Aim

To understand the construction management concepts of motivation, communication, leadership, safety, planning and scheduling

Objective

- To understand the importance of management theories like motivation, communication, leadership and organization
- To understand the importance of project management through network analysis
- To understand and solve project scheduling using CPM and PERT
- To understand, solve and implement cost optimization methods in construction project management
- To understand and implement safety management in construction siteIntroduction
Each group has to prepare a comprehensive report on the Operational Plan of a fictitious construction company.

This assignment tests the students' knowledge on the following theoretical knowledge.

(Sections 1 and 2)

a. Effective Management Process for the Company including Resource Management
b. Effective Communication Channel that the Company has with Internal and External Stakeholders
c. Company Strategy on how to Motivate the Employees
d. Ideal Leadership Qualities that has to be possessed by the Employees
e. Policy on Health and Safety Management within the Organization

In addition to the above, the group should also develop a work breakdown structure for a construction project using MS Project / Primavera / Gantter / QM for Windows. The group is required to do the following analysis using any one of the mentioned software. (Section 3)

a. Calculation of critical path and critical duration for the project
b. Calculation of the total project cost and suggest ways on how to optimize the cost

SECTION 1: The Operational Plan at the Company Level should include the following

1. Identify what type of Organizational Structure is suitable for the company along with its merits and demerits

2. Identify the ideal legal structure that is suited to run the company and explain its merits and demerits

3. Identify the various departments that a construction company will be having and the important functions that they will perform

4. Identify the resources that the company will be utilizing to complete the project and all additional resources that you may require

5. How do you propose to utilize the available resources effectively

6. What is the communication channel that exist between the management and employees, material and plant suppliers, vendors, sub-contractors, architects, clients and investors

7. How do you motivate the employees and what are the motivation strategies that you will be using so that the employees can perform better

8. Identify what are the ideal leadership qualities that a managing director or CEO of a company should be having

9. Develop a safety contingency and mitigation plan for your office in case of any accident / emergency

SECTION 2: The Operational Plan at the Project Site Level should include the following

1. Identify what type of organization structure is suitable for the site office along with its merits and demerits

2. Identify what are the various departments that will be at a construction site and the important functions that they will perform

3. Identify the various resources that a construction project will be utilizing

4. How do you propose to utilize the available resources effectively

5. What is the communication channel that exist between the site office and the head office

6. How do you motivate the employees and what are the motivation strategies that you will be using for employees and laborers at site

7. Identify the ideal leadership qualities that a project manager should be having at site

8. Develop a safety contingency and mitigation plan for project site in case of any accident/emergency

The group is expected to report the following details for their respective construction project.

1. Develop a rough plan / sketch of the construction project based on the assumptions of the construction bye laws of Muscat Area. The area for each of the project can be assumed suitably as per the norms.

2. Using MS Project / Primavera / Gantter / QM for Windows Software, perform the following analysis (no manual project schedule / network diagram is permitted)
a. Identify and develop a comprehensive work break down structure of all the activities of the project
b. Assign the duration for each of the activities with proper justification
c. Link the activities with proper predecessors and successors as the case may be
d. Calculate the critical duration and identify the critical path for the project
e. Identify the resources to be utilized for each of the activities and prepare the day wise resource allocation chart
f. Identify the cost of each of the activities and obtain the total cost of the project

3. Suggest the ways on how to optimize the cost and time of the project and check the effects of optimizing on the project critical path