Challenges to Project Management in Construction

Challenges to Project Management in Construction By Aivaras Symanas Introduction This work uses Dreadnought project as a vehicle for discussion for challenges and of project management in construction as well as examining risk management strategy, particularly focusing upon the issues that arise from . Challenges to Construction Project Management The complexity of clients demands, together with the increasing complexity of the construction industry, particularly as a result of technological developments, has over the years resulted in specialisation within the industry. Variety of professions have developed as separate skills (e.g. Architecture, Quantity Surveying, ME Engineering etc.) and even on a small project all of those skills are involved. The key to the management of construction projects is therefore the way in which the contributors are organised so that their skills are used in the right manner and at the right time for the maximum benefit to the client. There is little point in the construction industry developing its skills if they are not then implemented effectively.(Walker, 2002) Scenario issues In addition to the professions already mentioned, every construction project involves many of the following additional stakeholders: Multiple regulatory bodies, local residents, statutory undertakers, end users etc. Internal and external stakeholders would be involved in different stages of the project. Early and comprehensive stakeholder identification and analysis, together with regular monitoring and updating, is necessary in order to deal successfully with all stakeholders and defuse many possible project obstacles. (Guerin, 2012) Successful Construction Project Management A project may be considered as successful if the building is delivered at the right time, at the appropriate price and quality standards, and delivers the client with a high level of satisfaction. (Naoum Langford, 1989). Effective project management seeks to make sure that these objectives are achieved, but nonetheless, completing large construction projects on time and on budget depends on a high degree of synchronization among many stakeholders which requires the entire team to work in collaboration. The need for collaboration arise and are depended on level of uncertainty, interdependence and complexity of the project. Issues with construction industry and its link with collaboration was recognized in the Latham Report (Constructing the Team) in 1994, and again reinforced by the Egan Report in 1998 (Rethinking Construction)(Gardiner, 2014) .It is fair to say, that collaboration is even more needed in todays industry with its complex chain of supply and introduction of specialist subcontractors and supplier design. Effective collaboration is one of the tools to ensure that stakeholders can accomplish the complex sequence of interconnected tasks on time. Tools to achieve collaboration http://www.constructionbusinessowner.com/topics/strategy/construction-company-management/key-successful-construction-project-management Decision making Iron Triangle As mentioned earlier, time cost and quality, also known as iron triangle, is often associated with project success, finding a perfect balance between them, or identifying the priorities of key elements could play a big role of project management. Lawrence Miles developed methodology called value engineering which is used to solve problems and identify and eliminate unwanted costs, while improving function and quality. In construction this involves considering the availability of materials , construction methods , transportation issues, site limitations or restrictions, planning and organisation, costs, profits and so on. https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Value_engineering_in_building_design_and_construction Knowledge Dreadnought project involves major refurbishment works, as well as replacement of existing services. According to (Koehn Tower, 1982) refurbishment work demands even greater supervision than new build work, given the increase in labour, together with a corresponding increase in fragmented specialized work and the difficulties associated with unforeseen challenges such as asbestos findings in demolition stage. The high level of uncertainty in refurbishment projects tends to lead to project over-run. The ability of project manager to cope with unexpected change and/or conflicts are necessary as well as knowledge associated with the analysis of project risks. (Smyth Pryke, 2008) Provision of a Risk Management Strategy Risk Management is a particular form of decision making within project management, these decisions are made against a predetermined set of objectives, rules or priorities based upon knowledge, data and information relevant to the issue. (J.Smith, et al., 2009). Nevertheless, it is not possible to have all relevant information on time, or conditions of total certainty and in some cases decisions are ill-founded, not based on a logical assessment of project specific criteria and lead to difficulties later. (J.Smith, et al., 2009). Dreadnought project was intended to be open by 2016, but due.kas nutiko ? the main contractor was liquidated. In construction projects each of the three primary targets of iron triangle will be likely to be subject to risk and uncertainty. It follows that a realistic estimate is one which makes appropriate allowances for all those risk and uncertainties which can be anticipated from experience and foresight. Project managers should undertake or propose actions which eliminate the risks they occur, or reduce the effects of risk or uncertainty and make provision for them if they occur when this is possible and cost effective. (J.Smith, et al., 2009). Most commonly, the Client has an overall risk management strategy and policy included in the strategic documents and quality management systems. Main issues concerning project owner risk strategy are risk ownership (which party owns the risk; risk exposure and transfer) and risk financing (how to include and use budget risk allowance or contingency). Project planning methods should be utilized to communicate to all parties in a project, to identify sequences of activities and to draw attention to potential problem areas. The successful realization of a project will depend greatly on careful planning and continuous monitoring and updating. Sequences of activities will be defined and linked on a timescale to ensure that priorities are identified and that efficient use is made of expensive and/or scarce resources. The purpose of planning are therefore to persuade people to perform tasks before they delay the operations of other groups pf people, and in such a sequence that the best use is made of available resources and to provide a framework for decision making in the event of change. Project management information systems (PMISs) should forecast the outcome of a project in terms related to achievement of its objectives. Integrated cost models link time with money. They provide project managers with forecasts to completion in terms of cost, time resource usage and cash flow. Decision about future actions can be made with the best available forecasts in these terms. Cost models also help to overcome an implementation gap between monitoring systems and the managers action. Risk management software (RMS) is the term used to denote a specialist software, which can be used to apply on of the many risk assessment methodologies (e.g. Origami, Procore) It is well known fact that managing risk has two major objectives; to avoid the downside risks and to exploit opportunities. And very often, the latter has been neglected, as the former has much more to do with securing your project objectives, which for many organizations is priority. But on the hand, the major leaps in project cost and time reduction are results of innovative thinking with focus on exploring opportunities by challenging the risks. The trend today is to establish ambitious goals, to seek for new technological solutions and concepts and to look for effective ways of organizing and managing projects (J.Smith, et al., 2009) To achieve these aims it is suggested that a systematic approach is followed: to identify the risk sources, to quantify their effects, to develop management responses to risk and finally to provide for residual risk in the projects estimates. These four stages comprise the core of the process of risk management. Risk Management can be one of the most creative task of project management. (J.Smith, et al., 2009) Contingency Conclusion Conclude recommend there are specific parts to the question, however, there may be a variety of options, it is useful to appraise these before you conclude; the conclusion should re-iterate, this may be subjective, if a balanced view is stated, this cannot be wrong, however there must be a conclusion Word count (excluding References) 2000 Guerin, D. M., 2012. Project Management in the Construction Industry, Massachusetts: Brandeis University. J.Smith, N., Merna, T. Jobling, P., 2009. Managing Risk in Construction Projects. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Koehn, E. Tower, S., 1982. Current aspects of construction rehabilitation.. ASCE, 108(C02), pp. 330-340. Naoum, S. Langford, D., 1989. An investigation into the performance of management contracts and traditional method of building procurement. s.l.:Brunel University School of Engineering and Design PhD Theses. Smyth, H. Pryke, S., 2008. Collaborative Relationships in Construction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Walker, A., 2002. Project Management In Construction. 4th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd.

