Project Management Assignment: Contract Administration For We Make It Ltd

Question

Task:
Scenario
You are employed by a main contractor, who last week were awarded a project to construct a new manufacturing plant at 321 Ocean Road, Whangarei. The client is We Make It Ltd.

Your employer has asked that you attend next week’s project start-up meeting with the project manager. The meeting has been arranged by the engineer to the contract (ETC). The timing of the start-up meeting is three weeks post contract award.

The value of the contract is $6.3m and the head conditions of contract are NZS3910:2013 without any amendments to the standard conditions. To date the Contract has been awarded and there are outstanding clarifications to be addressed at the start-up meeting. The ETC has phoned to say that ‘For Construction’ drawings will be issued at the start-up meeting as well as handover of the site. Your company has commenced procurement of the early trades such as civil, reinforcing, precast concrete and structural steel.

The tender programme submitted by your company has a commencement date of 7 May 2019 and a completion date of 25 May 2020, and allowed 10 working days from contract award, for site establishment and issue of the ‘For Construction’ drawings.

There is an existing manufacturing plant onsite which will continue to operate until the first stage of the new manufacturing plant is completed and handed over to the Principal for their occupation. The existing building is only two metres from where the new western elevation is to be constructed during Stage 1, which may limit the available site area for laydown of materials, parking of vehicles and positioning and number of site sheds. There are also concerns around safe access to the existing plant by staff and visitors during the construction.

Your task: Read the scenario and then complete the tasks provided in this project management assignment to demonstrate that you can identify and apply the communication and administrative procedures for the construction phase of a project. Reference NZS3910:2013 where appropriate.

Task 1: Start-up site meeting
Identify five key agenda items for this project that your company will want to find on the agenda for discussion at the project start-up meeting. For each agenda item you list, explain what needs to be discussed and why it is important that this be included at the commencement of the project.

Task 2: Communication process
Construction has commenced, and the project manager has requested your assistance with the administration responsibilities for the project, on behalf of your company.

a) Prepare a presentation of the communication procedures that will be used on site. Your presentation should identify who can issue instructions on site, what format those instructions will take, and what steps you should take if you require information from the engineer.

b) Select which of the following statements are correct and justify your selection.

1. Poor communication protocols can increase costs in construction through delays to delivery of materials and construction of incorrect details.
2. Effective communication protocols will decrease costs through timely delivery of materials and ensure early completion of the building works.
3. Effective communication protocols support good cost management through timely delivery of materials and details being constructed right first time.

c) Identify four different types of communication protocols that can generate a variation.

Task 3: Standards and regulations
a. Identify four of the roles that have responsibilities on a construction project that are accountable under the New Zealand Building Act 2004

b. Identify the communication protocols that are used onsite. Explain why the Health & Safety at Work Act 2015 is so relevant to the communication and administrative processes on a construction site.

c. Identify and list the criteria that makes a payment claim valid under the CCA2002.

Task 4: Professional and ethical standards
a. Describe the difference between professional and ethical standards.

b. Sort the following list into two categories. Category 1 is professional standards and Category 2 is ethical standards.

• Clearly communicate with others
• Be honest
• Good work ethic
• Take responsibility
• Do what is right
• Listen to people
• Treat everyone equally
• Avoid corrupt practices.

c. Explain why your company’s human resource policies are important to your behaviour?

Answer

PART 1:Five key agenda items
Payments: Discussing the terms and conditions of payment as stated by the program needs or the construction documents. The specific component of the project examined herein project management assignment should be evaluated and linked measurements to be undertaken followed by the payment options. Moreover, the level of completion that is needed before the payment is made also requires to be discussed. Other discussion even includes the partial payment if needed. If it is required so, the conditions are needed to be defined. If the construction timeframe is needed within the contract then the importance of such is required to be discussed and even the extension to be allowed or the liquidated damages to be enforced.

Plans and Addendums
The overview of the project is required to be made and to be ascertained whether the contractor has provided all the copies of the construction and whether any additional copies is needed of the plans and the definitions . It is to be defined that whether several items are needed that includes the progress schedule of the contractor and the breakdown of the periodic payment that might be needed followed by the list of suppliers and other shop drawings of particular components that the contractor is responsible for

A discussion is needed to be made regarding the start and completion dates of the contract NZS3910:2013. The contractor should define the scheduling plans for the project and discuss any issues at the initial point of time. It is needed to be ascertaining if there are any perceived issues such as restriction of roads, weather scenarios, and time limitation. The proper time of commencement is needed to be determined and the tenure is needed to be fixed. The status of the Notice to Proceed is even needed to be discussed.

