Design of the Project -The Village Hall - Assignment Example

Number Subject Name Lecturer’s Name The Village Hall Due date Date Submitted The Village Hall Task 1: The procurement approach The determination of the procurement approach and choice of the contract to be applied in the construction work is very critical and significantly affects the whole process. The procurement approach is a vital determinant of the nature of the relationship between the construction companies and the clients. This, in turn, determines whether the contract will be completed according to the planed time, budget, and the set quality standard. Additionally, it significantly depends on the other factors such as the risk involved in the project, the design responsibilities, coordination of work, as well as the pricing of the contract. Concerning this, the present paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the refurbishment of the Bury Port Community Council village hall. The paper will advise on the village hall committee on the procurement approaches and the form of contract, which will be considered to be quite appropriate. The paper will support the choice of reasons as well as the assumptions made. Procurement Approach: Traditional procurement approach The village hall committee in the completion of the current refurbishment project could adopt several procurement approaches. Among these approaches, the most effective are the traditional procurement approach. The approach starts with the appointment of the designer consultant, who will design the work of the project work. The details of the construction and the tendering documents are then documented. These documents are; the drawings of the project, bill of quantities, and the work schedules. After documentation, the client invites contractors to submit their tenders for the intended project on a competitive basis after which the selected contractor commences the project. The contractor can either be appointed competitively or through negotiation. In the case of the Village Hall, the local architect already completed the designing work in the year 2010. Therefore, the most crucial part remaining in the project is the procurement and the funding of the project. As illustrated by Ruparathna & Hewage, (2015), the contractor is not responsible for the project design. However, he or she can design specific part of the work. The contractor responsibility extends to subcontractors and suppliers. There are several reasons and advantages associated and supporting the above procurement process. One of them is that the community will be able to supervise and understand the progress of the project during refurbishment process. The reason is that the traditional approach requires the client to retain the design consultants and prepare an additional design that the contractor requires during the construction phase. Further, the client has the opportunity of reviewing new designs prepared by the contractor and inspects the work. As a result, there is no consultant who would be hired to inspect the work, hence cutting down on the refurbishment cost. However, it is significant to note that the client has an option of appointing a consultant whose primary responsibility is to administer the progress of the project (Ibem & Laryea, 2014). Another aspect associated with the traditional procurement approach is that it gives the certainty about the design cost and quality of the refurbished work. This makes the approach quite suitable for an inexperienced client like the Bury Port Community Council. Lump Sum Contract As illustrated by Sedita & Apa (2015), there are three forms of contract which are considered in the in the traditional procurement process. These include lump sum, measurement, and cost reimbursement contracts. The lump sum contract system is the most suitable for the Village Hall refurbishment to enter. The major reason for this is that Bury Port Community is jointly funded by public fund, Heritage Lottery grant, and the Carmarthenshire County Council. With the limited funding, the contractor will be mandated to carry out the contract by the available funds. It will also put into consideration the fact that the Bury Port relies wholly on grants to implement major contracts since it is not a commercial entity (Sedita & Apa, 2015). One of the assumptions made in the lump sum contract, which is considered vital by many analysts, is that the client has a fixed amount of financial resources. As a result, it adopts the risk aversion concept of management. Therefore, it focuses on minimizing the cost, which may arise because of structural adjustment of the initial design. Additionally, there is a limited time to carry out the refurbishment work because the Community project the work to be complete by October 2016 to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the hall's opening. Another significant assumption is that the use of different consultant improves the quality of the work. In this case, there is a formal agreement, which is drawn between the contractor and the client on the amount before commencing on any work. The contractor agrees to undertake the refurbishment work in return for an agreed contract amount. The price is arrived at after the contractor reviews the project design given by the client. The contractor to determine materials and labor cost necessary to carry out the work would use the design drawn. The agreed amount is subject to minimal fluctuations, which are not foreseeable at the time the parties enter into an agreement. As a result, the contract gives the contractor authority to make fluctuation provision to the client regarding such changes affecting the total cost of the contract (Ruparathna & Hewage, 2015). As illustrated by Ibem & Laryea (2014), the lump sum quantity is determined by the, the drawings and the bill of quantities. The contractor recovers the cost of such materials but making a provisional sum of an approximate quantity which the contractor should keep at a minimum level. The drawing design helps to determine the pricing of contracts without the bill of quantities. For such cases, the lump sum is not itemized and detailed to the extent that the agreed price is the total of the items, which are easily priced. In this case, the value of the additional work would be used for assessing the lump sum breakdown. For the case of Village Hall, the contractor would provide the client with the schedule of rates of the contract sum analysis schedule which replaces notional quantities with the firm quantities on the Community side. It is, therefore, evident that the traditional approach and the lump sum contract is suitable for the Bury Port Community project. However, from an extensive analysis point of view, it is significant for the community to consider several factors before the application of the method. Firstly, the committee should produce a complete set of documents before inviting tenders for lump sum contracts. Secondly, the consultant should appoint the design, which the contractor will follow. As a result, the Village Hall committee responsible for drawing the contract should be cautious about