Project Management

Most large companies have established procedures when it comes to organizing and constructing meetings during a project, and also when updating and distributing meeting minutes. Although this may seem like an administrative task, the running of the meeting and taking proper notes and updating the meeting minutes is usually not the job of the project administrator but the project engineer or even project manager. Smaller companies however, may not have established procedures in place. The post below therefore can serve as a guide for a project engineer at a smaller company when writing and updating meeting minutes. First of all, we must give numbers to each meeting. Also, it is […] Read More

In a schedule, calculating overall duration based on probabilities can be very counterintuitive. For example lets say there are few activities in parallel, and lets assume they all have same start date and same most likely duration. And also let’s assume that their most likely duration to finish is 10 days, minimum expected duration is 5 days or maximum in 15 days. So they all have a distribution of probability that will look like a triangle, raising from 0 from 5, topping at 10 and decreasing to 15 again. we can all say at once that most likely duration to finish altogether is 10 days but that is wrong. Because […] Read More

For some people, things can go wrong when they hire a contractor, who does not do a proper job and threatens to leave the jobsite. Before anything, the first thing you do is the consult a professional regarding your particular situation. Here you can find only some general information, which may or may not be useful for you. Here are a few things you can do: Take pictures of the current situation of the house, as many as needed, showing all the relevant areas, with dates on them. Contact the state contractors association (where your contractor got his contractor license) and tell them about this situation. Also get their advice. […] Read More

In order to run the operations properly from the construction site, you will need to have a temporary office at the jobsite most often times. This is not usually as straightforward as it seems. You need to setup the temporary electricity, water, internet, even toilets and of course your trailer. All these items need time and effort. You have to determine the most efficient location for your trailer, so that you will not have to locate it as the job progresses or if this is unavoidable at least relocate it as least as possible. Also obtaining temporary power from the power source is another thing. Don’t forget that this conduit […] Read More

Construction projects usually cost a lot of money, usually more in comparison to other types of projects in other industries, because construction involves materials, labor, equipment, and it is affected by so many factors from real life.  For example, you can call a software project of $5 million in size a very large project to develop, where the same amount for a construction project is considered a small size project, where you can not even build a single story office building… Therefore keeping construction costs in line is very important task in construction. This is planned during planned stage, controlled during monitoring and controlling stage, and is executed by execution […] Read More

This post is written from a General Contractor point of view. below we will list some key items to be considered when processing submittal logs. All the materials you use on a project will need a formal submittal that needs to be approved by the Architect, Engineers and other consultants as applicable. The making of your submittal log does not start when you start receiving submittals. If this is the case it means you are already late. You should start a submittal log before the project starts, first by going through all your drawings and specifications and determine what submittals are needed. The best way to do is first looking […] Read More

Like all industries, construction is also being automated, but it is one of the slowest that experiences this. This is because the real life variables that come into play in construction are very high, and real life variables are very hard to predict. In other words, it is harder for AI to manage construction projects, than manufacturing cars in an assembly line, making diagnostics in healthcare, analyzing stock trends, cleaning floors, check credit card fraud, profile airline passengers, play chess, because all these tasks can be performed in highly controlled environments, with limited number of variables, which are all highly defined, given to the computer. Let’s think about one of […] Read More

Elevators are an important part of high rise construction. But how do they fit in the schedule and with other trades? As soon as we have the elevator opening shaft ready, we can start to install elevator rails. The items for making shaft ready include: all floors must be complete and the dimensions must be per the drawings of the elevator manufacturer. adequate storage space and access to the elevator shaft must be present, in other words, the elevator subcontractor must have enought space to place his stuff, and have enough space to work three phase and one phase power supplies must be complete, lifting hooks must be in place, […] Read More

EMR (Experience Modification Rate) is one of the most important factors for contractor sin USA when obtaining insurance. EMR is an indicator showing the safety performance of the company, which greatly affects the premiums that the construction company must pay. This means, having a properly functioning safety process and taking proper measures to ensure a safe working environment, may cost a little but this not only protects the workers, but it also pays itself off in the long run, by helping the companies premiums to be lower. Some federal or state projects might have very strict limits for the EMR rates, and therefore, the companies with good EMR may have […] Read More

Below we will explain how to create a new project i Primavera P6 Picture 1: The first thing you do is to select EPS, Enterprise Project Structure. This will determine where your project will reside. This is important in the sense that the resources and rates available for your project as well as the group in which it will reside. Picture 2: Here you create a Project ID and Project Name Picture 3: Project Start date is today’s date by default. Choose a different date if you like. Also by default the finish date is blank but you can choose to assign a date. This will determine the schedule calculations […] Read More