Construction Management

Construction management is the overall planning, co-ordination and control of a project from inception to completion aimed at meeting a client’s requirements. A construction manager is responsible to produce a functionally and financially viable project that will be completed on time within authorised cost and to the required quality standards. So, usually there are the three main elements that a construction manager should be very concern about; they are cost, time and quality.

Furthermore, there are 3 main construction procurement systems:
1) Traditional system (‘Design-Bid-Build’ DBB)
2) Design and Build
3) Construction Management system.

For no. 3, construction management system, a construction manager will be work on behalf of the owner. The system is also referred as negotiated work since the construction manager negotiates a fee for management services with the owner.

There are 4 phases of implementation in Construction Management System. They are project initiation, design, selection of contractors and construction.

Phase 1: Project Initiation
Owner hires a Construction Manager (CM). CM provides preconstruction services such as cost analysis, constructability analysis, value engineering, project scheduling and prepare initial project budgets and involve in the selection of the design team. CM is required to guarantee the total cost will not exceed a maximum price which is called guarantee maximum price (GMP). Then, CM advises owner on all phase of project.

Phase 2: Design
CM assists the design team in reviewing project costs estimates and making decisions with important cost and scheduling for phase construction also known as fast-track scheduling.

Phase 3: Selection of Contractors
Contractors are selected by the methods outlined in the traditional process that is the bidding method. CM is responsible for the coordination of these independent selection processes.

Phase 4: Construction
CM plays a role similar to that of the main contractor in the traditional process.
Above are the works and responsibilities of a construction manager should have in a project construction. CM will prepare all the necessary information on behalf of the owner for the architects and consultant. This is one of the characteristic in Construction Management System.