Logistics are often overlooked when planning a project, yet poor logistics can cause bottlenecks which literally strangle the life out of your project. It impacts production and productivity causing delays and adding to costs. Usually the larger the project the more important and complicated the logistics become.

Logistics includes mobilizing people to the project site, getting them to the project every day and then moving them around the project to where they are working. A project with a dozen, fifty or even hundred people can be simple to coordinate, but some projects can have thousands of workers. Sometimes the project may be in an operating facility which already employs thousands of workers. Somehow the construction workers have to get to their job site without impacting the owner’s workers. Then the owner’s workers still have to get to where they are required without hindrance or being endangered by the construction work. This must happen safely and quickly. Even if every person in a hundred person team is only delayed by five minutes in the day, the total impact on the project is more than 8 hours – put simply we have to employ an extra person every day to make up for the lost time. Five minutes on most construction projects is nothing and it’s often more like fifteen or twenty!

Some industrial and mining facilities can cover huge areas and the distanced between work locations can be significant. Lengthy delays in getting personnel to their work areas at the start of the days and after their rest breaks can reduce productivity dramatically.
Then there are facilities that have extraordinary security that causes huge delays. I have for instance worked in diamond plants and precious metals refineries where security has been very strict and getting materials and equipment in and out of work areas took time, patience, paperwork and effort – tying up staff and disrupting progress and productivity.
Vertical transportation in high-rise buildings can be particularly challenging. I’m sure we have all experienced frustrating delays on these projects waiting for hoists to take up men and materials, or cranes to lift materials to where they are needed.

Logistics is about getting materials and equipment from their point of origin to where they are needed at the work face at the correct time and without damage. Logistics includes offloading the equipment and material safely, and installing them when required.
Some material and equipment can be over-sized – either being extra wide, long or high or very heavy. Special transport may be required as well as permits and escort vehicles. Can the roads leading to the project site handle these loads? Are the roads on the project site designed for these loads? We need to consider radii of bends, road widths, height restrictions and weight restraints. In addition projects are changing on a daily basis and routes may become restricted or even dug up. What could be a simple exercise of getting an item onto site at the start of the project can turn into a nightmare later as structures are built and roads are changed. Many contractors have suddenly found routes unsuitable part way through the project when new bridges were built over the road restricting the height of loads that can use the route.

Projects frequently don’t have sufficient cranes or material handling equipment. This lack of equipment not only delays getting the materials to where they’re required but could also delay offloading the trucks bringing the material to the project. These delays impact productivity, delay trucks from returning to collect the next load (meaning more trucks are required) and can lead to additional costs from transport companies whose trucks are delayed.

Double handling and even triple handling of materials is a result of materials being off-loaded in the wrong place, or materials arriving ahead of time and the work area isn’t available. The additional handling of the materials results in additional costs but it can also risk damaging materials and equipment.

Lifting operations need to be done safely with trained personnel. Improperly rigged loads can cause accidents resulting in injury and damage to equipment. Lifting operations can be delayed because of wind, equipment breakdowns, inexperienced operators, poor rigging and slinging techniques, cranes being incorrectly positioned, repeated moving of the crane between loads or workers installing the equipment and materials not being properly prepared. Too often work areas aren’t ready for items that have to be lifted, leaving expensive cranes standing idly waiting, while other areas are themselves waiting for the crane. Proper organisation and planning of work areas can free up the cranes to do more work.

Crane congestion can be a major problem – especially on large contracts with many different contractors and subcontractors, each with their own crane. This can lead to dangerous situations which need to be avoided such as the risks of crane booms clashing and cranes lifting loads over workers. At the very least it leads to reduced productivity.
A major part of logistics is about getting the right item arriving on the project site at the right time. We need to ensure that suppliers have a delivery schedule which they stick to. Far too often we receive the materials we require last before the items we require first. This leads to a congested work area and double handling of materials.

Often projects don’t consider the laydown areas where materials will be stored before they are needed. These areas may have restricted access. Sometimes they aren’t cleared and leveled properly which could lead to dangerous situations when trucks and cranes are parked on sloping ground. This might result in them overturning. Materials stacked on sloping ground could also over topple causing damage and even serious injury. These storage areas need to be well drained so stormwater can drain away. I have seen storage areas flooded resulting in damage to the materials or at best the material storage area couldn’t be accessed until the water was drained away.
Storage areas .......Continue Reading.......

This article was written for and first published on the ClockShark website. Please continue reading by clicking on the link.

​​Many managers only see their employees as workers – simply there to do a job. But our employees are usually more than this, and even more so in construction.

Why our employees are more than just workers?
Yes, we employee people to do a job, to fill a roll, to complete their tasks diligently, safely and to the required quality. But is a carpenter only good for building things from timber and is that Supervisor only good for supervising a team on our construction project? You may be surprised how their actions, both on and off the job site, can help, or hinder, our companies.

