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CHAPTER 1
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Company Background
1.1,Company Profile
JDAW consulting architects and engineer is Grade-1 firm. It
established in
April 2000 GC owned and
managed by arc Daniel Assefa.
The companys business has shown its development in a short
period of time through hard working of the staff members of
the company strengthening its capacity and presently the
company has an investment license with a capital of
183,000,000 Birr.
The company has 120 employees. Construction Company is
mainly engaged in the construction sector and undertakes
construction of apartments, guest houses, mixed use
buildings, sport fields and offices for government, NGOs and
private & public use.
Currently the main business lines of the company are:
Design for building, land scape and interior
Supervision work

1.2, Major Achievements of

the company
1.2.1 Rapid Growth of capital
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1.2.2 ISO certification for quality management

system
The other major achievement of the company is establishment
of a documented and implemented quality management
system in accordance with the requirements of the ISO
9001:2001 International Standard. And it is also committed to
maintaining and continually improving the effects of this
quality system and it applies this system to supplies services
rendered for its customers.
The company is able to get the certificate by defining the
responsibilities of the management regarding the quality
management system itself, human resources & infrastructure
and the provision of healthy work environment.

I, Quality Management System

The company has established
management system (QMS) by:

documented

Quality

A, identifying the processes needed for the QMS and their

application through out the organization.
B, determining the sequences & interaction of these processes
C, determining the criteria and methods needed to ensure that
both the operations and control of these processes are
effective
D, ensuring the availability of resources & information
necessary to support the operation and monitoring of these
processes,
E, implementing actions necessary to achieve planned results
and continual improvement of these processes.
JDAW consulting architects and engineer has established a
quality manual that includes the scope of the quality
management system including justification for exclusions i.e.
as it is not undertaking any design and development activities
this requirement has been excluded from the QMS.

II, Management Responsibility

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The profession assignation for the tier ll program is;

Daniel Assefa-

Architect for the management team

Anteneh Mekuriaw- Architect for supervision

Lulit Zeberga- Architect for the planning team
The General Manager and other management members of the
company have indorsed and are committed to the quality
management system as presented in the quality manual. This
commitment is not limited to the initial development of this
system but also to its continual improvement through
implementation of the necessary management responsibilities.
The top management ensures that the responsibilities and
authorities are defined and communicated with in the company
& establishes organizational charts to define the inter
relationship of personnel in the organization. Job descriptions
define the responsibilities authorities and of each positions in
the organizational chart and they are reviewed by the top
management for adequacy. The management also ensures that
the responsibilities authorities and their interrelation are
defined and communicated with in the operational procedures
through, work instructions & forms.
The top management also reviews the QMS based on:
Results of audits
Customer feed back
Process performances
Status of corrective actions
Follow-up actions from previous reviews and
Recommendation for improvement
And decides on actions related to improvement of the
effectiveness of the QMS, products related to customer
requirements & resource needs.

III, Human Resources and Infrastructure

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The company ensures that the personnel performing work

affecting product quality are competent on the basis of
appropriate education, training, skills and experience by
providing trainings.
It also ensures that its personnel are aware of the relevance
and importance of their activities and how they contribute to
the achievement of the quality objectives while maintaining
appropriate records of education & experience.
The companys management is committed to provide and
maintain suitable facilities that are necessary to implement
the QMS that will achieve conformity products. These include:
adequate space to fulfill job requirements and equipment/
hardware that is defined as needed in annual budgeting cycles.

IV, Work Environment

In maintaining an acceptable work environment, the company
is committed to maintain its facilities in a safe and healthy
manner that is in compliance with all applicable laws &
regulations of the country. It complies with environmental laws
and regulations regarding the processing, transportation
storage and disposal of hazardous materials.
The management is also committed to establish and provide a
work environment that is needed to comply with product
requirements and to ensure the safety of the employees at
work.

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1.3,Analysis of data and Improvement

The firm improves the effectiveness of the QMS through the use of

Quality policy & objectives

Audit results
Analysis of data

The company tries to collect and analyze the appropriate data to

determine the suitability and effectiveness of its management also
evaluates where improvement of the system can be made. The
analysis of the data generated as a result of monitoring and
measurement from relevant sources.

