What Is Construction Management?

Outline:

What is Construction
What is Construction Management – Definition
Construction projects and construction management relation
Project Value – Triple Constrains

What is Construction?

Construction is the set of activities undertaken by contractors and consultants to build or modify buildings and infrastructure.
Construction work can be described as a complex interaction of people, tools, equipment and materials coordinated through communication and paid for in money. Construction measures include:

design and management decisions.
on site physical production of the facilities.
project close-out/final Closing
refurbishment and maintenance of existing facilities.

The package of measures that make up most construction projects is so complex that sophisticated coordination systems are required to ensure that the work is done correctly. The actions that make up a construction project are highly complex and diverse for the following reasons:

they take place in widely different locations
may involve diverse range of technology yet devised by humans.

One of the best definitions that I have come across over the years is from Charles Patrick’s Construction Project Planning and Scheduling. According to Patrick, “Construction management (CM) entails the planning, scheduling, evaluation, and controlling of construction tasks or activities to accomplish specific objec- tives by effectively allocating and utilizing appropriate labor, material, and time resources in a manner that minimizes costs and maximizes customer/owner satisfaction.”

Although this definition explains the function of construction management, the discipline or profession of construction management is not quite so easy to understand. That’s because construction management is not just a single task or activity. It comprises several tasks and is usually delivered by a construction management team. At the same time, an individual member of a construction management team performing even one of the CM functions is said to be doing construction management. Is it any wonder that the general public is by and large unaware of construction management as a distinct career?

If that isn’t confusing enough, let’s also consider the different ways the construc- tion management function is offered as a service to the consuming public. In the most traditional sense, the construction management function is simply provided alongside the actual construction services. In other words, when an owner hires a general contractor to perform work for them, they get that contractor’s construc- tion management services as part of the package. The general contractor uses these skills to keep the project running on time, within budget, and in accordance with the plans and specifications provided by the owner’s design professionals. However, if there are errors or omissions in the plans and specifications that were not discov- ered prior to construction, the contractor is not liable for any resulting cost over- runs or time delays.

On the other hand, construction management may be contracted by the owner as a professional service separate from the work of the general contractor. In this case, part of the construction manager’s job is to review the plans and specifications before construction begins. Doing so will reduce unwanted consequences and repercus- sions resulting from a lack of oversight by a construction professional. Construction management in these circumstances is usually provided as a distinct service or project delivery method.

I realize that much of this may seem a bit confusing right now, but later in the chapter I will spend time discussing the various project delivery methods and the functions of construction management. For now, I just want you to under- stand that many different people perform construction management services. This group of people includes general contractors, subcontractors, project man- agers, construction managers, construction estimators, general superintendents, job foremen, safety officers, quality control managers, and many other construc- tion professionals. It takes a whole team of players to manage the construction project.

In Chapter 1, “The Construction Industry,” you discovered that con- struction is about much more than just bricks and sticks or mud and mortar. You understand that buying construction is very different from buying cars or computers. Construction is complex, and many factors influence the outcome of a construction project. The job of the construc- tion manager is to take a set of written plans and specifications and a raw piece of land and then coordinate all of the materials, manpower, and equipment necessary to guarantee the set price, schedule, and quality of the project—without any accidents or errors, regardless of weather con- ditions, interest rate fluctuations, acts of God, or any other unforeseen conditions. (Whew!)

Today the pressure for speedy delivery, cost efficiency, and high quality is immense. The success of any construction project depends on the men and women who plan, organize, and perform the work that transforms someone’s dream into a reality. The process of constructing a building or a bridge does not happen in a factory under controlled conditions. It occurs in a dynamic environment where risk is inherent and the decision- making and problem-solving abilities of the construction management team are crucial to the success or failure of the project.

Let’s now focus on the construction process itself and the specific management functions unique to that process.

The Construction Project

As discussed in Chapter 1, construction projects are extremely diverse and come in every size, shape, and flavor. However, some characteristics about construc- tion projects are common to all types, and these characteristics clearly distin- guish them as unique from other industry sectors.

When we build a computer, a piece of furniture, or even an airplane, we typi- cally build a prototype first and then test it and work out the bugs before we put it into production. We do all of this under controlled conditions, using state-of- the-art mechanics, robotics, and technology. These projects are usually built uti- lizing a relatively constant workforce, standard parts, and stable materials.

Now let’s take a look at the construction project. Every project is built as a one-of-a-kind facility, which means that each is built on a different building site, under variable weather conditions and particular environmental and topographi- cal conditions. Each one is a prototype in and of itself. There is no testing it first to make sure it works. Instead, the bugs get worked out as we go. Our workforce is primarily transient practitioners of an assortment of trades moving from job to job, coming in and out of the process at various stages throughout the dura- tion of the project. For the most part, our labor is still performed by the human

hand—laying the brick, forming the concrete, and setting the steel. Finally, many of our materials, such as lumber, concrete, and plaster, are nature-made. They react to the heat, the cold, and the humidity on any given day.