Large Pizza, Extra Cheese, Extra Norovirus

You can’t stand it. You open the door and generously greet the beauty you’ve been waiting a whole hour for. Your taste buds are teasing you. Craving the molten melted cheese topped with every one of your favorite meats and vegetables. It shines like it’s just been on a treadmill for 3 hours before landing right in your hands, in a perfectly folded box. The ten dollar and fifty cent beauty is all yours, and it’s calling your name. Nothing can go wrong, until it hits you.The mixture of vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and a fever, all because you thought you could trust what was hand delivered to your doorstep. Instead of getting what was paid for, you’ve gotten a big pizza pie full of Noroviruses. On March 3rd, 2008, A locally owned pizza place in Overland Park, Kansas named â€Å"Pizza Shoppe† was in the middle of a huge controversy. While business hours on this day, 10 cases of a foodborne illness was reported. In response, an outbreak investigat ion was initiated by the Johnson County Health Department and the Kansas Department of Health.One of those 10 cases was one of their own employees. 10 customers reported symptoms of nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting about 2 to 3 hours after eating lunch at the restaurant. The employees of the day were sent to answer a thorough questionnaire about the information on individual illness history, food consumption history and hours worked during the 7-day time period. The results came back positive. All of the specimens that were taken from the sick people came back positive with a food borne illness called Norovirus Gastroenteritis.So where did it come from? What caused it to be such a violent outbreak? An inspection was carried out by the Kansas Department of Health on March 4th, 2008. After an initial walkthrough of the business, the biggest culprits were two dented cans of pizza sauce that are used to make the pizzas every day, no â€Å"use by† dates on any food items, and employ ee bare hand contact with ready to eat foods and toppings. The biggest culprit of all would have had to be bare hand contact with the foods and the employees.Since one of the employees reported symptoms of Norovirus Gastroenteritis as well, this might of single handedly caused the ten others to get sick as well. A sure sign of a physical contamination, at its finest. A norovirus is a type of virus that can be caused by tainted water, or human fecal matter. The symptoms to this virus include: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pains. Although, this virus cannot multiply in food, it can be carried into the food by bad food handling habits.It can be easily prevented through sanitary food safety precautions that can be used when training employees, to reduce an outbreak from happening. There is no specific medicine to treat people with a norovirus illness. Norovirus infection cannot be treated with antibiotics because it is a viral infection instead of a bacterial one. If you hav e norovirus illness, you should drink plenty of liquids to replace fluid lost from throwing up and diarrhea symptoms. This will help prevent dehydration.Consequentially, the restaurant obtained 3 health violations and was forced to change their vendor. This also caused the media to report on the restaurant negatively, and in turn, caused the restaurant business for many months following the outbreak. Thankfully nobody died but necessary sanitation precautions for employees were put into effect to ease the possibility of a future outbreak. So next time your order a pizza, take a good look into the cheese glimmering back at you. Every deliciously cheesy piece could be your last.