using express terms in the contract. Additionally, the contractor should retain the control over the design of the work and quality requirement because he appoints a consultant to advise on such matters. More importantly, the contractors work should be done according to the instructions are given by the client. Additionally, as illustrated by Sedita & Apa (2015), the employer has the autonomy of deciding which specialist firm to use which employs safeguard in the contractor performance. Lastly, it will be the responsibility of the client to design consultant to carry out the valuation matters of the contract work throughout the project. Several advantages will accrue to the project for the use of the traditional procurement approach. One of the reason is that it would enhance accountability because of its highly competitive contractor selection method. Additionally, the availability of the project design would give the would allow the contractor an opportunity to place bids on the same basis. Therefore, the design would give the client a direct authority to influence the functionality of the contract work and improve the overall design when the need arises. There will be also a price certainty when drawing up and awarding the contract. Also, the approach eases the client work in managing the contract work. Furthermore, it is a low risk contracting approach because the client only takes the financial risk of the project. Lastly, it is a good method which is familiar in the market (Ruparathna & Hewage, 2015). As noted by Ibem & Laryea (2014), it is significant to the client, the Village Hall Committee in this case to consider the weaknesses associated with the traditional procurement method. Firstly, the whole of drawing and documenting the complete contract is quite lengthy. As a result, it is associated with the time uncertainty and cost which may lead to disputes because of numerous disagreement with the project team. Moreover, a conflict can arise once the project is complete about whether the defect emanates from poor design or poor workmanship by the contractor. Another factor worth consideration is that the approach is slow than the other procurement approaches because the project cannot commence before the completion of the project design. Lastly, the approach denies the contractor power to give his input on the project design which ultimately affects the quality of the contract work because the contractor cannot add his innovative power to the project. Therefore, it is advisable for the Village Hall committee to address these factors while drawing up the contract. Task Two Solutions to the noise problem To resolve the current issue of noise, the Village Hall Committee should consider carrying out structural changes of the structure. However, it is significant to consider the cause of the mentioned noise. This could have come from the poor workmanship or poor project design. Therefore, it is significant for the contractor to investigate whether the cause of the problem was caused by the negligence and poor performance of the contractor, or from poor design of the project (Ruparathna & Hewage, 2015). However, it is significant to consider the fact that the architect suffers no blame when such defects occur. The reason for this is that under the traditional approach, the client is the project manager to the architect responsible for developing the project design. The architect adheres to the client demands about the preference of the structural design. The client must thoroughly scrutinize the project design before approving and paying the architect. Therefore, if the client is the one who authorized not to install the sound transmission systems, then the client should solely suffer the restructuring cost (Ibem & Laryea, 2014). In the resolution of the above dispute, the previous contract between the contractor and the client would be applied as the basis for resolving the conflict. In this case, the contractor would assume the responsibility and adhere to the project design and advice the client in cases where the contract design is not fit enough to accomplish all the project work. The standard design restricts the contractor duty during the project phase to one of reasonable care and duty. The contractor and the client agree in writing on any additional duties, which may arise outside the original project design. It is, therefore, an obligation of the contractor to prove that they applied and followed the required care and skills in the completion of the project (Bogus, Migliaccio & Jin, 2013). To finance the structural adjustment work, it is significant for the Village Hall Committee to look for additional funds. The reason is that the funds available for completing the first project were not enough. The additional $40,000 would come from Carmarthenshire County Council, Heritage Lottery grant, and through public fundraising. After the funds are raised, it would be significant for the contractor to engage the contractor who initially carried out the restructuring work. In this case, the costly tendering process would be avoided. In this case, the contractor could be instructed to commence the work immediately because the project cost is calculated after completing the project. The contract gives the contractor authority to commence the work before the design is complete which saves the project time and allows the project adjustment to reflect upcoming issues in the project. Once the noise absorbers have been installed, it would be the responsibility of the Village Hall committee to should measure the quantities of work to determine the total cost of the work. After which, the contractor agrees on the pricing with the community on a reasonable grounds. The contractor should thoroughly scrutinize all the costs and record them accurately because they form the basis of valuing the work done. This would ensure that the problem is perfectly solved. References Bogus, S, Migliaccio, G, & Jin, R 2013, 'Study of the Relationship between Procurement Duration and Project Performance in Design-Build Projects: Comparison between Water/Wastewater and Transportation Sectors', Journal Of Management In Engineering, 29, 4, pp. 382-391, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 March 2016. Ibem, EO, & Laryea, S 2014, 'Review: Survey of digital technologies in procurement of construction projects', Automation in Construction, vol. 46, pp. 11-21. Available from: 10.1016/j.autcon.2014.07.003. [13 March 2016]. Ruparathna, R, & Hewage, K 2015, 'Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices, drivers and opportunities', Journal Of Cleaner Production, 109, Special Issue: Toward a Regenerative Sustainability Paradigm for the Built Environment: from vision to reality, pp. 305-314, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 March 2016. Sedita, S, & Apa, R 2015, 'The impact of inter-organizational relationships on contractors' success in winning public procurement projects: The case of the construction industry in the Veneto region', International Journal Of Project Management, 33, pp. 1548-1562, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 March 2016. Read More