Gopher-State-One-Call
It is the contractor duty to undertake this call within the desired timeframe before the initiation of the activities. The ticket numbers can be obtained and hence made a part of the project file before the contractor is allowed to start the excavation of the construction activities. The need for or status of the permits must be ascertained at the desired time. This comprises of various permits such as water permit or the ones that is needed. If permit is still required then it needs to be identified and the one responsible for that.

Construction Methods/Specifications
This element can be comprehensive depending on the scope of the project. Discussion must consider the type of equipment the contractor is planning to use, the desired specification for the specific aspect of the project and the materials used for the project . The equipments to be used must be given top priority because it is related to the completion of the completed. The agenda must clearly define the specification. The sequence or the stage of construction elements can be important with the projects . It might be critical to the development of the project that is the event sequencing and this is a vital component to be understood by the contractor. Furthermore, the inspection plan needs to be provided in the agenda whereby the discussing will be made who will inspect what, when and in what manner. if any inspection schedule is prepare then it should be evaluated. The contractor should be aware of the inspection needs of the project, the responsibilities and the link with the project and its owner.

Availability of area
The presence of the existing manufacturing plant onsite will continue to function till the initial stage of the plant and handed over to the principal for the occupation. The present building is two meters away from where the new western elevation is to be developed during the initial stage that might limit the availability of the area. This needs proper consideration and discussion as the available area might hamper the materials lay down, vehicles parking and positioning. The concern regarding the safe access and existing plant by staff and visitor needs to be carefully accessed.

PART 2: Communication process
Phase 1 – Communication on site

• Who should undertake the responsibility of checking deliveries to the site?
• Presence and employment of site engineers or supervisors
• Establishing the communication and responsibilities
• Establishing the clerk authority for instructing
• Subcontractors followed by supervision and communication with them

Developing provision and distribution

• The act of precise drawings in producing the desired quality work
• Proper care needs to be devoted to the drawings that is produced followed by the distribution
• providing complete drawings
• accuracy of the drawings is the major consideration
• older drawings need to be removed at once
• others involved with the old version should understand the new one
• ensuring drawings are detailed in an adequate manner
• before the project initiation, the mistakes are considered
• the drawings should be properly produced so that it assists in the building up of work
• the information should be precisely presented
• the place of storing the drawings
• any role for the manufacturers to assist in the process of drawings

Single point of contact

• Consideration must be provided for the single point of contact at supplier’s offices and contractors
• It aids in keeping the delays at bay and removal of conflict

Trade supervisors

• Role of the supervisor is directly linked to the requirements of the project
• Supervisor linked to the scheduling of the project followed by the evaluation of the drawings and quality build
• Trade supervisor must contain an authoritarian management style

Phase 2- Pre start meeting

• essential for the project manager for pre start or kick off meeting
• benefits to the site communication with the help of this communication
• Enables people to know each other
• better communication and less attitude in the process of work
• provide opportunity in deciding how communication will function throughout the organization
• gives an opportunity to state point of contact at every level
• ensuring all staff attend the kick off meeting
• it includes the project management team followed by the major suppliers

Provision of Technical advice

• Proper arrangement given to provide technical advice for site operatives
• The situation might be
• inexperienced operatives
• building complex detailing
• providing the desired information
• introduction of technical issues in the process of standard process
• display of best practises
• visiting the design team for the introduction of new products

Upward Feedback

• develop means through which the information can be passed via the formal structure of the management
• the two key areas are the site office (for instance reporting made on drawing that is incorrect) and site office to head office (for instance where an incorrect detail is spotted)
• reporting should be done to the design office with the corrected drawings

Project meetings
The formal meetings are being structured and helped by the following:

• Chairperson
• Minutes
• Agenda
• Finish times

For effective communication on site:

• keep people informed at every time
• advising people who are involved of the entire construction project
• ensuring proper time and care in the process of communication
• ensuring the presence of back up resources for the task completion
• appropriate level of communication
• ensuring message is clear and directed to the desired user
• providing instructions in no time
• follow up of the messages to ensure message is received and followed
• tracing a productive way to understand if anyone did not receive the message
• follow ups for proper results and suggestion for improvement

Communication with an Engineer
Design Review: Mechanical engineer participates in writing Design Review with the design team. Design review is an important mechanism for the teams that helps in communicating their progress and concern regarding a design. A design team contains different experts. Design reviews are a perfect mechanism that gives a proper knowledge of the concerns.

Inspections: The authority managers can connect with the engineers after the inspection is done for making proper assessments . For instance, the engineer inspects the building and issue the proper document related to the same. It contains the observations. The same can be referred by the authority managers for the decision-making process.

Presentations: Mechanical engineer provides presentations when they work on projects, as well as proposals. The same presentation can be used by the related parties to understand the concept.

