Documentation of the MARSDEN 302 project environment

This project is intended for construction of a two-storey house by Dennis Family Homes Pty Ltd. The house to be constructed will be two storied for residential purposes in a location that can be easily accessed by road. Mainly, the living rooms will be situated in the second floor and the first floor will have accommodation for guests and garage. There will be interior staircase for accessing the second floor and the bathrooms will located in that floor only. The major works in construction of the house is electrical, plumbing, HVAC for all basic amenities for the residents and concrete structural foundations to provide support for the second floor.

Various challenges are that may affect construction phase of the project from which bad organizational structure is a major challenge. The parent organization undertaking the project will face major difficulty to complete the construction work if there is no proper organizational structure. Another challenge is communication gap within the organization that may affect the construction phase (Sears et al. 2015). The deficiency in communication would eventually lead to delay or major errors in the construction phase. The lack of proper communication in the organization may even lead to failure of the project. The other issue is inadequate risk management as construction managers and temporary workers are typically investigating long term risks of planning, design, development, activities and maintenance. Risks that simply spring up at work are typically ignored. These minor development issues may simply have impact in basic decision making and lead to schedule overruns (Walker 2015). Another social issue in development is that organizations will in general work with past individuals and groups and neglect to interface with more proficient firms and labor suited for the activity.

Another issue is to look at the safety management practices. The injuries during work may delay the project back by multi week or significantly more and may cause cost overhead to achieve the desired results. Putting resources into strong safety management programs would eventually lessen the damage rates subsequently the schedule and budget overhead (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). Finally, it would also improve the ROI from project and reputation of the organization. The implementation of innovation in the business like documenting the security concerns, utilizing Building Information Modelling (BIM) along with construction and modularization are affecting positive safety outcomes that are embraced by the organizations. The parent organization will be benefitted from the project but there is a need that the challenges have to be mitigated to ensure success of the project.

Challenges specific to the project in context to parent organisation

AEC Industry acts as a sector of the Construction Industry that provides various services for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction design sector. It is the area which is alive in the acceptance of Communication, Information, and Techniques. Apart from this, AEC is in full recognition in the international arena (Harrison and Lock 2017). The Architecture, Engineering and Construction fields (AEC Industry) work together towards a common goal to bring out the best output possible. The AEC Industry has numerous practical applications that aid the technology, exchange, and outsourcing of details within the industry.

The execution of standards in the AEC Industry is often particularly problematic because each component of the building process separately covers a wide area, so it is difficult to consolidate the rules between these different elements. Even the terminologies used by each of these areas are separate so everyone working on the same project should at least have some basic knowledge of the underlying languages (Banihashemi et al. 2017). AEC Industry widely uses Computer-aided design (CAD) or drafting as a technology.

CAD is a type of computer-assisted building modulation software that engineers, architects, and contractors use to make and test two- and three-dimensional models. The AEC Industry also uses BIM (Building Information Modeling) which is a latest programmed modeling software in the construction industry that can develop four-dimensional models (Nicholas and Steyn 2017). This system can significantly grow productivity in the AEC Industry, but it usually requires customized and specialized training because of the complexity level of the process. The AEC industry faces major difficulties while carrying out construction projects but those have to be resolved with proper measures so that the projects could be completed successfully. The major challenges being faced by the AEC industry is lack of ownership determination for the data for construction projects. Another issue that is being faced during construction is who will take the responsibility of taking control for data entry. Sometimes, a conflict is raised while determining the person that will undertake the responsibility of data entry during construction projects. The challenges that has been identified in context to the AEC industry are wide however, there is scope to mitigate those to ensure success of construction projects.

Many problems faced by construction managers during construction are entirely avoidable, had sufficient and effective project planning been better before and during construction. Any construction task is composed of three elements, which are people, materials and work. The planning of project requires that all the three elements are in place where they are needed. In some situations, there are cases that one element has to wait for other two or the other two elements have to wait for the other one. The problems faced by a Project Manager during construction are multidimensional (Walker 2016). A project manager has the responsibility to be aware of the facts about construction so that the project could be carried out successfully. The project manager also has to know Project Management and should know Construction Law.

