Construction Management

Construction Management provides an interdisciplinary approach for handling complex projects. The Construction Manager (CM) operates as the owner's representative managing the projects by coordinating the efforts of the varying disciplines of a fragmented construction industry allowing architects, engineers, various industrial management or urban planners and a variety of specialists to work together as a project team to oversee the design and construction of a building project. As the owners representative the Construction Manager works with his client (the owner) to assure the hands paying the bills stay in control of the project from start to finish and through settlement of and contractor claims or time extensions. Effective management is the key to the industry's success.

All projects are phase designed and constructed as the each of the various technical discipline representatives perform their part of the project. It is important that the Construction Manager (CM) be brought into the project as early as possible to protect the owner's interest during both the design and construction phases to project completion.

Construction Managers have a computerized Control System (CMCS) to bring together: 1) Project Schedule and Control; 2) Project Cost Control; and 3) the Project Financial Control in a timely organized format numerous items of information from differing sources. Effectively data management is necessary for effective management. The CM generates reports from the three-control systems which are oriented to the recipients who utilize the information for their portion of the project work . The CMCS must be flexible enough to reflect the unique management requirements of a particular project so that current data developed in one part of the system is reflected in the other parts of the system (i.e. cost summaries are reflected in Project Schedule and Control along with Project Financial Control) so the owner determine the methodology needed to control the project.

Critical Path Method (CPM) is the preferred management technique. The critical path shows when each activity begins and ends and which activities impact others. Proper use of the CPM enables the CM to predict when an activity involved in the project can be expected to occur. It is nothing more that an arrow diagram indicating the critical path to completion of the project along with concurrent tasks. There are generally three phases of a project the Planning phase, Scheduling phase and a Control-Monitoring phase. Most generally some portion of these phases will be done as the project progresses from start to finish and they can get out of hand if not monitored by the owner. Since there are hundreds if not thousands of details to monitor, management of a major project is a full time activity. Few owners have the time or knowledge to get involved in such detail. A Construction Manager, who may actually be a group of individuals, monitors these details in behalf of the owner and keeps the owner informed of project status and any projected problems which might need to be resolved.

Changes and claims can break a project budget. A Construction Manager reduces the negative effects of any changes which might occur. The Construction Manager assists the owner in determining what events caused the necessity for a change and the impact of that change. The CM negotiates, on the owner's behalf, with various contractors to determine a fair price and reasonable time for the changed work. The CM also revises the scheduled work if necessary to accomodate the change. The CM will administer all the construction associated contracts, perform on going estimates, negotiate, supervise, inspect and monitor the project from start to post completion. A CM will monitor and coordinate the thousands of details and the numerous number of workers involved in the project. The Construction Manager coordinates the details in behalf of the owner with an eye to avoiding changes, delays, claims and overruns thus saving the owner's time and budget.

J.R.L. Engineering Consortium Ltd.(JRL) has played a key role in the construction management of many Commercial and Industrial Projects with budgets as high a $1,000,000,000.00 and as low as $200,000.00. JRL's experience and diversity of projects, allows us to offer a unique approach to construction management that will avoid the common problems encountered in dealing with the complex intricacies of design and construction.