LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

7435BEPG Production Management and BIM

Jan 2018 3 Hrs

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES – Candidates are requested to read the

following instructions and complete the answer book cover sheet as far as possible
before starting the examination.

There are five questions in total.

SECTION A IS COMPULSORY AND MUST BE ANSWERED. ANSWER TWO

ONLY QUESTIONS FROM SECTION B.

Start each answer on a new page.

Clearly state the number of each question attempted.

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SECTION A

M&B Contractors have been awarded a medium rise office development to be

constructed in a large city centre. Suppose you are appointed as a contractor’s
project manager for the office development project.

a) Critically review what will be contractor’s project manager roles and

qualities/skills under this project. Your answer should analyse the various
roles and responsibilities that you will need to play together with the project
team and other key stakeholder’s of the project.
(18 marks)

b) Construction site layout planning is a key step for the successful production
planning and controlling for successful project delivery. Discuss the different
aspects of planning that is involved in site production planning. Also, evaluate
the significance of the project schedule from the operational aspect.

(16 marks)

(Total 34 marks)
MODEL ANSWER

a) Key roles of Construction Project Manager (CPM) will be planning,

coordinating, monitoring of progress and taking action to correct any
deviations. The key qualities for a CMP include: inspire share vision, good
communication, integrity/reliability, empathy/kindness, competence,
eagerness/desire, cool under pressure, composure/self-control, team building
and problem solving skills. Students need to explain briefly how these
qualities help in planning and controlling for the successful delivery of a
project.

Students should highlight that the CPM is responsible for the construction
programme, the methodology of construction and short term planning. He/she
will be responsible, along with his/her team, for procuring the supply chain for
the project, which play key roles in delivery. Where plant is supplied by the
main contractor the PM will select and manage the key items of plant.

Construction Phase H&S Plans, preparation of the H&S file, traffic planning
and waste planning will be managed by the PM.

The CPM also plays a key role in the budgetary process. He/she will be
responsible for raising change orders where they occur and ensuring that the
QS is aware of extras to the contract. They will also be responsible for
forecasting and managing site preliminaries expenditure. The PM will likely be
involved with risk management and design management.

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 Quality control will be a key task and the student should briefly mention how
that task might be planned and controlled. People management and
motivation are arguably the most important skills that the PM will need.

(Marks 18)

b)
Students should discuss the key aspect of site planning and its significance in
production planning and scheduling at a construction site. The following are key
planning activities involved for a site layout plan and students should explain
how different planning is relevant for a site layout plan.
 Personal planning
 Site safety planning
 Quality planning
 Resource planning (4M)
 Materials storage and delivery
 Plant & equipment planning
 Time/schedule planning
 Waste management planning

Students need to explain the significance of the project schedule in the following
points:
 An important part of contract documentation
 Part of legal documentation when disputes arise
 Provide clear information about relationship between activities and
time during production
 Apply to identify the type of delay and analyse the impact in project
delivery.
 Weather related delay confirmation according to project scheduling
of an activity.
 Communication tools amongst project teams

Students should discuss briefly from an operational aspect of different types of

project schedule:
1. Tender schedule
2. Baseline schedule/As plan schedule (just before construction start and
must get approval from owner/client)
3. Updated schedule (weekly or monthly)
4. Accelerated schedule (when order by client in case of delay or
additional works)
5. Short term look ahead schedule (as part of last planner system/lean
construction)
6. As built schedule (after completion of project/ final updated schedule

(Marks 16)

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SECTION B – ANSWER TWO QUESTIONS ONLY

Question 1

A major client of yours is the leading “Retailer” in the UK. They have plans for a
significant expansion programme over the next three years to build 40 new outlets.
However, the client needs the stores to be built quicker and cheaper than they are at
present. In addition, they require that the quality be significantly improved and that
contractors “get it right first time”. As a favoured contractor you have been asked to
help.

