A) YOU ARE THE RESIDENT ENGINEER IN CHARGE OF THE

CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW 20 STOREY MEDICAL CENTRE. THE CENTRE IS

OF RC STRUCTURE WHICH SHALL CONSIST OF AN OUTPATIENT
DEPARTMENT, PHARMACY, GENERAL SURGERY WARDS, INTENSIVE
CARE UNIT (ICU), CORONARY CARE UNIT (CCU), ADMINISTRATION
OFFICE, CLINICAL LABORATORIES, SEMINAR HALL, CAFETARIA,
TOILETS AND PARKING FACILITIES.
THE CENTRE IS TO BE WELL-EQUIPPED WITH ALL THE MODERN
FACILITIES AND SERVICES LIKE AIR CONDITIONING, FIRE PROTECTION,
ELECTRICITY, WATER SUPPLY AND SANITARY, GAS SUPPLY, LIFTS,
SECURITY SYSTEM, CAFETARIA, PARKING ZONES, ETC.
MOST OF THESE SERVICES/FACILITIES ARE CARRIED OUT BY
NOMINATED SUBCONTRACTORS. THE OVERALL PROGRESS OF THE
CONSTRUCTION WORK IS ON SCHEDULE.

IN THIS ASSIGNMENT, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO:

i. TO IDENTIFY THE POSSIBLE AREAS OF CONFLICT DURING

CONSTRUCTION STAGE OF THE MEDICAL CENTRE.
ii. TO GIVE RECOMMENDATIONS/SUGGESTIONS ON HOW THOSE
CONFLICTS CAN BE AVOIDED OR MINIMIZED SO AS NOT TO CAUSE ANY
UNDUE DELAYS TO THE OVERALL PROGRESS OF THE MEDICAL
CENTRE.
 i. The possible areas of conflict during construction stage of the medical centre are

1. Subcontractors mistakenly working off of an old set of blueprints.

2. Incorrect custom orders.

3. Additional cost occurring in the course of construction.

4. Miscommunication between different parties of expertise.

5. Client alters and add work to the existing project.

6. Unexpected weather condition during construction period.

7. Incorrect of design from structural engineering lead to faulty construction.

ii. The recommendations / suggestions on how those conflicts can be avoided or

minimized is

- Pick one solution and go with it. Every design alternative you have developed is
90% work on alternative solutions is wasted time and money. Pick the one guaranteed to
work and go with it.

- Only do that which is required by the contract. Review the scope of the work and make
sure you are only doing those tasks you are being paid for. If the client is insisting that you
add to the scope, then you have every right to ask for additional fees and a schedule
extension.

- Keep production on schedule. If the schedule slips, ring in some outside help for a short
period to get the production back to where it should be at this time. You can borrow staff
from another project; even borrow staff from another firm that you work with. For some non-
technical tasks you can even use clerical and administrative staff to do routine jobs.

- Use temporary help. The firm can save payment of some fringe benefits by
hiring temporary help. Since fringe benefits may cost the firm an added 20 percent of
direct labor, major budget savings could be realized if the temporary help is able
to immediately bolster project production.
- Use principals. Putting principals to work "on the boards" can take advantage of valuable
expertise (especially from individuals who tend to charge time to the project anyway). An
experienced professional can accomplish more in one hour than a green technician can in
five.

- Use overtime when you must, but make sure the overtime is productive. Everyone
works overtime. It’s usually the first technique employed to get back on schedule. But be
careful not to consider overtime as a cure-all. Anything more than nine or ten hours a day will
cause productivity to drop dramatically. If you must use overtime on your project, make it
Saturday and Sunday, rather than working all night. Don’t depend on overtime to get every
project done. If you do, you are not scheduling projects effectively. Overtime should take
place only about five percent of total project time.

- Make sure you are using the correct balance of experienced staff on your team. Too
many beginners on the project make time- and fee-consuming mistakes that you can’t afford
when you are trying to get back on track. Senior people are much more productive if they do
not have to spend time supervising trainees. Likewise, the project manager can do more
technical work while eliminating supervisory time.

- Examine each task. Be sure that experienced people are working on those
activities requiring judgement and junior people are working only on tasks that merely
require persistence.

- Get permission from principals to postpone non-critical administrative duties until

the crunch is over. Then spend the extra time on the most critical aspects of the project. (Be
careful not to over use this technique—principals may tire easily of such requests.)

- Identify the critical activities and concentrate your efforts on them. Also, ask the client
which items are most critical to him and can be allowed to slip without harming the schedule.

- Optimize your production techniques. Are there CAD or reprographic tricks you use to
reduce the time it takes to finish the set of drawings? Make sure your best people are working
on CAD because they know the most advanced productivity techniques.
- Renegotiate consultant contracts. If the total budget is in trouble, perhaps consultants are
the culprits. Review and renegotiate their contracts if necessary. Also, if some of the
consultant's tasks will not be needed, eliminating them may save the project budget.

- Don't hide in your office doing paperwork. As the PM, it's your job to be out there with
the team focusing on the productive work of the project. The paperwork will wait until after
you get back on schedule.

