Construction Site Administration - Article Example

 Construction Site Administration Management is the art of identifying the criteria, standards, rules, procedures and the methodologies. The identification of all these factors gives rise to the art of managing certain group of people or employees of an organization. The managers can either take the companies or organizations to the heights of success or they may cause to their organization by not managing the entire framework with in an organization as per the required standards. All successful organizations hire such professionals who are competitive, intelligent and dynamic. In fact they are in search of such professionals who possess the ability to fight with challenges in a standardized method. Managers are those dynamic personalities who have the entire control over the organizational activities. They keep a check on these activities and deal their clients in their own intellectual manner. The Production Managers should have a clear-cut idea about the objectives they want to achieve and they should have an insight to judge what will be better for the betterment of an organization. Many successful organizations have discovered the impact of "projects" on the success of the enterprise (Lewin, 2000), and have acknowledged "Production Management in Construction” as a distinct and valuable discipline. What many organizations yet to recognize though, is the importance of implementing Production Management in Construction under the same structures and centralization that has become the paradigm for most other disciplines. The increasing emphasize and importance being placed on Production Management in Construction today and the growing complexity of the function and roles of the Production Manager makes it necessary for us to develop a better understanding about the various processes of Production Management in Construction, how the processes and management approaches vary for different project types and how Production Managers can become more effective at their roles. Production managers manage and coordinate the resources and activities required to produce billions of goods and services every year throughout the world. Although their duties vary from the different kinds of production they are responsible for, production managers still share many of the same major responsibilities. These responsibilities include production scheduling, staffing, procurement and maintenance of equipment in case of industrial production, quality control, inventory control, and the coordination of production activities with those of other departments. Depending on the type of production, the production process consists of subsections of production management that include planning, engineering, quality control, administration, and personnel training. The planning process consists of implementing, organizing and controlling production and coordinating operations. The engineering process involves selecting the tooling and production methods for the organization, planning the utilization of human resources, determining production costs and directing productivity-improvement projects. Quality control is a very important part of production management and involves organizing and directing a quality control department. Then there is administration process that consists of planning and managing an operating budget and accounting for purchases, stocks and material resources. Last but not least there is the personnel training that involve organizing and directing a full training department. The primary goal of production managers is planning the production schedule within budgetary limitations and time constraints. In addition to quality assurance, these are the single two most important aims of any production manager. Production managers also must monitor product or service standards. When quality drops below the established standard, they must determine why standards are not being maintained and how to improve the product or service. For example, in an industrial setting, if the problem relates to the quality of work performed in the plant, the manager may implement better training programs; reorganize the manufacturing process, or institute employee suggestion or involvement programs. If the cause is substandard materials, the manager works with the purchasing department to improve the quality of the product's components. Because the work of many departments is interrelated, it is very important for production managers to work closely with heads of other departments such as project, sales, procurement, and logistics to plan and implement company goals, policies, and procedures. For example in the industrial setting, the production manager works with the procurement department to ensure that plant inventories are maintained at their optimal level. This is vital to a firm's operation because maintaining the inventory of materials necessary for production ties up the firm's financial resources, yet insufficient quantities cause delays in production. A breakdown in communications between the production manager and the purchasing department can cause slowdowns and a failure to meet production schedules. Just-in-time production techniques have reduced inventory levels, making constant communication among the manager, suppliers, and purchasing departments even more important. Computers play an integral part in this coordination. They also are used to provide up-to-date information on inventory, the status of work in progress, and quality standards. In addition to formal training, industrial production managers must keep informed of new production technologies and management practices. Many belong to professional organizations and attend trade shows at which new equipment is displayed; they also attend industry conferences and conventions at which changes in production methods and technological advances are discussed. Contemporary construction practice demands that the constructions professional not only masters construction concepts, but also have a powerful credentials in engineering and management methods. Importance is placed on new technologies, developments, and procedures in both domestic and international construction. Construction project follows a complex system of apparently unrelated activities, which in reality are intensely dependent on one another. The timing of the start and finish of every little detail is classified so that it fits in the order necessary to complete the project in the most effective and orderly way. Advanced planning, foresight, and experience are used to assure processes are done in the right order. Construction equipment may constitute one of the single largest long term capital investments for a contractor. This is especially true for those contractors intended essentially in horizontal construction. Heedless of the type of construction, the aim of prosperous construction management is to complete projects in harmony with plans and specifications, on time, within budget, and at the least conceivable cost. A crucial element in achieving the aforementioned goal is the potent management and execution of construction equipment. The essential goal of the equipment management process is to decide the best piece of equipment for a given job. In spite of the fact that this is not fundamentally a complex notion, there are numerous factors to think about in making this determination. Most significantly, the equipment must pay for itself. References Lewin, K. (2000) Field Theory in Social Science, Harper & Row, New York. Read More