Management Portfolio in Civil Engineering - Essay Example

Management Portfolio in Civil Engineering ID 19714 Order No. 268251 20 January 2009 Table of Contents: Table of Figures Serial No. Description and Link to the figure Figure 1 Main elements of OSH system in an Organization [Sourced from: ILO-OSH 2001] Figure 2 Areas of Inputs for the core Quality Management System comprising of the Civil Engineering Management Practice [Concept taken from: Grigg & Criswell et al. 2001] Figure 3 Project Risk Management Framework (Source: Barkley, 2004) Figure 4 Opportunities to add Value in a construction Project [Sourced from: Smith, 2002] Executive Summary: Civil Engineering is one of the most challenging & rewarding profession whereby the engineering projects causes major changes in the society, culture & well being of natives of the country. Every Civil Engineering project is unique comprising of mammoth contributions by the collaboration of man-power and machine-power. The project manager is expected to re-invent innovations in every project and hence almost all such projects begin with uncertainties of results whereby the diagrams of the drawing boards convert into realities as a result of tremendous knowledge, past experience, visualization, planning, organizing, directing, co-ordination, control, application, skills, hard work, proactiveness, quality consciousness, commitment and many such attributes which keep on counting till we run out of words. Civil Engineering Projects are executed to achieve specific objectives that are the cause & means of socio-economical & environmental changes. Thus the project management of a civil engineering project need to play the role of social change agents comprising of immense managerial qualities like being futuristic, resilient, optimistic, tenacious, committed, passionate, patient, emotionally intelligent, assertive, persuasive, empathetic, ethical, competent, experienced, etc. In the role of change Agentry the project management should be able to: Communicate ideas very clearly - both in oral and written form Listen to others and incorporate their ideas Able to manage differences and resolve conflicts Engage in civil disclosure & debate, self assessment, and self realization Recognize global implications of the actions See the big picture very clearly Span across multiple boundaries - cultural, social, inequalities, power systems, etc. Adjust to social needs Set clear & realistic goals Influence group dynamics Take ethical decisions demonstrating responsibility towards the community, society, environment, heritage, our planet, etc. in addition to the project itself See the longer path but take short & firm steps Analyze alignment with goals at every step Be excellent leaders as well as followers [Rowe, Debra, 2008] Every project brings with it a number of challenges - materials management, supply chain management, labour management, storage management, health & safety management, environment management, waste management, delivery management, quality management, legal & statutory management, Risk Management costing management and financials management. In nutshell, the entire civil engineering project requires a wide management portfolio to take care of all these aspects of management and such that the project can be successfully taken to completion. This paper critically examines the essentials of such a Management Portfolio and its application in a Civil Engineering Infrastructure Project. Health, Safety and Environment Management In a large Civil Engineering Infrastructure project, the issues & risks pertaining to health, safety and environment are required to be managed effectively. The global guidelines followed are in line with the recommendations on Safety & Health at Work & the Environment by International Labour Office (ILO-OSH), OHSAS 18001 (http://www.ohsas-18001-occupational-health-and-safety.com/) standard and the United Kingdom Occupational Health & Safety Legislation for the infrastructure projects executed within the UK - Workplace Health, Safety & Welfare Regulations 1992, Construction, Design & Management (CDM) regulations 1994 and The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 [www.opsi.gov.uk]. ILO-OSH requires that every country should have a National Occupational Health & Safety system that is a tailored version of ILO-OSH and is implied on all organizations & their projects through appropriate legislations. The main elements of the OSH system recommended by ILO-OSH are presented in Figure 1. Figure 1: Main elements of OSH system in an Organization [Sourced from: ILO-OSH 2001] The first element of OSH is a clearly written & published OSH Policy that is owned by the OSH Manager of the Project. The OSH Manager shall communicate the detailed aspects of the policy to all the people involved in the project and organize in-depth trainings & workshops pertaining to hazards, safety, secured way of working & environment protection. The OSH Manager would be responsible to ensure complete worker participation and establish OSH organization with clear allocations of accountabilities & responsibilities pertaining to OSH system planning, documentation & implementation, compliance, competencies, training & workshops, communications, controls of health issues & hazard prevention, Emergency preparedness & response, performance measurements, incident management (response, investigations, corrective & preventive actions against work related injuries & diseases), and above all, a sound OSH Auditing, Management