Lecture 6

Resources
 In this lecture you will:
 Review Project Manager and Site Supervisor
guidelines for successful project management
 Analyze Resource Constraints

 Learn some of the issues behind dealing and

communicating with sub trades
 Better understand the root cause of
scheduling conflicts
 Guidelines for Project
Managers and Site

Supervisors
For every operation (project), make sure you know exactly what
you want to do and the end goal that you want to achieve. Only
then can you measure how effective you have been.
 Organize your time and see that it is devoted to essentials and not
wasted on trivialities. Know what is important and what is not; also
remember CPM.
 Good communications are vital, clear precise instructions,
reports, follow up and repeat follow up. In the case of subs
and suppliers make sure that you are following up with the
decision maker and not being given the runaround.
 Always be mindful of the schedule and be aware that if you fall
behind it may steam roll to the point that you can’t catch up
 Guidelines for Project
Managers and Site

Supervisors
Set deadlines and stick to them or find out the reason why
they need to be changed.
 With regard to questions from subs and suppliers “do not put
off to tomorrow what can be done today” Respond, or get the
person on the phone for an answer (recall proactive
aggressive from lecture 1)
 When a decision has to be made, make it and get on with the
job. If you don’t, it will come up again and more time will be
wasted.
 Take time out for planning and always make sure that you
have the big picture in mind.
 For example if you close 40 houses a month that means 10 houses
per week which means potentially 2 houses per day.
 Make sure that you have thought this through because it is too easy
to fall behind and it can become next to impossible to catch up.
 One house behind quickly becomes two and three and so on until
you can’t make up the time. Be proactive and vigilant!
 Assess you own abilities, effectiveness and review with
honesty. It will prevent complacency. Recall the traits of great
managers.
 Planning Resources
 The Project Manager must be able to
control resources:
 Labour hours
 Sub-contractors
 Materials
 Construction Equipment
 Permanent Equipment
 Working Capital
 How does a builder help to control working
capital?
 Planning Resources
 Efficient planning of resources and ultimately
the success of the project requires:
 Dealing and Negotiating with the sub trades
and suppliers
 Optimizing resources
 Paying attention to cost and time
 Controlling waste
 Paying attention to detail
 Preplanning
 Paying attention to efficiencies
 Negotiating with Sub
Contractors
Key word: Clarity or Clarification (recall for last
session)
 Pre design meetings:
 Joint meetings
 Opportunity to change scope for the better
 Opportunity to design and spec better especially important with
sustainable projects
 Pre-construction meetings:
 Joint and individual
 Opportunity to develop systems approach to construction
 Clarify points of interaction and how to handle them
 Avoid damage points
 When directing work people do not always understand your
message clearly.
 People tend to act like they understand when they don’t e.g.
nodding your head up and down or saying yes.
 Think about the times that you have done this. I know I’ve been
guilty of it.
 Ask the person, be it a sub, one of your own employees or a
supplier to repeat or clarify what you are asking of them. This
way you will know if the instructions are clear. If not go over it
again until there is clarity.
 Negotiating with Sub
Contractors
 Cause and effect
 Subs have limited resources, if you habitually fall behind
and all of a sudden push them to catch up by adding
more people then the likely result is that they are pulling
people from another area in the sub division.
 If not in residential the same may occur in ICI where they
are pulled from another project that they are working on
for the same GC
 What does this imply?
 Subs have schedules to follow too, and constant changes
to your schedule will mess with theirs.
 Negotiating with Sub
Contractors
Key Word: Expectations
 You need to be clear and firm with the trades and they
must know what your expectations are.
 If you clearly set your expectations at the beginning and remain
consistent the trades will like dealing with you. They will respect
and respond in times of need.
 If you are inconsistent in your dealings they will not know what to
expect and will tend to perform sub par
 The trick is to set the right expectations, if they are too high and
unrealistic this will not work as they will ignore the expectation
believing it is unattainable
 Conversely if it is too low you will not gain their respect and they
will walk all over you
 Negotiating with Sub