- Have a talk with your client. Instead of immediately asking for an extension, suggest
ways in which the client can help achieve the target date, such as the use of client staff for
certain tasks. They may have access to resources that can help you, or they might be willing
to let certain activities slide until a later date. They may even be willing to give you more
time. Review the project to see if the client has been the cause of any unnecessary delays. If
so, you have every right to ask for an extension.

- Don't "detail" yourself into a hole. Don't draw things more than once. With the accuracy
and neatness of CAD you can add extra detail to a smaller scale drawing rather than doing it
again at a larger size.

- Reorganize the drawings. Conduct a planning meeting with consultants, CAD operators,
a representative from a blueprint company, and the firm's word processing operator to discuss
how to produce the required construction documents using fewer sheets and less information
on each sheet (especially elaborate details). Also, explore graphic techniques such as
photocopying details or entire sections of a drawing. Eliminate hand-lettered notes where
possible.

- Excess perfection can destroy your schedule, while adding little additional benefit to
the project. Keep a firm hand on your engineers and designers, and be ready to bring any
activity to a halt when it becomes adequate to meet the project requirements.

- Examine the figures. Before making any changes, be sure that the project is actually over
budget. Check all charges of time and expenses to the project. Ask the financial manager for
current assessments of overhead charges to be certain that all charges have been made as
planned (when the project was budgeted). Also check all charges of time and expenses
against your project to make sure the project has not become a dumping ground for other
projects or staff.

- Be a squeaky wheel. If the project is over budget, do not try to hide it! Inform everyone in
the firm that the project is in trouble, and individuals (such as principals)—who might
otherwise charge a random hour to your project--will think twice. Saving even one hour per
week may make the difference between project profit and loss.

B) YOU ARE THE CONTRACTOR WHO HAS BEEN AWARDED THE CONTRACT
TO CONSTRUCT A TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGE IN PETALING DISTRICT.
THE CONSTRUCTION WORKS ARE BEING SUPERVISED BY THE DISTRICT
ENGINEER (D.E) OF PETALING JKR (Public Works Department), ACTING AS
THE S. O’S (SUPERINTENDING OFFICER) REPRESENTATIVE.
INITIALLY THE WORK PROGRESS FOLLOWS THE SCHEDULE, BUT AT THE
FINAL STAGES YOU HAVE FAILED TO COMPLETE THE JOB BY THE
COMPLETION DATE AS SPECIFIED IN THE CONTRACT.

AFTER CHECKING THROUGH, IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT THE DELAY

WERE DUE TO THE FOLLOWING REASONS:
I. THE DELAY BY THE S.O. IN GIVING SITE POSSESSION AFTER
SIGNING THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.
II. WORK VARIATIONS (IN THIS CASE, ADDITION) DUE TO
INSTRUCTIONS BY THE DISTRICT ENGINEER ON PILING WORKS.
III. DELAY IN RECEIVING THE SUPPLY OF CEMENT AND HIGH TENSILE
BARS FROM THE SUPPLIERS FOR THE GROUND BEAMS AND
COLUMNS.

YOUR JOB AS THE CONTRACTOR FOR THAT PROJECT NOW ARE:

a) TO IDENTIFY THE MEASURES OR STEPS WHICH YOU NEED TO TAKE IN

ORDER TO CONTINUE COMPLETING THE CONTRACT WITHOUT
FURTHER DELAY.
b) IF HOWEVER, YOU FAIL TO COMPLETE THE SAID CONTRACT, WHAT ARE
THE ACTIONS THAT THE D.E. (DISTRICT ENGINEER) CAN TAKE
AGAINST YOU AS THE MAIN CONTRACTOR?
c) IF ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU FINALLY ARE ABLE TO COMPLETE THE
SAID CONTRACT, WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS WHICH YOU NEED TO
SATISFY BEFORE THE D.E. CAN RELEASE YOUR “PERFORMANCE BOND”

A. The measures or steps which I would need to take in order to continue completing the
contract without further delay is:
- The Project manager should bring in more worker as energy force to double up the work
progress.
- Highly automated machine is used in the construction to speed up the construction process.
- Encourage the workers to work more hours.
- Give incentive for the supervisors and engineers as a boost for them to enhance their work
- Increase the general worker salary, so that they give more commitment on the construction.

B. The possible actions that the district engineer can take against the main contractor is:
- Charge penalty on the contractor according how many days of delay.
- Produce summon on the respective contractor that breach the contract terms.
- Blacklist he contractor from any other government project.

C. The condition that the I need to satisfy before the D.E can release my performance bond is:

Performance bonds are a type of promise to pay or guarantee of payment provided by a third
party (the surety or the guarantor) to an employer (the beneficiary) as security against the non-
performance of a contractor (the principal). In the construction industry, the surety or guarantor
is likely to be a financial institution, such as a bank or an insurance company and the amount of
the security provided by a performance bond would typically be between 10 and 20% of the
underlying contract value.

So first thing first, the contractor would need to prepare a complete set of tender document, bill
of quantities and quotation. Next the contractor and owner would need to apply performance
bond surety. Both parties would need to come to an agreement of do’s and don’ts throughout
the contract period. Throughout the contract period, the contractor must follow all the
agreement they have reached without any breach.
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