Review & Continuous Improvement framework. OHSAS 18001 standard has a full fledged Safety toolkit and Risk Assessment guide that recommends implementation of best practices in various areas where probability of hazards are very high. The structure of the standard is similar to ILO-OSH but has much more depth in terms of actual implementation. Some of the areas where implementation of best practices is needed in a large construction project are: High Temperature Systems - Furnaces, Welding systems General Machinery Systems - like Cement & Concrete Mixer, overhead heavy machinery on rails, Cranes, Hoists, Platforms, etc. Compressed gas Cylinders Electrical Equipment with High Voltage and Current The other large accountability area of the OSH Manager is to ensure that the machineries & construction processes do not affect the environment locally as well as globally. The OSH Manager should estimate the possible green house gas emissions, dust & smoke spread & noise pollution that may be caused by the project and take appropriate proactive measures to control them as much as possible to protect the local ecosystem, natural resources, vegetation, species, population, coral reeves (if the project is connected to the Sea), etc. in line with environment ethics and local environment laws. The global standard that needs to be followed for environment management is ISO 14001:2004 (http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_14000_essentials). This is a certifiable standard by ISO and is supported by a number of other guidance documents in the ISO 14000 series. ISO 14001 has similar controls like ILO-OSH and OHSAS 18001 pertaining to defining a policy, assigning roles & responsibilities, developing competencies, training & awareness, regular audits & management reviews, etc. but is focussed on environment protection. Typically, the OSH Manager should be certified as an implementer and Lead Auditor of OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 from an organization of global repute like British Standards Institution (BSI). The OSH Manager is normally an integral part of Human Resources Management function which is discussed in detail later in this paper. Quality Management System Quality Management System in Civil Engineering includes a detailed perspective of the end to end deliverables of the project from the perspective of People, Processes and Technology. In fact, it practically covers all the areas of management within the project including the health, safety and environment management pertaining to the project. The overall framework that needs to be covered by the core Quality Management System of any Civil Engineering Management Practice is presented in the figure below (Figure 2). The QMS System in Civil Engineering is implemented with the help of a master standard ISO 9001 which has the latest version as ISO 9001:2008.published in November 2008 (http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htmrefid=Ref1138). The Standard requires that a quality management & governance system is established at the core of the project (stating quality policy) which is expanded into a number of quality objectives, standard operating procedures & process maps that require a number of documents & records to be maintained and "visible" through published master list of documents & master list of records. The description of the entire quality system is consolidated into the Quality Manual of the project which is mandatory for every member to follow as per respective relevance and needs to be audited as per an Audit Plan. Figure 2: Areas of Inputs for the core Quality Management System comprising of the Civil Engineering Management Practice [Concept taken from: Grigg & Criswell et al. 2001] The standard operating procedures, process maps, documents & records are required to be maintained for every input & output required by the Civil Engineering Management Practice - technology, project management, operations, health & safety, environment, legal & compliance, financials, human resources management, etc. Hence, implementation of the other standards like OHSAS 18001, ILO-OSH and ISO 14001 is integrated with the master QMS framework implemented as per ISO 9001 standard. The perspectives of Civil Engineering Management Portfolio pertaining to technology, project management and operations are presented below. [Grigg, Neil S and Criswell, Marvin E. et al. 2001] Technical Management The technology requirements of a Civil Engineering project cover a very wide span of competencies depending upon the type, location, deliverables & mode of operations of the project. The technology areas that may be covered within a Civil Engineering project may be a subset of the following indicative list of engineering competencies: Construction Engineering Architectural Engineering Environmental Engineering Geotechnical Engineering Structural Engineering Heavy Electrical Equipment Engineering Transportation Engineering Water Resources Engineering Ocean/Marine Engineering Systems Engineering Town and City Planning Lifeline & Earthquake (Seismic) Engineering Computer Engineering And so on [Grigg & Criswell et al. 2001] The Project management needs to define detailed scope of deliveries against the engineering competencies required in the project and hire specialist people or sub-contractors based on their track records. These scope documents need to be expanded into competency maps, skills based role matrix, standard operating procedures & process maps pertaining to