Contractors
Sub contractors are in business, their foreman have bosses.
 Like any business they are trying to earn a profit, their first priority is
the success of their own business.
 Understand that their goals may not always be congruent with yours.
 Educate them on the fact that your successes will spill over to their
own successes.
 Be careful no to be misled by sub-trades making excuses, a better
tactic is to be on top of them and your schedule before things fall
behind. That way there will be little slippage and if it the
hemorrhaging starts it can be stopped before it gets out of hand.
 Anticipate (key word again) issues before they occur.
Don’t dig yourself into a hole
that you can’t get out of with
subs and suppliers
 Dealing with Sub Contractors
Scope of Work
 Check the scope of work for each job with each sub
contractor
 Recall the first section where you needed to
understand your scope of work, you must also
understand each suppliers and sub contractors
scope of work
 Never make the mistake of assuming that one job or
house or contractual relationship is the same as the
next, there are usually differences
 Example: Recall my “foam insulation” example
 Planning Resources
 The contractor must be able to
control resources:
 Labour hours
 Materials

 Construction Equipment

 Permanent Equipment

 Working Capital
 Planning Resources
 Efficient planning of resources and
ultimately the success of the project
requires:
 Optimizing resources
 Paying attention to cost and time

 Controlling waste

 Paying attention to detail

 Preplanning

 Paying attention to efficiencies

 Types of Project
Constraints
 Technical or Logic Constraints
 Resource Constraints
 Physical Constraints
 Technical Constraints
 These constraints address the order or
sequence in which a project must take
place
 For example:
 Layout Foundation
 Excavate
 Form Footings
 Pour Footings
 Form Foundation Walls

 The above items must be done in order

because one needs to be complete before
another starts
 Technical Constraints
 You may also be able to do more than one
activity at a time. For example you may be
able to :
 Rough in the electrical
 Rough in the HVAC
 Rough in the Plumbing
 Rough in the security system
 All at the same time, however from a technical
constraint perspective all must be complete
before the insulation can be installed as an
example.
 Resource Constraints
 Having a lack of resources may alter your plan
drastically.
 Remembering that parallel activities will speed up the
schedule, they also hold the potential to lengthen the
schedule if adequate resources are not available
 Something that is scheduled as a burst of activities
may lengthen if instead of assigning different people to
the activities one person now has to do them in
sequence due to a resource shortage
 The above only applies in related skills areas
 Resource Constraints
 In the case of a resource constraint
taking place, it will have priority over a
technical constraint
 In other words an activity that
technically can be broken out and
done in parallel will be constrained to
run in sequence because of a lack of
available labour/skill
 Resource Constraints
 Discuss an example of where this can hold true.
 E.g. If the schedule called for the trimming of a house
and the resource plan was to have 3 trim carpenters
 1 Install door frames and casing
 Another to Install doors and Hardware,
 Another to install baseboards, window casing and closet
shelves
 If instead only one carpenter was provided the
scheduled time would triple, affecting the critical path
and lengthening the project completion date
 Physical Constraints
 Physical constraints occur where there are
environmental reasons for not placing
extra resources or rather limiting the
resource applied to a particular area
 The methods of handling physical
constraints are similar to resource
constraints
 What would be an example of a physical
constraint?
 Questions
 Think of two examples other than those discussed of:
 Resource constraint
 Physical constraint
 Technical constraint
 Describe typical construction project circumstances ideal for
the use of detailed advanced planning, such as, the critical
path method.
 In your opinion, what part do subcontractors play in the
development of the project plan and schedule?
 To develop the project plan describe what types of
information you would seek out from each of the various
subcontractors: mechanical, electrical, forming, structural
steel, building enclosure, elevators, roofing, drywall, tile,
millwork etc.
 Why should one consider the experience and temperament
of the people who will manage and build the project as part
of construction planning?