The data provides information relating to:

Customer satisfaction
Conformance to product requirements
Characteristics of trends of processes
Suppliers performance

1.3.1Overall organization and work flow

The company has flexible organization and work flows for each
individual project, attached in the following pages are the general
trends of workflow with in project offices and sites.

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General Manager

Legal Advises

QMS

Auditor

finance

department

Authority sector
Secretary
Casher

Deputy Manager

IT

Design department

Supervision
&contractor
administration
departement

Plotting

Electrical
sanitary
Design
Design
Arc 1
Arc 4

structural

architectural

quality
Design

Design

survey
Arc 2

Arc 3

Arc 5
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Draft person

CHAPTER 2
My overall internship experience
2.1, How I joined the company
It was during mid of October that we were given a letter with subject
that requests to host qualified interns from Addis Abeba University,
Faculty of Technology. We were also given a detailed orientation by
staff members about how the coming internship program was planned
to be and what possible challenges and problems we could face.
The orientation mainly focused on helping us realize that no one could
believe in us unless we were strictly responsible ready to learn & grasp
knowledge we could get from any one.
As soon as we were given the orientation I informally and formally was
searching for construction companies and design offices that could
give me the chance to practice in their projects. And I was given a
positive response from Jdaw arc &consulting office.
I started practicing there on October and I was required to work for a
week or two before I was given the expression of agreement to host
me.

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2.2 My major tasks

During the first two weeks I was getting myself familiar with the overall
construction works, the structural and architectural drawings and staff
members and my site supervisors.
I was immediately placed in the site engineering department when I
started practicing to observe and learn the construction procedures
and also assist the site engineers in all possible ways I can.
On my first site was found around merkato. It was ribbed slab, G+ (two
basement) 4 mixed used building. The skeleton work was finished and
wall partition on progress when I got there.
The main task was I tried myself to familiarized with drawings with help
of site Eng. and I tried to calculate slab form work area, column bar
take of shit and Hcb.

The Site Engineering department was organized in the following way:

Project Engineer
Site Engineer I

Site works Engineer

General Forman
Carpenter Forman
Mason Forman
Finishing Forman

Fig 1, Site organization chart

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My second site around bole, G+8 mixed used ribbed slab.

2.2 A, My tasks at the project office

2.2.1 Quantifying works
My first real task was quantifying formwork area needed, reinforcement
bars and the volume of concrete needed in order to cast floor slabs in
one of the building blocks. While quantifying these items of work I was
reading the dimensions from the structural drawings. Below are the
procedures I followed while doing those tasks.
1, To calculate formwork area needed for:
A, Beam
summing up the length of each beam
reading its depth & width
multiplying the length with the width & twice the depth
for the sides
adding the above products
B, Column
reading the clear height
multiplying the height with surface area of the column

C, Slab
reading the length and width excluding the beams
multiplying the two dimensions for each panel

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The above procedures were followed to quantify formwork panel

needed to complete the job and in order to crosscheck and do the work
part by part detail description of the axis are given as a reference on
the take of sheet.

2, To calculate reinforcement bar needed,

A, Beam & column

read the center to center length/ height

read spacing of stirrups
divide the length/height by the spacing & add one
multiply the above no. with the length of the stirrup
count the longitudinal reinforcements & sum up the
length according
to their diameter

The above summation is changed to the total weight of

bars by multiplying it with the weight per unit length for its
respective diameter. The total length can be also divided
by 12m to get the no. of bars needed.
B, Slab
Divide the slab length by spacing of reinforcement in
the other
Direction.
repeat the above procedure for the other direction
This is done for both bottom and top reinforcements the
total length is then multiplied by the weight per unit length
for its respective diameter. The total length can be also
divided by 12m to get the no. of bars needed.

3, to calculate volume of concrete needed

A, Column

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multiply the clear height by the cross-sectional area

B, Beam
multiply the cross-sectional area( length* width) by the
length
C, Slab
Multiply the slab thickness by the total area it covers.