1. Our employees are the face of our company. Workers in a factory usually work behind closed gates, seldom seen by the customer who purchases the product they fabricated. When you purchase a new car, do you know where it was built, or what the workers look like who built the car? In construction our customers and their representatives often walk the project, seeing from close quarters what our team is doing. Does our customer see workers that are productive, working safely, taking pride in what they do, content and happy with their job? Often construction projects are in busy city streets or in suburbia working alongside neighbours where our employees daily interact with the public – people who could be our next  potential customers. So, if our workers arrive early in the morning yelling and cussing, neighbours who are woken-up by the commotion won’t be thinking nice thoughts about our company. The same occurs when our workers spill out from the construction site at lunch hour and noisily fill the café across the street – talking loudly and pushing other hungry patrons out the way. Or maybe our workers toss their fast-food wrappers out the truck window (the truck with our company logo on the door), or even swear at other drivers. People could be remembering our company for all the wrong reasons, and who knows which one of those offended members of the public could potentially have been our next customer? When our customers see our employees they see our company. Our employees can win or lose us future work. They need to understand how their behaviour, and even appearance, can have an impact on the company’s image and our future work prospects.
2. Our employees are recruiters of new employees. If an employee thinks our company is a great place to work they’ll tell their family and friends who may then also want to work for us. In the past we’ve regularly had several members of the same family working for us. However, if employees are unhappy working for us the whole world will get to hear about it – bad news spreads quickly through social media. When you’re looking to fill a vacancy it’s surprising who your employees could find to fill the vacancy – people they went to school or university with, friends, family and people they worked with at other companies. Advertising and using recruitment agents is expensive – but every one of our employees is a potential recruitment agent, either telling potential recruits good stuff or bad things about our company. Good people will want to work for us if they know our employees are well looked after and happy. Good people want to work for good people. So, if our employees are experienced and knowledgeable it will attract others who want to work with them. Make sure your employees are always on the lookout for more good people. 
3. Our employees advertise our company. They are not only the face of the company, but, if they’re proud of the company and the projects the company does they’ll tell other people about the company. It may just be family and friends, but you never know who those people are working for? Just one of them could be working for a prospective customer and suddenly you’re doing their next project. But these days it’s more than just word of mouth – social media is powerful and those pictures of a successful project on social media can be viewed by thousands of potential customers, creating more traffic (all for free) than our expensive websites can generate. But of course pictures of that quality problem or that crane that tipped over on our project could generate even more views, undoing any advertising we’ve done. 
4. Our employees can generate leads for new projects. We can spend countless hours and thousands of dollars searching for their next potential project. Do our employees know how important it is to feed information on potential future projects back to management? Our employees know friends, talk to family, deal with suppliers and subcontractors, often interact with the customer’s engineers and architects – you’ll be surprised at what information they hear! Encourage our workers to pass on information about new projects – it could be our company’s next project – their next job! 
5. Our employees are often our eyes and ears on the project. We are frequently busy and don’t get to all areas on the project as often as we should. What are our employees seeing that we are missing? Will they stop that unsafe act and prevent an accident happening? Will they report the theft of equipment or materials? Will they take care not to damage completed work and stop others from doing so? Is there a relationship of trust with your employees, or do they view everything as a-them-and-us battle? Are they just doing their job or are they there to protect the company’s interests as well. Talk to employees, listen to them, and gain their trust. ​
6. Our employees are teachers and mentors to new employees, and employees with less experience. They may even be able to teach us new or better ways of doing things. Where did we gain most of our construction knowledge – at the work front, on the project site, learning from others? Without those experienced people who generously shared their knowledge with us we would not have become what we became. We often have really experienced and knowledgeable employees, and the success of our company depends on them passing this knowledge to the next generation of employees. Let’s encourage our employees to share their knowledge and mentor the next generation of construction workers.

Conclusion
​
So next time you look at an employee don’t just see them as a worker, a carpenter, a concreter or an iron worker - rather see them as an asset that can add value to your company. Embrace them and treat them fairly. Make them proud of their company. Let them know how their actions can damage or add value to the company. Building a successful construction company isn’t just the responsibility of the owner or senior managers – it demands teamwork and commitment from everyone. We depend on good workers in more ways than we usually consider. 

​To read more about the author’s books and find out where you can purchase them visit the pages on this website by clicking the links below:
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© 2016 This article is not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission from the author.

Read this article with useful information on international construction costs in 2016 provided by Turner and Townsend  .......Read......

​I find construction schedules invaluable on all of my projects. For small projects they could be simple hand drawn bar charts and for large projects they could consist of thousands of linked tasks created using specialist software such as Primavera, Microsoft Project, Candy or similar.