each activity within the competency or across multiple competencies such that all inter-dependencies are defined clearly. Examples of such mapping include: (a) Engagement between heavy machinery & heavy electrical competencies (b) Engagement between transportation and materials management (c) Engagement between Human Resources management and OHS & Environment management (d) Engagement between purchase and materials management (e) Engagement between supply chain management and Purchase All these procedures & process maps shall be incorporated with the help of appropriate documents & records maintained by the process owners. Every process owner of the project needs to know about all the documents & records and legal/statutory requirements applicable to his/her area with the help of the quality manual. The technical audit function within the larger audit team of the project would be responsible to carry out periodic audits to verify compliance against the procedures incorporated and report Non-Compliances (NCs) & Opportunities For Improvements (OFIs). The process owner shall be made accountable to bridge the gaps by taking appropriate corrective & preventive actions [http://www.iso.org]. Project Management Every Civil Engineering Project is executed to construct unique structures that are designed for specific purposes at specific locations. The project normally involves five stages of activities: (a) Defining location, magnitude & quality of proposed works and the services that they are expected to provide (b) Obtaining necessary approvals, permissions & authorizations to carry out the construction (c) Designing the deliverables and estimating their cost (d) Carry out construction (e) Testing the works post construction and making them available for users Every project is based on a number of assumptions pertaining to design, estimated costs and the factors affecting construction - like weather, ground & ground water conditions, disasters (like earthquakes, storms, hurricanes, etc.), legal aspects, technological obsolescence, shortage of skills, action of local communities, environmentalists, special interest groups, etc. that may affect the construction process in the mid of the project. Such assumptions expose the project to known & emerging risks which need to be mitigated (or accepted) as a part of the project management exercise. Practically, risks are associated with every civil engineering project and are required to be analyzed & managed effectively. The Project Risk Management framework is presented in the figure below (Figure 3): Figure 3: Project Risk Management Framework (Source: Barkley, 2004) Risks may be arising in every task of the project with inherent impacts on the bigger picture of the project. The Project Risk Manager should manage a centralized risk registry where all the delivery owners log risks & impact analysis. Normally project risks cause effort variation, schedule variation, quality variation or budget variation which may impact the overall project deliverables. The risks can arise from a number of factors - unavailability of equipment/machinery, shortage of skilled staff, non-compliances to regulations, action by local communities or special interest groups, conflicts in process maps, technology obsolescence, etc. In order to keep a close eye on the risks that my affect project deliverables, advanced Project Management tools & techniques are required. A good example of such a tool is Microsoft Project Professional that comprises of techniques like CPM & PERT and offers various interfaces to manage resources, manage multi-tasking, manage parallel & overlapping tasks, etc. A Project Managers with PMP certifications and experience on Microsoft Project Professional or the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management tools should be included in the system. The Construction in Civil Engineering Projects is carried out in many ways - Turn key based projects, public-private partnership based projects, direct labour construction, construction divided into trades, construction through main civil contractor accountable for all plant/machinery ordering & ancillary services, civil contractor only constructs whereas plant/machinery ordered directly by promoters, plant/machinery supplier arranges design & construction, etc. Choosing the mode of construction is a very complex procedure and requires lots of analysis keeping in view delivery dates, quality expectations, budgets and above all experience of the project methodology. Hence, the project managers hired in the project should have experience on the mode of the project selected such that the overall project design on Microsoft Project kind of tool can be framed effectively based on their experience. [Twort, Allan Charles and Rees, J. Gordon, 2004; Barkley, 2004; Smith, N.J, 2002] Operations Management The day to day operations management of civil engineering projects are again very complex given that multiple parallel tasks are carried out on a daily basis. The Operations Management needs to make sure that details pertaining to daily/weekly/monthly deliverables, interdependencies of tasks & parallel tasks are obtained from the GANTT charts prepared by the Project Management and allocate tasks to the task owners with clear guidelines. The progress of the tasks should be monitored using a Task Scheduler with alerts & warnings whereby every operations in-charge should publish daily activity reports, time sheets, risks & issues and completion reports (with evidences like