2.2.2, Estmating the minimum slab depth for

non accessible roof slab
In cases where slab depths were not shown on the structural drawing
the minimum slab depth, D was calculated from serviceability to be:
D = d + minimum concrete cover + /2
Where d is effective depth calculated as
d (0.4+0.6*(fyk/400))le/a
fyk = 420Mpa
le = effective length taken to be the
minimum of the two
dimensions
= diameter of re-bar
After the minimum slab depth was calculated for each panel the
maximum value is taken, it is then magnified by some amount from
experience to allow some factor of safety.

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2.2 B, My taskes on the site

Form work

Form work shall mean temporally support constriction for cast in

place concrete designed and constructed in timber as stands member (
for out site) , but can be steel material steel panel. Timber product or
metal and capable of withstanding the live and dead loads imposed on
tit and fully presently leakage of concert.

Column forms
This consists of a vertical mold of the desired shape and size which has
to retain the wet concrete and resist the initial hydrostatic pressure
caused by wet concrete.

Procedure:
The Construction procedure is as follow to erect vertical column from
Check the centering (eccentricity) of previous column heads to
column form
Column yokes (Cratury) are placed immediately after the slab cast,
and helps to keep the column forms straight and strong.
Gas is painted on form work to remove easily.

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Figure 2: Shows column form work

Column forms are then placed in the yokes after the already
prepared column reinforcement is placed, on four sides. And this
should erect straight & supported very well.
finally, check before casting. Plumbing bob or we were using stones
in place of it
to check verticality of the column form.

Beam forms
This is basically a three sided box supported and propped in the correct
position and to the desired level. The beam formwork sides have to
retain the wet concrete in the required shape and be able to withstand
the initial hydrostatic pressure of wet concrete whereas the formwork
soffit apart from retaining the concrete has to support the initial load of
the wet concrete and finally the set concrete until it has gained
sufficient strength to be self-supporting.
Procedure
The construction procedure is:
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Props positioned as per the required spacing and leveled through.

Soffit (panel) placed, leveled and position checked.
Side forms placed after placing of re-bar, their position checked
before being fixed.
strutting position and fixed.
Final check before casting, for concrete cover, position and for
structural member
N.B If the beam is grid beam no need of positioning props in case we
was
Checking of compaction of the ground sometimes lean concert or
check for
Retaining wall.

Figure 3: Shows beam form

Slab forms
The slab in our site is solid slab and we prepare suspended beam form
work and slab form work together. The slab form work have to retain
wet concert and able to with stained the initial hydrostatic pressure of
wet concert whereas the form work soffit it appear from retaining the
concrete has to support the initial loads of the wet concrete and live

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load finally the set concrete until it has ginned sufficient strength to be
self-supporting.
Procedure
Props positioned as per required spacing and leveled throughout the
slab and joists are laid horizontally.
Soffit (Fond or a form work under slab) or called panel as general
name is placed, leveled and petitioned. Range (gas) painted on it to
remove form work easily after dry.
Place ribbed block on
Place bottom and top (negative rein forcemeat) as required and fix
reinforcement with beam re- forcemeat bar.
Finally check before casting for space.

Form work lift shaft (shear wall)

This consists of vertical or horizontal mold as desired shape and size
which has to retain the wet concrete and resist the initial hydrostatic
pressure cast by wet concrete. Its procedure is similar to column but
form work is complicated.

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Figure 4: Shows Form work lift shaft (shear wall)

Scaffoldings
These are constructing to support the formwork. In addition, it serves
as a ladder for the workers to walk up & down, and to transport the
necessarily construction inputs, also enables for the workers to stand
on it at the time of plastering and painting. It is necessary to consider
width. It must be enough to pass walk up and down with material at
the time.

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Figure 5: shows the scaffolding

REINFORCEMENT
Setting of reinforcement
Reinforcing steel is buried in concrete to keep them from cracking and
Breaking. This reinforcing steel must be set in different forms before
the Concrete is placed.

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Figure 6: shows Setting of reinforcement

Preparing reinforcing steel

As per the design, as shown in the plan, the size of bars and spacing of
the bars are to be placed in the concrete are known. The supervisor
gives a copy of the Engineers plans to the bar bender, who prepare
the reinforcement.