Brain Drain In The Philippine Education

Developing nations are grappling with a phenomenon that started taking shape in the 1960s and in the 70s. A look at most countries in Asia indicates increased levels of influx towards the developed western nations. According to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Asia is losing billions of dollars in terms of brain drain as its highly skilled workforce and professionals are leaving their countries in droves towards the developed countries for a more rewarding pay. India has lost IT professionals renowned for their computing intelligence.China too has lost people of expertise with almost two thirds of students studying abroad failing to return to their motherland. The list of countries suffering from brain drain runs long, the causes are deep-seated and the implications are inadvertently detrimental to the nation’s economies. Of special concern in this paper is the case of Philippines whose education sector has had adverse effects due to the in creased rate of brain drain amongst teachers. A look at the pattern of labor movement from Philippines to other nations reveals that it has undergone interesting metamorphosis with progressive adverse effects on the economy.Brain drain is a phenomenon that started in the early seventies though not in large droves experienced today. Before then however as Florian and Danilo (2003) note, ‘the movement of highly skilled Filipino professionals though significant was principally a private initiative among workers and their placement abroad. † In the early seventies and the 80s, majority of the Philippines were heading to the Middle East at a mere number of 36, 035 in 1975. This figure however would rise significantly to 214,590 in 1980 and to over 791 000 contract workers in 1998 (Florian & Danilo, 2003).The influx of teachers abroad is as a resultant effect of the push and pull factors between the immigration and the emigration countries. These push factors may range from la ck of employment opportunities as well as the pursuit of a better life and career progression. The unemployment rate in the recent years has ranged between 7 and 11 % and has been the force behind the massive brain drain. Philippines economy is based on a rocky foundation fuelled by agriculture, remittances from abroad and industries that are still in their formative stage. Unemployment is rife and the influx experienced is in the bid to escape this.Philippines economy possesses a limited capacity to absorb less than a million people in terms of employment. This is a small number compared to the high number of graduates and semi skilled personnel it is producing annually. The prospects of employment in foreign lands are a comforting respite to many. A look at the recent educational trends reveals that the country pool of trained professionals and graduates has been on the rise. The country produced over three million graduates in the 90s ranging from different professions although t he bulk of this was in the business related courses.A significant proportion of this comprised of teachers which has been of the most affected profession in terms of brain drain. According to the officials in the education sector, education in Philippines is undergoing a crisis as a direct consequence of brain drain. This is not a problem that affect schools at the formative level but according to J. Florendo B. , even the universities where â€Å"compensation packages and school environment are considered competitive enough by Philippines standards are not exempt from the lure of overseas employment.† (2008) A look at the influx of teachers from Philippines reveals a worrisome trend. It is a clear indication of the situation on the ground. According to the figures released by the Philippine Overseas Employment Statistics, there were as few as 112 teachers that emigrated in search for greener pastures in 1992. This figure was however to increase rapidly in the coming ten year s. J. Florendo B. L. notes that between 1992 and 2002 â€Å"2289 teachers were deployed abroad. † A significant portion of this went to the United States at 45. 2 %.These figures however refer to contract workers and fail to capture the total number of teachers that emigrated. According to the commission on Filipino overseas, there was â€Å"a total of 9,608 emigrant teachers from 1988 to 2001. † (J. Florendo, 2008. ) Over 75% of these teachers moved to the United States. 20 % of all emigrants are trained teachers which leaves Philippines with no sources of teachers to replace those that are moving. Unemployment rates apart, the meager wage awarded to many even in lucrative professions is a lead cause to the emigration.In private schools, teachers earn less than 400 us dollars while their counterparts in the public schools at an entry level take home close to 230 US dollars a month. This is a meager amount compared to over four thousand dollars a month in the United St ates (J. Florendo B. , 2008). The working conditions of the public schools have also exacerbated the need to search for greener pastures. Public schools in Philippine are in a sorry state, largely overcrowded and the inherent corruption across the bureaucracy hinders the emergence of any chance for career progression.The inability of the Philippine’s economy to absorb trained graduate teachers in the public school has not helped either. Philippine produces over 30 thousand teachers at the elementary and secondary level but only a quarter of this number is a absorbed into the public schools. With the huge percentage increase in graduates, the government has only been able to increase its rate by a mere 1. 