finish
Preparation Foundation Frame 1 Day
1 Day 1 Day 2 Days
Install
Roof 2
Days
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LO4 Ensure the provision of all the resources required for the project
For effective provision of resources in the project effective communication is required.
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
b) A suggestion
c) Asking for volunteers
d) A direct order
✓ Can either be verbal or written
LO5 Review existing onsite structures (review the structural safety of construction
class rooms and workshop 15%)
LO6 Supervise staff and maintain an effective work environment (how we can build
an effective office environment? Explain. (5%)