When the bar bender receives the plans,

the bar schedule showing nothing but lengths, sizes, and bending
needed for all the reinforcing bars in the construction for a given
footing pad, foundation column, beam, column, or slab. The bar bender
then cut and bend the steel rod as the requirement.

Placing of reinforcement
As required for the construction of footing pad, foundation column,
beams and columns, when all of the reinforcing bars have been cut to
the right lengths and have been bent, then the main beam & column
reinforcements tied with stirrups of diameter 6mm bars by tying wire.
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For case of footing pad it may be fixed in the site of its cast as per size
of footing.
Reinforcing steel is placed in position in the concrete form by workers
(bar benders). As the main beam & column bars have been produced
before, it should place in position carefully.

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Figure 7: shows prepared beam & column reinforcement

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And for slab after cut of right length the reinforcement is placed on the
prepared form work
and bend as necessary and fix with beams per the design the bottom
and top reinforcement.

Figure 8: shows slab reinforcement

Stair construction
Stair is a structure which is used as a link between one floor and
another floor. it need specialized professionals and need special need
than anther works
Procedures
The procedures to construct the stairs are as follow
Form works (panels) were constructed. In addition, the level,
cleanness and smoothness of the form work were also checked.
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The reinforcements were placed and the diameter, number, length,

shape and
Bending dimension of main bars were checked in accordance with the
drawing.
The re-bars and formworks are checked before casting.
Both the slab and the stair are casted monolithically.
The form works were removed after 21 day.

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Figure 9: shows the stair reinforcement and form work

Concrete work
Concrete is arguably the most important building materials, paying
apart in all building structures. It is very durable and fire resistant.
Concrete is made of crushed rock or gravel that is mixed with sand,
Portland cement and water.
The forms for the concrete beams, columns, and slabs have been set
tied together and braced in to position. The reinforcement steel bar
has been set in the forms and tied in place so that it will not move
when concrete is placed around it. We are now ready to prepare the
concrete to place in the forms.
Preparing materials for concrete:

Cement
Cement for cast-in-place shall be Portland or Portland-pozzolana.
Whichever type of cement is being used it must be properly stored on
site to keep it in good condition. Cement shall be stored in bags or
containers in an enclosed and ventilated Space that would protect it
from Deterioration.

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Fig 10, cement

Aggregate
Aggregates shall be obtained from approved source.
Fine aggregate: shall be natural or crushed gravel or
stone, clean sharp

course girt or river

sand free from harmful matter. Generally, the sand that is used in
concrete is called Fine aggregate.
Coarse aggregate: an aggregate pass through 7.5mm
sieve and which are entirely retained on 4.75mm sieve. Generally, the
gravel or crushed rock that is used in concrete is called coarse
aggregate.

Water
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Must be cleaned and free from impurities which are likely to affect the
quality or strength of the resultant concrete. It is often said that the
water used in concrete should be fit to drink.

Mixing of concrete
The process of mixing cement, water, fine aggregate & coarse
aggregate in suitable
Proportion is known as mixing of concrete. This process should ensure
uniform color, consistency, and homogeneity of the concrete.
Segregation should not take place during process of mixing. Here,
before mixing for casting, trial mix should be done to know the quality
of concrete.
The mixing methods may be hand mixing or machine mixing. On large
works, machine mixing proves economical and convenient. Concrete
produced by machine mixing is more homogeneous. The mixer shall be
thoroughly cleaned before use, and the first batch shall contain excess
cement to coat the inside of the drum. The volume of concrete in any
batch shall not excess.

Fig 11, mixed process

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CHAPTER 3
The overall benefits I gained from the
internship
3.1 In terms of improving my practical skills
During my internship experience, I have been able to gain a lot in
improving my practical skills as I have been observing, learning and
practicing:
The different stages of building construction
The communication language used at construction site
The use of ancillary items and the way they were applied to
different building parts
Project evaluation in terms of cost
Different problems that can occur during construction and the
possible ways to address those problems

3.1.1, Setting out works

I have been able to observe such works for the project after site
cleaning
& grubbing were completed. The main corners of the building were
located based on references from already existing bench marks. A total
station was used to locate the coordinates of the corner points and the
centers of the foundations after excavation.

