Question

1-) There are several factors and constraints that could affect constructability. Discuss at least such factors and two constraints on constructability.

Plz don’t write for hand on papper and thank you :)

Answer 1

#Factors Affecting Constructability:=

Simplicity:

Mutual consent between the Designer & Constructor at early stage is beneficial

Simplicity in design does not force ideas to be fully traditional or orthodox. Rather it means, that the design should be such as the person dealing with the execution work on site can easily grasp that. This can be achieved with the help of 3-D models, accompanying the drawings.

Design as well as drawings should be easy to read and understand with sufficient cross sections, properly cross-referenced. Construction process involves designing & making buildings; the working drawings form a link between the two activities. If the links were weak, then the product would not be worth. The drawing must be carefully thought off and thoroughly dimensioned.

Poor detailing is another major reason. As the design takes place on the drawing board, the designer must constantly check and amend it to ensure that it is workable & buildable. Designer should endeavor to produce simplest possible details, compatible with overall requirement of building; this opens way to efficient defect free work that will satisfactorily perform its end function.

Communication :

Construction personnel should be involved from day one of the design because these are the people who will be ultimately constructing the facility. Amendments to the drawings should be well thought off. Clients change their minds, delivery dates alter, and financial restraints vary, contractors may make excellent suggestions: all these can lead to drawings being altered. If these alterations are not carefully considered, or the site not fully aware of amendments, alterations can lead to problems. If possible advance copies of all drawings should be sent on site for discussions & reviews so that such amendments can be entertained without much difficulty.

On the other hand, the constructors should not be discouraged from suggesting changes and it is not advisable to dismiss the suggestions offered.

Standardization :
The design of building elements and details should encourage appropriate repetition and standardization, so as to reduce learning time and speed of construction. It is advisable to incorporate readily available standard products in the design and encourage their usage, so as to avoid the errors which may occur otherwise.

Planning and scheduling :
Access, storage and distribution must be considered at the drawing board stage. It is often necessary to phase work so as to facilitate use of part of building for storage. It is very important to properly plan and schedule layout and detailing activities since they must be programmed in advance to precede fabrication or installation work with sufficient load time for proper material delivery or for other dependent activities.

The layout should allow the maximum utilization of mechanical plants, particularly for movement of materials. Where possible locations suitable for cranes and their bases should be identified and left clear.

The design should arrange work sequencing in such a way that a trade or specialization can complete all its work at a work place with as few visits as possible. The design should enable work to be carried out in a workmanlike manner without risk of damage to adjacent finished elements and with minimum requirements for special protection. Simple sequencing should enable each operation to be completed independently and without interruption. The sequence should assist the coordination of trades and minimum delay.

Information :

The investigation of site conditions and other circumstances likely to affect the course of project should be thorough and complete. All such studies should be conducted well in advance, to avoid risk of subsequent expensive delays and alterations after construction has commenced. Such delays may result in increasing unwanted cost of construction and delay in search of remedial measures, with the wastage of time and labor. Waste of time is equivalent to wastage of money.

Award of works:
Most of the projects today are complicated with number of services involved and hence require contractors and many sub-contractors to perform portions of the work. The contractor shall supervise and direct the work, using his best skills and attention. He shall be solely responsible to the owner for the acts and omissions of his employees, sub-contractors and their agents and any other person performing any work under the contract with him. Contractors and sub-contractors should be hired strictly on pre-qualification system for the quality, safety and liability. This should be strictly followed for the sake of uninterrupted work sequence.

Inspection and meetings on site:
The project team participants responsible for constructability should be identified at an early stage in the project. The responsibilities should be very clearly defined at the beginning among the engineers, contractors, and fabricators etc. Full time inspection at the site by the engineer in charge is very important. Frequent visits by the designer should be planned to avoid any confusion and keep a check on the work so that the pace of work is not affected and no “short-cuts” are taken.

Sharing of knowledge:
The majority of knowledge acquired by an individual during the construction of a project is not effectively communicated because of unreliable channels. Proper records shall be maintained of previously considered solutions or approaches and results of selected actions. This bank of information could be valuable. Knowledge of feasible solutions that were unsuccessful and should perhaps be avoided would be of great help.

#Constraints affects on constructability :=

A project is often defined as successful if the project’s objectivesare achieved by the deadline and stay within the budget. But apart from time, scope, and cost, there are six additional constraints that limit the process of properly accomplishing the project’s goals.

Quality

While this constraint is quite similar to scope, it’s slightly different. Scope defines the exact desired outcome. For example, your project’s scope may involve creating 10 webpages. Quality concentrates on the attributes of each of these webpages. It can be defined by answering this question: “How closely does the outcome match the expectations?”

