Abstract

Construction industry is among one of the important industry for a nation it builds its infrastructure. The
main objective of a construction project is to gain maximum profit with ensuring customer satisfaction
and desired quality of construction. The larger the project complicated it gets to manage, but using
certain software’s for management helps construction manager to handle the project. Time and cost
optimization is also important in construction management. The early completion of project leads to
saving of cost and increases profit margins. Traditional ways like PERT are also used to ensure this
optimization.
Introduction

Nigeria is a developing country and her building practice is still grappling with a lot of inherent
challenges, ranging from inadequate technical and managerial know-how to insufficient financial,
material and equipment capital base. The problem of high contract costs of all aspects of construction as
obtained in Nigeria is becoming obvious. Consequently, substantial increases are being observed in
projects. This substantial increase has brought about loss of client confidence in consultants, added
investment risks, inability to deliver value to clients, and disinvestment in the construction industry.
Many projects in developing countries encounter considerable time and cost overruns, fail to realize
their intended benefit or even totally terminated and abandoned before or after their completion.
Previous research works by [(Adams, 1997), (Long, etal.2004) and others] have indicated poor
managerial capability of contractors to be one of the critical problems of the construction industry in
developing countries. In order to mitigate the aforementioned challenges and improve projects
performance in the Nigerian construction industry, there is the need to recognize the various critical
stages in a project construction where cost and time overrun are observed, and how the involvement of
the clients in these stages of construction can lead to improve quality of construction at lesser cost
under the project duration.
CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

Some construction projects are small renovations or repair jobs, where the owner may act as designer,
paymaster and laborer for the entire project. However, more complex or ambitious projects usually
require additional multi-disciplinary expertise and manpower, so the owner may commission one or
more specialist businesses to undertake detailed planning, design, construction and handover of the
work. Often the owner will appoint one business to oversee the project (this may be a designer, a
contractor, a construction manager, or other advisor); such specialists are normally appointed for their
expertise in project delivery, and will help the owner define the project brief, agree a budget and
schedule, liaise with relevant public authorities, and procure the services of other specialists (the supply
chain, comprising subcontractors). Contracts are agreed for the delivery of services by all businesses,
alongside other detailed plans aimed at ensuring legal, timely, on-budget and safe delivery of the
specified works.

Fig1: Construction Process

Construction structures design

Prior to considering methods for optimisation of structures, the basics of the structural design process
should be mentioned. Such process usually follows the same progression as any other design task.
However, design process of building structures may be complicated due to its interdisciplinary
character. The input from various stakeholders, like: clients, architects, and structural and building
services engineers may lead to large number of revisions or even to revisiting earlier design phases [1].
In its classical form, the design process consists of following stages:

1. The conceptual design stage – creation of initial concepts meeting broad design requirements (like
functionality) set by clients or architects.

2. The preliminary design stage – further development of conceptual design (one or more). Preparation
of detailed proposals.

3. The detailed design stage – development of all information required for construction (sufficient for
coordination of its components and elements).

As the design process proceeds and more detailed information are available, the space of possible
solutions is getting smaller and thus easier to search by optimisation algorithms. However, the sooner
the optimisation process is started, the greater range of possible solutions - the greater the possibility of
substantial cost reduction (or improvement of other parameters).

Roles of Construction Actors

The Client: The Client is by far the single most important member of the construction team. He is the
initiator and financier of all the projects. Barron (1979) contend that the client should realize that there
is an element of risk in the contract which he must bear and ample allowance has to be made in the
budget to accommodate such contingencies, particularly in civil works.

Contractor: Essentially, the contractor is the person (or company) that implements the construction
process and concretizes the dreams of the client (promoter). The major task of Contractors is to
assemble and allocate the resources of labour, equipment and materials to the project in order to
achieve completion at maximum efficiency in terms of time, quality and cost.

Consultant: The consultant in order to do a good job, interviews the client to properly define what is
actually desired. Based on the outcome, the consultant starts the preliminary design, visits the site to
examine the topography, soil conditions, and other physical constraints like accessibility, existing
infrastructure, labor mobility and requirements of the planning authorities in the location. With these
inputs, the consultant then produces the preliminary design and submit them for the client to vet and
satisfied with such dimensions as functionality, aesthetics, safety, and cost. Accurate cost analysis and
control is one of the necessary services the client requires from the consultants (Omole, 2000, Nural et
al 2014, Nwosu 2007).