(a) Using Total Quality Management (TQM) principles, explain and justify
your recommendations to the client on how you could improve the
production quality with the future projects.
(16 Marks)

(b) With the aid of lean construction principles, critically review how you can
control the production using the Last Planner System to reduce costs and
programme durations.
(17 Marks)

(Total 33 marks)

MODEL ANSWER
a)

Explaining the principles of TQM and its use as a method to implement efficiency in
the building process. The critical discussion should include the use of benchmarking,
continuous improvement, early involvement in design, quality insurance and control,
and regular test and inspection, strong leadership and so on. Suggestions for the
elimination of possible waste should be given to justify your recommendation.

(16 Marks)

b)

Discuss of lean management principles including last planner system used for
production controlling and its backgrounds. How Lean theory can be used to analyse
the traditional construction methods; identify options that could be used in place of
traditional methods; prefab, JIT, BIM, modular construction, and so on with suitable
examples.
(17 Marks)

Question 2

Every year defects in the UK construction industry cost at least £20 billion to repair
or rebuild. Some of the defects will be the result of poor communication, for example,

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a poorly detailed drawing, operatives being given incorrect instructions or technical
information not being available.

Critically examine the importance of effective communication on a construction

project and make proposals for ways in which the challenges of project based
working can be overcome using collaborative frameworks and BIM.

Your response should consider communication across the lifecycle of the project
including design, construction and operational phases.

(Total 33 marks)

MODEL ANSWER

The student may first want to define effective communication. Communication being
the transfer of information to bridge a distance, a social skill involving interaction
between people, occurring between groups or organisations not just between
individuals, a transactional process where something is exchanged between parties
etc. Students may also want to discuss the term ‘effective’ and how that can be
demonstrated within a team environment. (Effective communication being a two-way
street. It’s not only how you convey a message so that it is received and understood
by someone in exactly the way you intended, it’s also how you listen to gain the full
meaning of what’s being said and to make the other person feel heard and
understood).
(17 marks)
Students should discuss the challenges faced within project environments such as
difficult organisation of human, financial and material resources, novel forms of
organisation, unique scope of works and specification, constraints of time & cost,
quantitative & qualitative objectives, transience and perhaps the pitfalls of traditional
systems or methods of communication throughout the project.

Students should then go on to discuss the benefits of working collaboratively, how

this may impact on communication, how BIM can improve the communication of
information (visualisation/simulation/analysis/early decision making) in particular
regard to the project lifecycle and how working within frameworks such as BS 11000
can ensure consistency in approach amongst the multiple stakeholders involved in a
construction project.

Students may reference specific documents within their response such as BRE
guidance on construction site communication and PAS 1192.
(16 marks)

(Total = 33 marks)

Question 3
a) You have recently attended a BIM workshop. It is widely acknowledged that
the use of BIM technology has changed the traditional approach of AEC
industry and you are keen to use 4DBIM for production planning and progress
controlling. Critically analyse how the effective use of BIM can help to a
modern day construction manager in reducing project risk and improving the
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 productivity at the construction stage of a project. Your response should
include the advantages and disadvantages to the company in using BIM.
(20 Marks)

b) Project shortening/time reduction is a complex and challenging job for project

manager and it requires sound methods supported by human insight and
judgement. Critically evaluate the significance of construction schedule
adjustment and the methods of time reduction normally used in a construction
project to reduce the project delay and avoid the penalty from client in case of
contractor delay.
(13 Marks)

(Total 33 marks)

MODEL ANSWER
a)

A key principle of BIM concept is to “virtually design and construct” a facility prior to
actual construction and “Information” sharing across all phases of a facility life-cycle,
often referred to as “Virtual Design and Construction” (VDC). VDC refers to the
process of utilising BIM to design and construct a project prior to constructing the
same project in reality. VDC using BIM allow designers, contractors and end users to
simulate the construction process prior to physical completion of the facility.
BIM provides a platform for sharing knowledge and enhance communication
between project participants.

Using BIM-based visualisation, project concepts can be visualised quite early in the
project life-cycle. Traditionally a lot of time and effort is wasted along the interfaces
of various design disciplines, as a lot of information is reproduced and validated
along those interfaces. BIM allows project teams to visualize and validate project
requirements in early concept stage and enable easier co-ordination between
various disciplines. Unlike traditional 2D drawings, co-ordinated BIM models consist
of connected drawings detailing design elements and specification information. Such
co-ordination allows for validation of design and co-ordination issues. Clashes in
designs from various disciplines can be identified quite early in the life-cycle,
allowing for conflict resolution prior to things going wrong during construction.