In our example, the quality doesn’t define the number of webpages, but there could be a quality tolerance regarding the number of words. Perhaps you’ve requested 1,000 words, and you have a quality tolerance of +/- 100 words. So if a webpage contains 900 words, you’d approve it. And if another webpage only contains 850 words, you’d reject it.

Quality interrelates with the other constraints. Let’s assume you’re running out of time and need to meet a certain due date. You could possibly meet the deadline by enlarging the quality tolerance and decreasing the number of words to 800.

Tool for Handling Quality

You probably know about the seven basic tools of quality. One of these tools is a Cause and Effect Analysis (also called a Fishbone Diagram), which allows you to quickly identify the roots of quality problems. That way, you can ensure that you’re always keeping quality high (or that you at least know how to put quality back on track).

Risk

Managing risks is an important task for project managers. But what does this term actually mean? When you estimate probability, a risk will have a certain impact on your project. Perhaps you’re creating a wireframe for your website, and you decide to skip the client-review step because you’re running late. If so, there’s a risk that the client will reject your final webpages.

Of course, you can control risk to a certain extent. For instance, you could decide to avoid the risk and insist on the review step. But this decision would affect your timeline and your related costs, since the client would review each of your designs, and a project manager needs to oversee this process.

Tool for Handling Risk

Use the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) approach to mitigate both identified and unidentified risks. Applying FMEA will help you prioritize and control risks while involving your team in the process.

Resources

Resources are strongly connected to the project cost. The amount of money that’s available for achieving the desired outcome will restrict the use and acquisition of resources, which creates a separate constraint.

Sometimes, even an infinite amount of money couldn’t allow you to acquire the specific resources you need. For example, it’s going to take longer than you expected to receive a physical resource in the project (such as a chip), which will cause you to miss the deadline. If this resource is essential to the project, you’ll have to sacrifice making the deadline, because no reasonable amount of money could reduce the delivery time.

Tool for Handling Resources

You can use software such as ProjectManager.com to optimally manage your resources. This kind of tool will help you properly identify and allocate your existing resources.

Sustainability

The sustainability of a project can play a major role in the long-term strategy of a company, and can often affect a project’s success. There are three parts of sustainability: social, environmental, and economic. Even if the first two ones don’t apply to your project, the economic component shouldn’t be neglected by project managers.

Basically, managing a project’s economic sustainability refers to the way you handle its possible impact on the future of the the organization behind it. For example, if you’re managing an automotive production line, you could use cheap resources to build some parts of the cars, in order to save costs. But you’ll also be sacrificing sustainability, since cheaper parts tend to bite the dust more frequently than high-quality pieces.

Tool for Handling Sustainability

Apply the P5™ standard for sustainability to your projects. The P5 standard explains the important metrics, and offers instructions about how to integrate P5 with the existing processes of your project.

Organizational Processes & Structures

The organizational structure of a company can greatly impact the project’s success, since it’s defining the project’s environment. Stakeholders could have a significant influence on decisions that need to be taken. Or the slow communication flow between executives and project managers could result in unpredictable project decelerations.

Coping with organizational structure and limitations can be difficult. You’re often not able to break through the organization’s existing patterns, make the deadline, and stay within the budget.

Tool for Handling Organizational Processes & Structures

Make sure that you know ways to properly cope with existing organizational processes and structures. Start depicting your workflows by using a tool like Process Street. That way, you can more accurately foresee any processing issues that might appear in the future.

Methodology

Obviously, you’ve heard about Scrum, Agile, and Kanban. Different project management methodologies can be used to approach a project.

Each of these methodologies manifest various limitations. If you use Scrum, you’ll need to organize daily meetings and get plenty of reviews, so you’ll have to acquire decent resources to cover these efforts. But if you use Agile, you’ll be more likely to deliver excellent quality.

However, with Agile, it’s harder to estimate the needed time upfront, which will increase the risk of missing your deadline. Hence, to choose the right methodology, it’s important to assess the project’s situation.

Tool for Handling Methodology

If you have a lot of options, it can be difficult to choose the most suitable methodology for a project. So step back and assess your project’s situation. Use the NTCP framework to:

• Analyze the different dimensions of the project (novelty, technology, complexity, and pace).
• Select a suitable methodology for project management.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction measures how much you’re meeting the customer’s expectations. If your team handed over excellent deliverables on time and within the budget, your client will probably be happy.

But, if your cost turned out to be higher than expected, it would force you to make a tradeoff. Perhaps you’re sacrificing customer satisfaction, since the product isn’t meeting your client’s expectations anymore. In the end, customer satisfaction will highly affect the project’s success.

Tool To Handle Customer Satisfaction

There’s no real tool for making sure that your customers are satisfied. So start by talking to them and getting their feedback! You should regularly discuss the progress of your project with them.