3.1.2, Construction of elevation columns

I was able to see the methodology to check column verticality. Plumb
bobs (Suspended weights of brick were used to measure the deviations
from vertical line. The principle behind is that any weight is pulled
exactly vertically by gravity. Reading differences between top and
bottom column height and the string for the bobs and making sure that
the difference was kept within the allowable range was the main task
expected from the supervisor.

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3.1,3, Grade beams

I notified how safety has been concerned on construction process. Grade beam is one
which the main supporter of load, so bar spacing, diameter, depth and width were check
all in time.

3.1.4, Construction of ground & floor slabs

During the construction of ground floor slab expansion and free
movement was allowed to avoid the resulting of stresses by separating
the slab from the grade beams by pacing chip woods or Styrofoam
between the reinforcements and the beams.
I was able to observe the two different types of slab & the respective
reinforcements placing.

Flat slab
Ribbed slab

Fig flat slab

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Slab horizontality was checked by three methods based on the needed

amount of accuracy and the area to be checked.
Using leveling instrument
Using water and in tubes( the principle behind is that water
levels stay the same under the same atmospheric pressure)
Among the things I learned about slab construction is the use of mortar
made blocks to give minimum concrete cover for the reinforcement
bars(for columns) and the use of 3 dimensionally folded bars,
Kebeletos(for flat slab) to keep the negative bars in position when
direct loads was applied on them.

Fig 12, kebeleto

fig13, spancer

When ever electrical junction boxes or mechanical ducts had to pass

through slabs or shear walls which are both designed to be load
carrying, the effect of such discontinuities in the negative
reinforcement bars was minimized by bracing the boxes (ducts) from
both sides by pieces of steel bars at the top & bottom reinforcements.

3.1.5, Construction of retaining walls

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I was able to observe masonry retaining wall , masonry works . I have

seen how the mortar joint was placed in the middle part to give the
surface of the wall natural look.

Fig13, retaining wall

3.1.6, Quantifying, Planning & Evaluation of different building work
items
I have been able to learn and do many quantifying works for the
purpose of material ordering and planning weekly and monthly
schedules.
After preparing monthly and weekly productivity reports, I was also
able to identify weaknesses during the production output and resource
utilization.
Preparation of cost breakdown was one of the major things I was able
to do. I have learned the that taking samples of actual works and
interviews to calculate output and cost of labor, amount of materials
and their costs per unit of work were the steps to be followed to
establish cost breakdown.
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In general, I have learned that there are many problems and variations
that could occur during construction phase of a building. And the
solutions should be flexible and creative according to the type of the
problem occurred.

3.2, In terms of upgrading my theoretical

knowledge
I get a lot of beneficial things because of I am on consulting side. I
explore different slabs, design type and working experience.
This goes hand in hand with the practical skills I was able to gain from
the internship experience. Besides accomplishing my practical tasks, I
had been learning the need, the objective behind, the definition and
uses of the things I was doing.
One of the main things I have been able to realize working in the
construction site is the fact that building designs need to consider the
practical construction situations and restrictions.
For instance the case where a deep beam was having 10 28 re bars
for longitudinal reinforcement was having little open space for vibrator
hoses to reach the bottom. Besides the weight of the bars was crashing
the mortar spacers down. Another problem was the aggregate size was
much larger than the actual spacing between the bars and fear that
segregation could occur. The suggested solutions were to use needle
vibrator, and to lower the aggregate size. However after the beam was
redesigned the reinforcement was reduced by half to 5 28 .
Regarding theoretical aspects of project management, I have been
allowing myself to be familiar with what is meant by planning,
organizing, evaluating and controlling different tasks of a project.
Among the theoretical knowledge I have seen being applied in building
construction is the minimization of soil pressure coming from vertical
scaffolding members by letting them stand on horizontal bottom
members to avoid excessive settlement of the ground.

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I have also seen how building structural parts need to be

independently finished with the block and plastering works and ground
floor slabs because these parts are likely to move and change with.