Schedules are useful because:

1. They inform the construction team of what tasks they should be working on and when.
2. They advise the customer when they should provide construction information and grant access to the contractor.
3. They are invaluable for calculating extension of time claims.
4. Progress of the project can be measured.
5. A resourced schedule enables the contractor to plan when resources are needed and how many of each resource are required.
6. Material deliveries can be arranged so they’re delivered before they’re needed.
7. Subcontractor’s work can be planned so they arrive when they’re needed and complete their work on time.
8. They can be used to plan cash flow.
9. Knowing the project duration the contractor can calculate their overhead costs for the project.
10. A properly planned schedule will avoid clashes or hold-ups on the project caused when the preceding necessary tasks haven’t been completed.

However many construction schedules are poorly prepared and have numerous errors which can mislead both the contractor and the customer. In fact a poorly prepared construction schedule, or a schedule with errors, can be more dangerous than having no schedule at all.

Common scheduling errors
Some of the more common errors include:

1. Making the schedule fit the customer’s dates even if they aren’t achievable. Usually in the request for price the customer provides the start and end dates for the project. Sometimes contractors simply accept these dates assuming they can complete the project in the time provided, when in fact it’s not possible. On other occasions the contractor ‘squeezes’ their schedule to make their construction time fit within the client’s dates, even when they know it’s impossible to meet these dates. This can be dangerous for many reasons:
   1. Inevitably the contractor cannot finish the project in the allotted time and they not only face the prospect of paying liquidated damages but their reputation is damaged.
   2. The contractor remains on the project longer than allowed in their price resulting in them losing money.
   3. The contractor’s team may become demoralized knowing they can never meet the required dates, knowing no matter how hard they work the client won’t be satisfied with their performance, and in fact even their senior management will blame them for delivering the project late.             ( Contractors shouldn’t commit to dates they cannot achieve. They could either submit an alternative achievable schedule that doesn’t satisfy the client’s dates, or not price the project, or discuss with the customer alternate methods or strategies to enable the customer to get access to parts of the project they require on their required dates.)
2. Formulating the schedule without considering the construction methodology. Frequently I see schedules which were drawn up by a planner with no input from the construction team. In fact some of these schedules don’t even consider the construction methodology the construction team is using. This is obviously pointless because the project progress is often difficult to measure since the tasks are in a different order, or possibly don’t even appear on the schedule.
3. Failing to allow for the normal expected weather conditions. Contractors frequently complain of weather delays. But often the weather experienced is normal for that region at that time of the year. Yes, on occasion there are abnormal weather events (something that seems to be occurring more often) which cannot be expected. However, contractors should allow for normal weather interruptions which could include rain, winds, snow and extreme temperatures which could disrupt the project or reduce productivity.
4. Scheduling individual structures without considering the impact of adjacent structures, or the impact they’ll have on adjacent structures. Many structures on a project are connected in some way. Deeper structures may have to be completed (or certainly brought to the underside) before the neighboring structure can begin. Structures can impact access to the neighboring structures. When preparing a schedule it’s essential to consider the impact of adjacent structures and utility lines on other structures.
5. Forgetting the project constraints. This should be simple, yet sometimes contractors don’t allow for customer imposed restrictions which could include restrictions on working times and accommodating other contractors or the customers own activities. Sometimes even statutory holidays, when work can’t be done, are forgotten.
6. Allowing inadequate time for material procurement. Some materials require lengthy procurement periods to allow for design, design approval, preparing drawings, drawing approvals, fabrication and shipping.
7. Ignoring inspections and testing. Waiting for test results can delay follow-on work. Often the client has to witness completed work or test results before the next activity can begin.
8. Not allowing for commissioning. On some facilities commissioning can take several weeks. This commissioning may include tying in to existing infrastructure and utilities. It could include passing tests witnessed by the customer or the various authorities, closing out major snags, completing documentation and obtaining permits.
9. Failing to make allowance for local conditions and productivity. Productivity can vary hugely between countries, and although wage rates may be lower in some places you may need four times as many people to complete the same task in the same time. But productivity also depends on the customer and their operations. Working in an oil and gas processing facility may require far more rigorous quality and safety standards than working in the city. Some facilities have stringent security which can make it difficult to get people, equipment and materials onto the project. Projects working in busy traffic can result in slower progress. But even not being able to find people with the required skills can impact productivity and hamper progress.
10. The schedule allows, or demands, too many trades having to work in a single area at the same time. Only a finite number of workers and different trades can work in an area at the same time. Fitting more people and activities into a small area doesn’t make the work go quicker – in fact it often results in the work going slower as workers work on top of each other or have to stand-down waiting for others to complete their work. Freshly completed work may be damaged by the follow on trades because the materials haven’t dried or cured resulting in the work having to be redone.
11. Not updating the schedule correctly or failing to take action when slippage occurs on the project. At times the construction schedule isn’t updated correctly and progress isn’t recorded correctly giving the contractor and the customer misleading information. On occasion when slippage is detected the contractor ignores the information and doesn’t take corrective action, or takes the wrong actions which don’t help. It is essential slippage on the schedule is detected early and the correct actions are implemented to catch up the lost time.
12. Not conveying the schedule to the team in the field, or to subcontractors.  ......Continue Reading.....    This article was first published on the ClockShark website