In spite of these uncertainties and unique circumstances affecting the project, a construction manager is expected to deliver a high-quality facility on time, within budget, and accident free. That’s one heck of a management challenge,

to say the least! But let’s identify exactly what it is that we are trying to achieve. The primary objective of the construction management function is to control three main factors or values. They are time, cost, and quality. These three factors are commonly referred to in the industry as the three-legged stool.

However, there is actually one more very important factor, and that is safety.

Construction can be a dangerous business, and safety must be the foundation upon which all other values are placed; without it, the whole project is at risk.

Let’s take a closer look at all the factors that influence the construction proj- ect and how the construction manager considers each of them as part of the management challenge.

Project Values

In 1996, a group of owners, architects, contractors, and engineers gathered in San Francisco to discuss common goals and opportunities for collaboration in the building industry. This group formally organized themselves as the Collaborative Process Institute (CPI). During their discussions, they came up with what I think are the best descriptors of the factors that need to be managed and controlled on a construction project in order to produce a successful outcome for the owner and all parties involved. They referred to these factors as the six dials of project value: cost, time, quality, safety, scope, and function.

The Six Dials of Project Value

Cost Time

Quality

Safety

Scope Function

The idea is that each of these dials has a most advantageous setting for any given project, and it is the project team’s job to optimize these settings. As noted earlier, only the first four project values are within the traditional range of services provided by the construction management team: cost, time, quality, and safety. The last two, scope and function, are typically determined by the owner and their design team prior to the construction manager being involved. However, some project delivery methods bring the construction professionals onto the team early in the process so that they may assist with scope definition, overall function, and programming. I will discuss project delivery in greater detail later in this chapter.

These dials of values and how they are monitored and controlled are illustrated in the following list. The Collaborative Process Institute describes them as follows:

Cost It is essential to predict and control what the construction project will cost. Costs are established, targeted, and controlled by means of an estimate or budget. As the work progresses, expenditures for materials, labor, equipment, and subcontracts are tracked and measured against the estimates. The fundamental goal is to maintain costs within or below bud- get parameters. The construction manager who can minimize cost while maximizing overall value to the owner will optimize the cost dial.

Time As the saying goes, time is money. For many projects, the speed with which the building can be brought on line is more important than almost any other factor. Time is monitored and controlled by a detailed schedule, breaking each item of work down into its component parts. Once all of the purchasing, fabrication, installation, and construction steps are identified, a time element is assigned to each step. The goal is to complete each of the work items within the time frame assigned.

The construction management team that can guarantee the schedule and actually beat it is invaluable to the owner.

Quality Quality is the grab bag that covers all the aspects of the build- ing not addressed by the other five values, such as aesthetic impact, user perceptions, appropriateness of building materials, and so on. Quality is monitored and controlled by a variety of means, including specifications, punch lists, inspections, tests, and user surveys. Special care must be taken to establish appropriate measures early in the project to focus attention and effort on the quality expectations of the team.

Safety No matter how valuable a facility or structure may be, it is never more valuable than the health and welfare of the people who build and use the building. Care must always be taken to ensure that the building pro- cess and the building itself do not create unacceptable hazards to workers or users. These hazards range from risks during the building process (for example, falls, accidents, injury, and death) to risks from the completed buildings (for example, toxic gases, biohazards, and structural failure). Safety is best monitored and controlled proactively by identifying potential risks and taking prudent steps to mitigate those risks.

Scope Scope is monitored and controlled by means of an architectural program, which identifies the space needs and tracks compliance of the building design with those needs. An optimal scope outcome would match the end user’s needs to the facility design over the life of the building with no gaps in between. The ultimate goal is high end-user satisfaction.

Function The best project teams try to meet all of the functional require- ments of the end-user group. An optimal outcome would satisfy their short- and long-term needs, allowing for sufficient flexibility to adapt to changes in the market. Function is monitored and controlled by means of process flow diagrams and utilization analyses, which document the effi- ciency of the processes that will be performed in the completed facility.

Keep in mind that these dials are all interconnected and that adjusting one will ultimately cause a change in the others. For example, if an owner requests that we crank up the time dial and complete the project earlier than we had con- tracted to do initially, then it is likely that the cost dial will also be turned up.

Likewise, if an owner increases the project scope, then both the time and the cost dials will be turned up. So, the job of the construction management team is to figure out how to best adjust, manage, and monitor these dials in order to opti- mize the performance of each value relative to the owner’s requests. Throughout this book, I will focus on just how to do that for cost, time, quality, and safety.