3.3, Interpersonal communication skills

Interpersonal communication is the ongoing process of interaction
between individuals who build the personal knowledge of one another
as they create a meaning or work out put.
From my internship experience I have been able to realize
interpersonal communication skills necessary to lead and manage
others successfully. In a dyadic relationship where communication
takes place between two people self-disclosure and respect are
important because this becomes the basis of effective work
relationship.
While working with my collogues & my site and office supervisors I
have been able to grasp the roles of such communication focuses on
interactions that are:
Truthful and honest
Integrated
Fair
Respectful and most importantly
Inter dependent
While accomplishing my task at the project site I have been able to
increase my interpersonal communication competence i.e. the ability
to use verbal and nonverbal language and behavior successfully in a
variety of situations.
In general, I now understand that the construction workplace
relationships will be maintained mainly because individual employees
find that they have compatible needs and goals that can only be met
through interpersonal interactions that are highly interdependent.
I believe that I have improved my interpersonal communication skill as
I have learned the barriers of effective communication lies in the
difference between interpersonal needs and failures to acknowledge
the rules associated with interpersonal communication. I am surprised
to learn that one of the most significant ways to influence others in a
positive way is by effectively listening to them. I have also seen that
listening can let a person earn respect end trust and sense of concern
while receiving better quality of information.

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3.4,Team playing skills acquired

Team building is a process where a group of people analyze their group
strengths and weakness, capacity and potential in order to achieve and
improve effectiveness. I can also be defined as a structured attempt to
develop the effectiveness of a group of people.
Team playing and trust go hand in hand; once a person has earned
trust from his/her colleagues by being responsible can be able to build
stronger teams by:
Clarifying team goals
Identifying the issues that prevent the team from achieving its
goals
Addressing those issues and removing them so that the goals
can be achieved.
I have learned that a team works best when:
There is high level of interdependence among the
members
Each member is capable and willing to contribute their
information skills and experience
Both team and individual members are prepared to take
risks
Team member roles are defined
Team members know how to examine team and individual
errors without making personal attacks
During the times I was involved as an intern in the project, I have been
learning and practicing the above requirements while working with and
assisting the site engineers, office engineers, data collectors and other
staff members. As much as possible I have been willing to learn new
things at the office and site to contribute to and assist the people I
worked with.

3.5, Leadership skills acquired

Leadership is the process of influencing individuals or groups to
accomplish an organizational goal or mission.
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Being a technical profession student, this was the most challenging

aspect of project management for me. However, as I grew in the
project I was able to seek the project management responsibilities.
The leader has not explained the importance of the dead line
The person is not properly trained
There is shortage of working aids
Finally I am able to realize that leadership is a process that is not a one
time fire and forget evolution. To be an effective leader one must
continually exercise good leadership skills. One does not need to be
perfect but should always strive to apply sound leadership principles to
their leadership skills which are mentioned below.
if a team leader is not responsible nothing else matters because little
else will happen by accident. A leader should continually ask how can
we do better rather than automatically blaming others.
2, Positive expectations about team members a leader should start
with a positive mind set about his/her people based on people dignity
and self-worth. The expectation is that when people are treated well
they do well.
3, Informed judgment a leader should not rush to judgment must
have the ability to stay calm in stressful circumstances when chaos
and confusion are swirling all around. This results in every one being
able to focus their energies on finding the best solutions.
4, Conceptualization - This behavior says that if something happens on
the project the leader seeks more than seemingly obvious reasons. For
instance, if a person in a team misses deadlines regularly instead of
assuming he/she does not appreciate the importance of deadlines the
leader will dig in the why of the behavior and the reasons may include:
The person is over loaded with work
Having the responsibility to prepare monthly feedback and weekly
productivity evaluation, I was expected to interact with individuals
whose works directly affected the evaluation and at my site
supervision task with many skilled and unskilled laborers and exercise
leadership skills, specially the sense of responsibility, self-confidence
and conceptualizing while giving directions.

3.6, Work ethics and related issues

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Since each individual has different back ground he/she perceives

things differently from others. Nevertheless, the presence of some
ethical values shared by all workers is a must.
One of the ethical values one finds everywhere in professional career is
punctuality. A worker is said to be punctual not only when he she
comes to work place on the time but also when he/she meets
deadlines and is always available in working hours.
The other professional rule shared by most professionals is the rule of
proper utilization of instruments and labor in a way that one can use
the instruments for longer time. This includes habits like organizing the
office, filing important papers, putting of the light when leaving office
etc.
In addition; working in cooperation with colleagues is the most
important conduct for any worker. A worker should make sure that
he/she has a good relationship with the other workers by being open
minded and this creates a productive working environment.
I have been able to understand that its only when the above
mentioned three conducts together with honesty and respect for
others are fulfilled that an effective output can be created.