Optimization of project construction

(Rahul et la 2011) defined Optimization as the process of modifying the inputs or characteristics of a
device, mathematical process to obtain minimum or maximum of the output. Optimizing a project deals
with adopting methods in which performance quality, completion time and final costs are within the
prescribed limits and tolerances of the project. Optimizing construction project has received a
considerable amount of attention over the past 20 years.
Variables Involved in construction optimisation

 Cost
 Time
 Quality control
 Scope

Construction Cost

Expense incurred by a contractor for labour, material, equipment, financing, service utilities etc. plus
overheads and contractors’ profit. Cost of land, architectural design, fee of consultant and engineer are
not construction costs. Construction costs form part of the overall costs incurred during the
development of a built asset such as a building. Very broadly, construction costs will be those costs
incurred by the actual construction works themselves, and on some projects may be determined by the
value of the contract with the main contractor.

In addition, the contract is likely to allow for the contract sum to be adjusted as a result, for example,
of variations to the works, claims for loss and expense, or fluctuations (a way of dealing with inflation on
large projects that may last for several years). It is because of these unknowns that clients are advised to
hold a contingency. As a result, what is considered the actual 'construction cost' of a project must be
clearly defined and may not be finally determined until well after the actual construction works have
been completed. This is true, even if a contract is described as having a 'fixed price' or 'guaranteed
maximum price’.

B. FactorsAffectingConstructionCost

A. Similar Construction Projects

B. ConstructionMaterialCosts

C. LabourWageRates

D. Construction Site Conditions

E. Inflation Factor

F. Project Schedule

G. Quality of Plans & Specification

Quality control of material

There is a big gap between the current and the traditional construction, which means that the
replacement of the equipment plays an important role in improving the overall level of the project.
Therefore, if it needs to improve the efficiency of the project, it will be better to optimize the
construction project under the premise of meeting the relevant standards.

For example, technical management personnel should effectively establish equipment and material
supervision departments in accordance with the current situation. Its main function is to perform
repeated accounting of the materials needed. For the required equipment, a more detailed inspection
must be carried out. First of all, for the mechanical equipment to be used, it should be scientifically
tested with the corresponding inspection standards to fully ensure that the equipment can be kept in
the best condition before using. In this way, the impact on the construction is minimized and the
efficiency of the original equipment is maximized, so as to effectively improve the overall progress.

Secondly, it is also very important for the daily maintenance of equipment. Equipment not needed in the
current process of the project should be kept and sealed up as the requirements. And it needs to carry
out daily maintenance to ensure its working state to the greatest extent, so that it can be more
efficiently and quickly put into construction when it is used next time. At the same time, the rational use
of construction materials is also an important way to innovate and optimize construction technology. It
is necessary to pay attention to the analysis from the introduction of construction materials. The
imported materials must be purchased from formal channels, and the relevant procedures for the
materials must be complete. At the same time, the construction department must also have its own
material control system, and the newly purchased materials must pass reasonable testing before they
can be used. The unqualified materials should be returned or destroyed to prevent them from entering
the market again and hindering the construction progress of other projects.

Fig2: Flow chart of equipment and materials supervision for construction projects.

Ways to Improve Construction Efficiency on Project

1. Improve your planning.

2. Find good construction management software.

3. Start using Building Information Modeling (BIM)

4. Listen to your staff.

5. Invest in training.
6. Improve your communication workflows.

7. Establish performance measurements, and hold your crew accountable.

8. Implement modular and prefabrication construction into the project.

9. Automation in construction

Conclusion.

Optimizing construction includes customizing strict construction quality standards, innovating

construction technology, strengthening the management constructon equinment. construction
materials and personnel, implementing construction supervision and control, ensuring timely detection
of problems, and taking timely and effective measures. It can improve the overall level. In addition, it is
also necessary to increase the importance of enterprises on the ontimization and management of
construction technology. In many construction companies. there are no goals for the management or
municipal engineering construction technology, lack of technical planning and design, which will reduce
the initiative of construction technical managers. It is necessary for companies to continuously increase
their attention to construction technology optimization, improve their market competitiveness, and
continuously optimize construction technology management

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