site photographs & videos). The operations management should carry out periodic on-site scrutiny with the help of audit teams to ensure that the deliverables are of desired quality, compliant to the standards, technically correct, and tested as per a pre-established on-site testing plan. The site management & auditing need to be carried out with the help of resident engineers that possesses thorough technology knowledge of the project and should be tasked to watch & record the progress in pre-approved formats and estimate any deviations & risks if visible from the progress status. These engineers play crucial role during the critical path of the project. All relevant operations documentation required by the promoters, legal & statutory bodies, special interest groups and auditors is managed by the Operations Management of the project. Operations Management also have a major role in the Project Risk Management and Compliance Management because they are closest to the actual activities of the project and foresee the threats to bigger picture more clearly (that is, the bigger picture should be known to the Operations management function as clearly as is known to the Project management function). Financial and Commercial Management The financials & commercial management of Civil Engineering projects comprises of a number of activities right from the planning stage up to the date of final make-live of services to users. They are required to work very closely with the Project & Operations Management functions. The primary deliverables of Financial & commercial management in a Civil Engineering project are the following: Budgeting and Forecasting Budget burn rate management Cash Flow Management Bill of Quantity management - the legacy & yet most popular mechanism in the construction industry Tendering Contracts Planning Diagrams - a mechanism by which the forthcoming structures and the corresponding contracts are shown on a geographical map (like a city map). Preparing & signing contracts Contracts Management - in compliance with the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (Part II) Payment Arrangements - wages as well as subcontractor payments Overhead Management Financial Risk Management (risk of variations of cost against budget) Profit/Loss Analysis Earned Value Analysis Legal & Statutory and Tax payments Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Statements Value Management Management Accounting The financial reports listed above should be reported to the Project Management and Promoters periodically in pre-defined formats whereby the data should be managed in appropriate software systems designed for the Civil Engineering Construction industry. The collaboration between day to day activities at the construction site and the corporate office need to be seamless from financial perspective and hence the resident engineers play a major role in financial management of construction projects. The official records maintained by the resident engineers at the construction site play a major role in accurate financials & commercial management of the project - List of all contracts, Material Delivery receipts, Store Accounting, Register of Drawings, Progress Records, Quantity Records, Material reconciliation & consumption records, applications from contractors for interim payments, day work authorization records, labour time sheets, price increase records, site photographs, drawing modifications, cash expenses records, testing reports, other progress reports, and so on. The records on site should be strictly managed in accordance with the master list of records documented in the Quality Manual which should be audited periodically. In modern world, the performance of the financial framework of a project need to measured using performance benchmarking, key performance indicators (KPIs) and Value based management such that hidden costs as well as hidden opportunities of value for money can be brought to surface and corresponding enhancements implemented. Constructions projects are planned with long term strategic goals but quick wins on a daily basis form the ladder to successful completion and hence short term goals should be planned and achieved. Example, cutting the weekly expenses of a site by 2% every week can be a short term goal. In the short term, such quick wins may not demonstrate major advantages but when calculated on a medium or long term basis, they can result into major advantages for the project. Figure 4: Opportunities to add Value in a construction Project [Sourced from: Smith, 2002] [Saroop, Shian and Allopi, Dhiren, 2008; Walker, Ian and Wilkie, Robert, 2002] Human Resources Management Human Resources Management in construction projects are primarily governed by National Minimum Wages Act 1998, Employment Rights Act 1996 and Employment Relations Act 1999, Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and Human Rights Act 1998 [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ and http://www.fedee.com/natlaw.html]. This function is accountable for the decisions that directly affect the people working on the project, either in the corporate office of the project sites. In addition to compliance with the various acts presented above, the HRM is required to establish & operate a number of Human Resources policies & procedures to ensure that the organization takes care of the employees effectively (compensation & benefits, work-life balance, health & wellness, safety, two-way communication, stress management, etc.) and is