3.7, Entrepreneurship skills acquired

A construction project mainly requires large human, financial, physical
(material and equipment) institutional (management) resources.
Entrepreneurship is defined as special human talent that helps manage
those factors of production such as labor machinery and capital and
takes risks of making loses. An entrepreneur is required to establish
meaningful relationship between activity and authority which is
intimately related to planning function.

Human resource management

Having a quality worker is a must if one needs to be productive and the
need for employment testing comes to picture to determine the
candidates ability to perform the job, in addition interviewing provides
more opportunity to verify information on hand and to find out more
about the persons interest, aspiration and expectation. In the office
and site engineering departments I have observed how skilled laborers
of the company were monthly evaluated to check their performance.
In addition once employees have done their jobs, they expect to be
compensated. Employee compensation refers to all forms of pay or
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rewards going to employees arising from their employments. An

adequate salary structure together with healthy physical and social
working conditions is the basic requirement for organizational
efficiency and effectiveness.
I have been able to understand that taking responsibility for the safety
and wellbeing of employees in job related activities by providing safety
wares (safety shoes & helmets) and insurances one can attain high
level of support from them.

Equipment utilization management

Construction equipment management helps a person
implement and monitor construction equipments to:

to

plan

Enhance optimum utilization

Increase efficiency or productivity of inputs to the products of the
construction
Harmonize standards and enhance the quality of work
When it comes to utilization of equipment there was a question of
renting for short terms or purchasing the equipment for long term use
assuming that its products return that cost with in short period of time.
The other decision to be made by the construction entrepreneur is
when to use human labor or machineries or the composition of the two
to different percentages.
These two questions are answered after estimating the direct cost of
production for possible combinations of resources and the output per
each combination and the amount they would bring to the company.
For instance, when crane is used for floor slab concrete casting the
time of completion of the work is reduced by half and sub contract
costs also by about the same factor. However the cost of the
machinery itself is of appreciable value. The main point here is that it is
after detail calculation of output of labor and machinery one can
decide the effective combination.

Financial management
Wide financial flow is achieved through detailed market studies and
also taking long term contracts with the best material suppliers in
terms of quality and cost.

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A company should also be able to put well qualified and efficient

personnel for preparation of contracts and payments and also make
sure that these are done on time to avoid of subcontractors and
employees
During my internship experience I have been able to grasp ideas about
human resources management, equipment utilization and financial
flow and also develop self-confidence to play my strength in believing
in myself and taking risks in my future career.

CHAPTER 4
Conclusions and recommendations for the company
4.1, Conclusions
I have been involved in the apprenticeship program for the last 4
months in jdaw arc consulting office . The internship experience has
helped me to:
Learn Practical consideration for building construction & design
Upgrade my theoretical knowledge and visualizations
Learn about project evaluations & cost management
Upgrading my ability to be creative, confident and take risks in
my future professional career
As was discussed in the company profile and major achievement of the
company, it has gained a considerable capital growth and recognition
from the international organization for standards. It has achieved the
rapid growth by focusing on finding large projects and by trying to
double its project performances.
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However on behalf of construction process when it comes to the