7 percent creating an oversupply in eligible teachers and hence the emigration Remuneration prospects apart, the proficiency of most Filipinos in English makes them attractive in overseas markets.According to Robert et al â€Å"English continues to dominate the Philippines e ducational system. † He also notes that English â€Å"language has been seriously cultivated for non literary academic purposes since the bilingual education policy of 1974. † The fluency in English hence places Philippines professions at a higher competitive level compared to their counterparts across Asia. (1999) Brain drain across all the professions though it has had some positive contributions, is has adversely affected Philippines economy. The most affected is the education sector. Brain drain in the long run is detrimental to the economy in general.As Michel et al (2001) notes, â€Å"migration of people endowed with a high level of human capital-the so called â€Å"brain drain† is detrimental for the country of emigration. † This has been the case of Philippines especially in some of the selected sectors. Ronald Meinarchs points out clearly that â€Å"the more and better educated a people the greater the chances of economic development. † Whe reas Philippines may be producing professionals through its elaborate system of training and education, the bulk of this population is not directly beneficial to its economy as it immediately emigrates in search of jobs and greener pastures(2003).As a fore mentioned, Philippines is grappling with an acute shortage of qualified and effective teachers. The best teachers in the sector have all fled the country towards the developed nations. This has led to a decline in the quality of education. It is to be noted that most of the teachers that emigrate to north America are the best in the market considering that recruitment standards in the United States are elaborate and require high credentials. High schools are the most affected as the teachers there have a mastery of what they teach.It becomes hard for the department of education in Philippines to fill such posts with suitable replacements in a country where almost all professionals are on the run. It is important to note that there is an undeniable fact on the positive attributes of brain drain in Philippines especially the remittances that have contributed immensely to the economy. These remittances from abroad amount to over us $ 8. 5 billion annually which is almost 10 % of the whole Philippines GDP.It is not however clear how much of this amount is from teachers that work in North America but it is apparent that their remittances are not channeled towards improving the quality of education at home. There are a number of steps that should be taken to address the detrimental impact of brain drain in the educational sector. While it is not possible to restrict the emigration of labor in this age of globalization, the government should lump teachers together with pilots terming them as possessing ‘critical skills. † This will hence require them to work in the country for a certain period of time before they emigrate.This will give the government ample time to train replacements. It is a major conc ern to note that Philippine, though brain drain subsidizes the developed countries’ cost of educating and training professionals. Philippine spends colossal amount of resources to nurture personnel only for them to emigrate at the nick of time. To improve education, the government should spend a considerable amount of the remittances to improve the education system as well as providing tax incentives to encourage remittances.ReferencesRobert B. Kaplan, Richard B. Baldauf, 1999. Language Planning in Malawi, Mozambique and the Philippines. Multilingual Matters Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc, A May-June 2008. Situation on Philippine Education University of the Philippines. Volume 9 Number 3. http://www. up. edu. ph/upforum. php? i=94 Ronald Meinardus, June 30, 2003. The Crisis of Public Education in the Philippines Business World Internet Edition: http://www. fnf. org. ph/liberalopinion/crisis-public-education-philippines. htm Cecil Morella, April 23, 2005. Medical brain drain threat to Philippines The Standard. http://www. thestandard. com. hk/stdn/std/World/GD23Wd04. htmlMigration and the Labour Market in Asia: Recent Trends and Policies Organisation for Nihon Rodo Kyokai, 2003. Economic Co-Operation and Development, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Publishing. Florian A. Albura, Danilo I Abella, 2003. Developing countries: study on Philippines. International Programme. International Labor Office Geneva. Michel Beine, Frederic Docquier and Hilel Rapport, 2001. Brain drain and economic growth: Theory and evidence. Journal of development Economics. Vol 64 (275-289) Andrew Mountford, 1997. Can a brain drain be good for growth in the source economy? Journal o

The Problem Solving A Rehabilitation System For Disability...

Introduction Although Functional Independent Measures and Morse Fall Scale are widely used as tools in healthcare by nurses, many question their validity in accurately predicting falls. Falls are the most common cause of accidently injury in a hospital. There are a higher percentage of fall rates on a rehabilitation unit as compared general hospital units (Gilewski, 2007, p. 234). Thirty percent of falls result in patient injury and four to six percent is seriously injured (Forrest, 2012 p. 186). Even though a Morse Fall Scale score of 45 identifies a high fall risk for patients, FIM is a more comprehensive measure of a CVA rehabilitation patients’ functioning because FIM mobility and problem solving scores had greatest correlation with fall and functional gains of 1 point on total FIM score were related with decreased falls. Literature Review The FIM scoring is a system of measurement for disability based on the International Classification of Impairment, Disabilities and Handicaps. 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