Challenges specific to the project in context to industry (AEC)

The project manager should also know a great deal about Contracting from the Contractors perspective. After that the project manager is capable of running a large or small construction Project. Then after that the project manager faces numerous problems on the site which are too numerous to mention but have to be solved as they arise. As far as construction management is concerned, there many challenges that vary from one project environment to another (Burtonshaw-Gunn 2017). But the following three challenges are being faced by the project management discipline in context to construction project:

• Balancing the capacity of people and the workloads as it is often difficult to manage the resources available for the project.
• The re-planning of the project due to change or error may lead to delay and even the entire project (Lock 2016).
• There is often a problem that what task have to be completed after which task so it is a major challenge while executing construction projects.

Recommendation of feasible project team for the construction project 

                               

                                                            Figure 1: Feasible team for the project

                                                                    (Source: Created by Author)

The above diagram illustrates a feasible team for execution of the two-storey house construction project. The team is segregated into four levels starting from executive to manager level who will be associated with the project. The different people in the team will have the various responsibilities for completion of the construction project. The different roles and responsibilities that will be played by the people associated with the project team are demonstrated as below:

Project Manager – This person is responsible for planning, managing and organizing the project so that construction of the house could be complete successfully. The project manager will also have the responsibility of the preparing the schedule for the project and assigning resources to the different activities.

Civil Engineer – This person will play an important role in designing the blueprint and plan for the house so that the construction work could be completed as per the desired requirements. The Civil Engineer will be followed by Architect, who will be involved on the main design works along with Interior and Exterior designer. The entire designing activities will be executed under the supervision of Civil Engineer.

Procurement Manager – This person will be associated with the procurement works that is acquisition of the required materials to carry out the construction works. The procurement manager will be in direct association with the suppliers and distributors to ensure procurement of the materials so that those are available at the required time.

Challenges specific to the project in context to Project Management discipline

Contractor – This person will be responsible for executing the major activities for construction of the house. The construction works and the layout works will be completed under the supervision of contractor. The contractor will be followed by the sub-contractor, who will have the responsibility of completing the electrical, plumbing and HVAC layout. This person will be involved in the entire construction process from the beginning to completion of project.

The construction of the two-storey house will be carried out in three main phases along with other activities at an initial stage that are required for successful execution of the project. Typically, two activities have to be executed prior to beginning the construction of two storey house in this particular project that are listed as below:

General preparation – This activity includes acquisition of the construction site and the preparation of contract agreement with owner of the land. Next, the planning is being done about resource and budget required for the project (Lock 2017). Finally, after the planning feasibility study will be carried out to determine success of the project.

Approval requirements – This activity mainly includes acquisition of permits for different works that is foundations, framing, plumbing, electrical and HVAC installation. In this activity, the approval for works are being acquired from the local council to ensure compliance with government building regulations and policies.

For execution of the construction project, a schedule has been prepared that is represented as Gantt chart below which shows that the project will require 190 days.

                       

                                             Figure 2: Gantt chart for the two-storey house construction project

                                                                           (Source: Created by Author)

The Gantt chart is a graphical representation of the activities that have to be executed for completion of the project. The Gantt chart also illustrates the duration of each activity required in the project. The Gantt chart reflects that there are three major phases involved with the construction project that is Design, Construction and Close-out phase. The illustration of the different activities are presented as below:

Design phase – In this phase, the designing activities will be carried out to complete the construction according to the designs. The blueprint design will be carried out in this phase to illustrate the plan of the house. The structural and foundation design works will be carried out during this phase to provide a structure to execute the construction works.  

Construction phase – It is the major phase considered as execution phase for the construction project. In this phase, the major construction works will be carried out to complete the house construction according to designed plans. The layout of the electrical, plumbing and HVAC will be done in this phase so that the house is well equipped with the desired basic facilities for the residents.

Close-out phase – It is considered as closure phase for the project in which the closing activities will be carried out to ensure completion of the house construction. The review of the project will be carried out in this phase along with a sign-off documentation from the stakeholders. Further, the project will be completed with the termination of contract and handing over the house to the client.

Conclusion: 

From the overall discussions carried out in context to the two storey house construction project it has been identified that the construction industry as well as construction projects face different type of challenges. However, it has also been determined that the challenges associated with construction could be resolved through different mitigation strategies. The project will require 190 days to complete from the acquisition to close-out means handing over the house to client. The various activities that are required for construction of the two-storey house has been identified and presented with the help of Gantt chart. It has also been determined from the report that there is a requirement for feasible project team to complete the project.

References:

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