control and evaluation of individual projects there is not efficient and
organized system by which projects are evaluated with respect to time
to time costs, safety issues and defined roles of employees about their
responsibilities.
Safety and health rules and regulations are not strictly implemented
and the workers were not forced to wear helmets and safety shoes. I
have observed that helmets were provided for employees at a
particular time and even after the helmets were provided, they were
worn as a fashion only for a week or two.
When one observes the design view, some blocks have mat foundation
but the theory is that such foundation is used when the super
structural load id heavy and the allowable soil pressure is low. But in
the reality the soil is one with good bearing capacity and most of the
blocks are G + 1 buildings. The other design problem I observed is the
inaccessible roof slabs having equal or more reinforcements than the
respective floor slabs having the same span. The case by which the
reinforcement was redesigned and reduced by half (from 10 28 to 5 28
bars) was one good example of such overestimation. This shows that
the designers dont give enough attention to the cost or they are over
conservative.
A company can be profitable whenever it use its resources of
production efficiently. I have observed that there is a very high
construction material wastage in the project I have been working in
and it seems as if everyone has neglected the problem thinking that it
is beyond their capacity. In addition; I have seen subcontractors
leaving the remaining cement after they finish work everywhere, and
braking new pieces of bricks instead of using other half pieces. And
other materials such as sand aggregate and pumice are dumped near
the mixing and concrete casting place simply on the bare ground after
the work is completed they are usually left there and mixed with the
ground and cannot be used for further construction.
In the office engineering department, defined role for individual
employees was poorly addressed and I have observed that the
workflow for the department usually was not functional as the
members usually receive directions and assignments from two or more
management staffs at the same time.
On my first site some ribbed were broken, but no one can manage to
replace it, after concrete cast curing water was linked.

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Fig linkage problem

4.2, Recommendations

Supervisor should be always attend at least before concrete cast.

Because he should be check things has been done accordingly. But I
saw conflicts between contractor and supervisor because of improper
work.
The other thing is sometimes designs are changed if it is necessary so
review/suggestion are summited to consulting office but it takes a lot
time to return to contractor so time has been lose on the process.
I suggest that the contractors improve its output at the present by
addressing the following mentioned issues with respect to production
resources management.
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4.2.2,Strong structural department

A design only needs to be safe and not highly conservative as cost is
also one requirement for its effectiveness.
I recommend that the designers have more responsibility and make
real analysis of every part of the structure. The company should also
have strong structural department to check problems of over
estimation and to suggest solutions and minimize the amount of delay
that would be created when ever design changes are needed and also
minimize the cost the country expends for construction materials like
cement and steel bars.

4.2.3, Efficient material utilization

I suggest that everyone be responsible for the proper utilization of
materials because they are usually costed and expensive, imported
with huge amount of money (materials like cement), easily perish or
lose their value and quality unless taken good care of. The company
should have strong proper material utilization regulations and have a
strict and binding agreement with its sub-contractors by which they
will be held accountable whenever there is improper use of material or
unreasonable wastage.
To minimize material wastage during preparations of concrete mix:
The company should have batching plant that can supply the
needed amount of concrete volume with the needed strength.
The company should use tower crane instead of movable one so that
materials are dumped only at one place.

4.2.4, Defined roles for staff members

One of the things that keep a team effective is the presence of defined
roles for all team members. Whenever team roles are defined,
individuals
Will have the responsibility and sense of being held accountable
for their own tasks
Will be willing to assist others after accomplishing their tasks
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Therefore, the department should be organized in such a way that the

job tasks for everyone are defined and every staff member should then
be responsible whenever his/her tasks are not completed on time. I
believe that this would solve the problems for late payments and
unsatisfied of staff members.

4.2.5, Effective cost control system

Project cost is the expense of a project resulting from the need for the
use of resources to produce an output. It is the total summation of
Direct labor expenses
Expenses for hiring and utilizing labor/staff on the project
Overhead expenses
Direct over head costs that can be traced to the support of a
particular project such as rent utilities, facilities
Indirect overheads these cannot be traced to any particular
work package or project and hence are allocated across all the
projects under taken by the organization. (Tax, administration
expenses.)
Material utilization expenses
Equipment utilization expenses (rent, depreciation, purchasing
cost)
The need for the control of direct cost of projects comes to picture
whenever the company profit is needed to be calculated; it is only
when direct costs from the contract amount( unit rate) is greater than
or equal to the actual direct cost of production that the company is
profitable

Appendix

Finally I had hear some site language here few of them

Hard core = /
Stirrup= ,
Plumb bob=
Footing pad bars= ,
Bottom soffit =
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Side board =
Brace =
Float =
Scaffolding = ,
Tee= ,
Profile= ,
String= ,
Yoke =

References
Building construction by Dr. Abebe Dinku

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February 2014

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