Reference no: EM132365222

Project Management in Construction

Assignment: Network Analysis and Scheduling

You have been tasked to act as the Project Manager for a newin portal frameproduction unit I wish built on Waiheke Island, in the Hauraki Gulf (Auckland). My intention is to provide support facilities for new tourism infrastructure focussed on food and wine "gastro-tourism".

My company has a strong image of being both environmentally and sensitive ethically driven - as such I have engaged an architect directly to develop a scheme design and get that through consent prior to engaging a contractor to construct the project.The architect is based in Auckland city. The chosen site is relatively close to a Marae and community centre operated in close collaboration with the local Iwi. I have gone to the market and asked for tenders to construct the project, and the winning tender has given a very competitive price (a Guaranteed Maximum Price - GMP) provided that he can construct using a D&B system using the architectural drawings produced as a scheme design. The architect for the project is based in Auckland City - as are the engineers. The contractor is based in Hamilton in the Waikato.

The intention is to develop a highly serviced buildingwith the ability to develop extensively in the future, with some additional ‘eco-pods' on the site as holiday accommodation. It is also my intention to ensure that facilities management costs are kept down through careful maintenance in the future. As a result the project will be fully rendered through Revit software - and a fully developed BIM model of the visitor centreis part of the final finished project hand over. I have negotiated the continued involvement of my architect through a novation-type contract between the contractor and the architect.

You as the PM are effectively acting as the client representative during the delivery process, but are obviously closely reliant on the main contractor for co-operation during the project delivery process. You also have to ensure the effective engagement of the novated architect in the continued development of the project. You will also be responsible for ensuring that the BIM model will successfully transition to my ownership at the end of the project.

I am your client and I am sad to say that you were only able to take possession of the land and start the preliminary ground works 2 weeks after the provisionally agreed date for the commencement of works. When construction is 50% complete I decide that I would like to include an extension to incorporate additional office spaceand landscaping around the centre. Also as a result of unforeseen soil conditions the piling operations were delayed by two weeks for additional stabilisation works to take place. The cost of these additions and additional works is budgeted for $500k.

Consequently, develop a client report for me to better understand the current situation on the project site when the project is 75% complete. Ideally the report should incorporate:-

1. Alogically linked network (precedence chart) for the construction of the project. The network should contain between 60 and 70 activities.Ensure that you include those staggered starts, delayed finishes and start to finish logical relationships that reflect the reality of the construction process. It is expected that you may wish to consider: infrastructure; substructure; super-structure; internal trades (inc. services & finishes); external works. Use project planning software (e.g. Pertmaster, MS Project or Prima Vera etc) for the network analysis and Excel for the Gantt chart if you wish. Students may be required to justify/defend the overall period of build.

2. AGantt chart derived from the network constructed in 1 (above). The start date for the project prior to the delay was to be the first working Monday after your Birthday this year. Adopt NZ industry standard holidays (Xmas, Easter, ANZAC day etc)

3. Incorporate the costs for each element of the build into your MS Project fileand thus develop a resource chart showing the weekly spend as the project progresses.

4. Develop your recommendation, based on critical and sub-critical activities and the likely availability of resources, on those activities you may wish to pay additional ‘crash costs' in order to accelerate their completion.

5. Develop an outline plan as to who are likely to be the key or critical players for you as a PM to have to deal with. Given the outline nature of the procurement system adopted, what critical information flows are likely to deliver success or failure for the project? Explain how would you go about managing these communication channels a priori breaking ground on the project, and during the production phase?

6. The project as outlined contains some distinct problems from the point of project leadership. Explain what these challenges are and how you are likely to have to deal with them as the project develops. Consequently explain why you would expect that a D&B project system of procurement offers more project leadership problems for the PM compared to other procurement systems available. Also consider the impact of the need to incorporate BIM modelling into the desired outcome for the project. How will this affect the delivery and running of the project?

Attachment:- Project Management in Construction.rar