able to manage high levels of organizational commitment to the goals & deliverables of all the projects running. In the Civil Engineering Construction industry, it is a complex task because a large number of employees work on-site whereby a reasonable visibility into their well being requires that the HR representatives are placed on-site to monitor their work environment, health & safety issues. An onsite HR manager is highly desirable who is expected to work along with the resident engineers and take care that all statutory records pertaining to the on-site employees as required by the legislations are maintained properly. They need to ensure that sufficient number of workers is assigned on each process such that extra stress is not implied on the workers and they are able to complete the tasks comfortably within the stipulated eight hours shift. Moreover, they also need to foresee that adequate training has been provided on the health & safety norms and the minimum safety kits are provided to every on-site employee for protection against accidents. The strategic management & communications framework is established to ensure that all employee queries & grievances are addressed adequately & timely and the strategic changes in employee policies & procedures are managed effectively through HR partnerships with various functions on site as well as at the corporate office. HR also ensures that the knowledge captured from the project is captured & managed effectively using IT based Knowledge Management systems which are taken away as learning that is useful for such projects in future even after the contributors of the knowledge leave the company. To summarize, HR management portfolio in construction industry requires: (a) Compliance to various labour regulations as introduced in the beginning of this section (b) Maintain all documents & records in the corporate office as well as on the construction sites required by the regulations (c) An employee database having all the required details of every employee (d) An Employee Information & Communication system that is primarily implemented at the corporate but is seamlessly extended to all the project sites in operations (e) Health & Safety of employees at corporate office and at project sites - this practice is much more complex in construction industry (f) Employee grievances cell (g) Adequate & time payments of wages (h) Appropriate policies & procedures for well being of the employees (i) KPI measurement and Performance Appraisal system using software tools designed for the construction industry (j) Corporate communication system to ensure that employees get clear & timely information on the policies & processes that affect them - like leave application procedure, medical claim procedure, maternity leave & support procedures, overtime procedures, reimbursement procedures, etc. [Charvatova, D et al, 2006; DiGiacomo, Gordon, 2002; Shahnawaz, M.G. and Juyal, Rakesh C, 2006] Conclusion: Civil Engineering & Infrastructure Construction industry is different from the other industries in the way that the projects of the company not only affect the promoters & their customers but also the local communities, socio-economic system, ecosystem, culture, and the environment. The Civil Engineering management teams actually play the role of Social Change Agents within the society and have are required to demonstrate high qualities & maturity in their approaches & decisions. The projects are unique, complex and governed by a number of local statutory acts and global standards & best practices. Examples of acts applicable in the UK have been presented in the paper at appropriate places. The Management system has been presented from the perspective of Human Resources management, Occupational Health & Safety, Environment, Quality management, technology, project & operations management and financial management. Reference List: Barkley, Bruce. Project Risk Management. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2004 Beres, Ergie. Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems. International labour Office Geneva. ILO- OSH 2001. Charvatova, D et al. Communication and Human Resource Management and its Compliance with Culture. International Journal of Social Sciences. 2006. DiGiacomo, Gordon. Case-Study: Healthy Workplace Programs at Rideau Construction Bedford, Nova Scotia. Personal Copyright. 2002. Grigg, Neil S and Criswell, Marvin E. et al. Civil Engineering Practice in the Twenty-first Century: Knowledge and Skills for Design and Management. ASCE Publications, 2001. Rowe, Debra. Beyond Critical Thinking to Becoming an Effective Change Agent: Trends Toward Sustainability Education and Action. US Partnership. Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. 2008. Saroop, Shian and Allopi, Dhiren. Accelerating Infrastructure Delivery with the infrastructure cost model. Civil Engineering Magazine of the South African Institute of Civil Engineers. Vol.16, Iss.1. Research Library. Proquest. 2008. Shahnawaz, M.G. and Juyal, Rakesh C. Human Resource Management Practices and Organizational Commitment in Different Organizations. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology. Vol. 32. Iss3. 2006. Smith, N.J. Engineering Project Management. Blackwell Publishing, 2002 Twort, Allan Charles and Rees, J. Gordon. Civil Engineering Project Management. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2004. Walker, Ian and Wilkie, Robert. Commercial Management in Construction. Blackwell Publishing, 2002 Read More