BIM Benefits in the Planning and Design Phase: during the design phase, the ability
to influence project costs is the highest. Integrated working using BIM provides an
ideal platform for teams to communicate and co-ordinate early in the project life-
cycle. As BIM provides an analytical model, early conceptual design can be analysed
and tested to ensure sustainability goals are achieved. Construction managers can
use models provided by designers to simulate production and analyse design
constructability. A key emphasis of the traditional design approaches using 2D is the
communication of design and geometry related information. Production information
(including cost and scheduling) is not communicated very well using traditional
design approaches in the early design phase. Lack of design and production clarity
in the conventional practice often delays project execution and leading to expensive
change orders or re-work. Using BIM, both product and production information can

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be communicated quite early in the design cycle, thereby, helping in critical decision
making.

BIM benefits during the Construction Phase: During the construction phase of a
building, BIM can be used to make concurrent information on building quality, cost
and schedule available to project stakeholders. Construction contractors can
generate visualisations to better engage with concerned parties and neighbourhood
communities, in order to reduce the impact of construction operations and personnel.
More work can be done off-site, thereby reducing on-site labour costs, health and
safety hazards and the chances for delays. By linking tasks, resources and
schedules to 3D design models, a better control of various production processes can
be achieved.
(20 marks)

b)

Student need to explain the importance of schedule adjustment in a construction

project considering the following points

 To accommodate the adverse job circumstances

 To meet contract imposed time requirement by clients/owners
 To satisfy time constraints or commitments, for example: Milestones, network
interface and final completion
 To reschedule to earlier date than originally planed
 To avoid the penalty and adverse weather
 To accelerate the progress of critical jobs
 To claim bonus if completed in advance

Moreover, student should explain briefly about the methods of time reduction taking
into account the following methods

 Least-cost expediting: selecting critical tasks with least of cost acceleration

 Project compression: crashing and fast tracking
 Crashing: Giving overtime, Bringing more resources, Motivating team
members with monetary rewards
 Fast tracking: activities are re-planned to perform in parallel or partially
parallel without increase cost or resources
 Time-cost trade off: reducing time by accelerating cost

(13 marks)

Question 4

The accident frequency rate (AFR) for a large construction contractor has remained
stagnant for the last 3 years, with no real improvement made in the number of
accidents and incidents. This is despite an extensive health and safety management
system being in place, which is thoroughly audited in line with OHSAS 18001.

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Critically examine the maturity of the health & safety culture within this organisation,
discussing possible reasons for a lack of improvement in the AFR. Your response
should consider the effectiveness of the safety management system, safety
leadership within the organisation, culture, operative’s behaviour and worker
engagement.

(Total 33 Marks)

MODEL ANSWER

The question is explicit, in that the student will know they are expected to discuss
behavioural safety.

In the first instance the student would be expected to offer an explanation of what the
AFR (accident frequency rate) is and how organisations may use this information.
A discussion surrounding management systems generally, policies and procedures
organisations would use to manage H&S on site.

From there the expectation would be that the student discusses the ‘performance
plateau’ and the need for intervention to break through that plateau.
The intervention discussion should centre on behavioural safety generally, what it is,
what needs to be done, the ‘journey of change’, culture, leadership, industry
initiatives in this regard. This would include discussion around job factors, individual
factors and organisational factors.

The student would be expected to discuss the HSE’s move towards Plan, Do,
Check, Act achieving a better balance between the systems and behavioural aspects
of management, whilst also treating health and safety management as an integral
part of good management generally, rather than as a stand-alone system.
Very good to excellent responses may also consider behaviour modification theory
and quality management theory for continuous improvement and to apply this theory
to the practical situation within the question.

Students may make reference to industry/HSE guidance and research in this regards
such as HSE (2008) RR660: Behaviour Change & Worker Engagement Practices
within the Construction Sector.

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