Letters, Memos, E-mail
one of the most effective mechanism to conduct a better link with the engineers is though letters, memos and e-mail. This way communication can be established and any doubt or issue can be dealt properly.

Engineering report
Engineers need to establish different report. Various situations need a single report while others need different report for the communication of the work progress. The number of reports depends upon the complexity of the project and the funding process. Progress report is a way the engineer communicates the status of their work or when they attain a landmark . It is a way the engineers communicate their work to the agencies, managers and co-workers regarding a problem or changes needed in a project. Such changes can influence the scope and budget of the project.

A progress report can be in the form of an e-mail or a binding report. The format comprises of information such as background of the project, completion of the work, the work to be carried on and the completed work. The matter in the progress report is directly related to the financial status however a supervisor might have more attention when the work will be done. The audience analysis determines the inclusion of the details.

Part b
i) Correct
ii) Correct
iii) Correct

Part c
The four types of communication protocol that can generate a variation are:
HTTP – It is designed for the transfer of the hypertext among two or more system. HTML tags are designed to create links. The links can be in the form of text or images. The design is done on principle of client server and helps the client to connect with the server machine

The Internet Protocol – IP is designed in an explicit manner to address the protocol. The IP address in packets helps in routing via various nodes till the time it reaches a destination system.

File transfer protocol – FTP enables transfer of files from machine to machine. Such type of files might consist of program files, multimedia and documents.

Telnet – These are rules that are designed for the connection of one system with that of another. The connecting process is called as remote login. The connection that request is the local computer while the system that accepts is the remote computer.

PART 3: Standards and regulations
a.
- Ensuring that health and safety specifications are followed
- Determination of the legal and regulatory needs
- Practicing of excellent communication
- Ensuring availability of funds to keep the movements of funds

b.
The three types of network protocols are TCP/IP, HTTP and SSL.
The Health & Safety at Work Act 2015 ensures proper management of the health and well being of the employees. This ensures that the employers can face serious consequences if the workers face injury due to the bad working environment.

c.
- Invoice should be in writing. This will make the invoice enforceable as well as come under the normal rule of writing. The presence of invoice in writing ensures that all the terms are clearly stated and defined
- Contains relevant details so that construction contract can be related. The matter must be in detail so that the matter can be presented in a clear manner.
- Identification of the construction work and the relevant period. The construction work should come under the matter and must relate effectively
- Invoice should state it is made under the CCA2002. This is one of the major principles and hence should appear in writing to make it valid.

Part 4: Professional and ethical standards
Professional standards are practices or the ethics that members of the specific professional group should follow. Such sets of standards are adopted by the governing body that projects the group’s interest. Professional standard governs the person’s behavior or the group of the business environment. It provides how a person acts towards other people as well as institutions in the environment. On the other hand, the ethical standards are principle that is developed by the organization’s founders so that communication can reflect the underlying moral values. This code gives a structure that can be utilized as a reference for the process of decision making. Moreover, these are principles that are governing the behavior of the person. Such morals are defined and highlighted by the cultural preferences, norms and religious practices.

b.Human resources policies are important to the behavior because they provide and instill control, fairness and consistency in the entity. These are the formal rules and guidelines that businesses employ so that training can be done to train, evaluate and reward the workforce . It helps in the compliance with the legislation of the employment and informs the employees of the responsibilities and the expectation of the employees. It further helps the employees to be better adapted to the organization and helps in the grievance removal. The presence of such policy helps in complete organization and removal of any misunderstanding that might concern the functioning of the business. Such policies aim at better conduct of the business and ensure the personal management policies are effective in the better fashion.

References
1. Kog, Y.C., Loh, P.K., Critical Success Factors for Different Components of Construction Projects. J. Constr. Eng. Manag vol. 138, 2012, p. 520–528
2. Pilanawithana, N.M.., Sandanayake, Y.G., Positioning the facilities manager’s role throughout the building lifecycle. J. Facil. Manag, no. 15, 2017, p. 376–392
3. Molenaar, K., Javernick-Will, A., Bastias, G.A., Meredith, A. Construction Project Peer Reviews as an Early Indicator of Project Success. J. Manag. Eng. vol. 29, 2013, p.327–333
4. Meng, X., Assessment framework for construction supply chain relationships: Development and evaluation. Int. J. Proj. Manag vol. 28, 2010, p. 695–707.
5. Serpell, A., Ferrada, X., Rubio, N.L., Fostering the effective usage of risk management in construction. J. Civ. Eng. Manag vol. 23, 2017, p. 858–867
6. Serrador, P., Turner, R., The Relationship between Project Success and Project Efficiency. Int. J. Proj. Manag vol. 25, 2014, p.150–157