Group MembersThennakoon T.M.V.A. 110571JTissera P.M.R. 110582TUdugama U.D.C.A. 110590PWickramage H.S. 110619PWickramanayake N.W.S.S. 110620KSITE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

1. Human Resource Management

Importance-Construction is inherently a labour based industry specially in developing countries such as Sri Lanka. Thus labour can be considered to be one of if not the most important aspect of any project. With increasing demands for salary increases and more opportunities for experienced workers throughout Sri Lanka with the boom of the construction industry, it is more important than ever before to manage the labour resources in a proper manner. With this background in mind we will now consider how the labour management process is handled in the site we visited, ie the Maxen Residency project with the client Maxen Residents constructed by Sanken.

Categories-When considering the human resources in the project, there are various people involved with the project, including the consultant and the client. While all of them can be considered to be human resources in the general sense, here we will only be considering about the parties involved in the construction of the project. As Marslow has stated, there is a hierarchy of needs. It can be seen that Sanken has identified this and have motivated the different levels of employees by different methods.The Site Engineer has a separate table and is granted a significant amount of powers over the work in the site as he requires a higher level of need. The other engineers too have their separate work spaces which addresses their needs as well. Furthermore, all of them have been provided with various degrees of powers over matters such as finance, material etc. This sense of respect and trust placed on them motivates them to work even better.In addition to the engineers, there are two kinds of labourers. Those that work directly for Sanken and those that are working under contract basis. For example, those responsible for site cleaning and maintenance are directly working for Sanken, while a majority of the carpenters, and other labourers are contracted.The labourers working for Sanken are provided accomodation at billets close to the site. Once the building has been built to a certain degree, the labourers will be given a section of the buidling to live in. The fact that the organisation looks into the welfare of the workers enhances their morale. Also, unlike some sites, the workers have the ability to move in and out of the site without checks or restrictions. This enhances the feeling that they are being trusted and hence improves the motivation. The labourers who are working under contracts are contracted from reputed labour subcontractors such as Pathum, SN and Osanda. The management of these labourers is done in a different way to those who are directly working in Sanken. Another main difference with respect to these two types of labour is the hierarchy to which they report. Direct workers of Sanken report to their line supervisors, while the contract workers have supervisors from their organisations. Thus, the engineers and other managers at the site do not have complete control over the contract staff brought from labour subcontractors.It is also a requirement for the contractor to ensure that the work at the site has the adequate number of workers at all times. While on normal days this would not be an issue, it has been identified that there is a tendency among workers to take a holiday on the day after they get their wages. In order to avoid a site shutdown due to inadequacy of labourers, Sanken pays the labourers on the site in a staggered manner. So that only half of the workers get the salary on the same day. This ensures that work at the site will carry on undisturbed.Labour Planning-Any kind of management requires a certain degree of planning. Human Resource management too just like any other management requires planning. It may be stated that the planning required with regards to human resources is more than that of any other planning since humans are unpredictable. The labour planning at the site is done in a whole to part method. This is specially required here since there is a strict deadline of 450 days to complete the work. First, the work that needs to be completed is broken down into small parts and deadlines are established for each type of work. Then these small deadlines are further broken down into daily targets when a particular work is about to start. Since different engineers are in charge of different tasks, in order to get a combined requirement, each engineer calculates the number of labourers that he needs for the next day in order to achieve the daily targets. This is known as tomorrow works. These requirements are then taken to the site engineer who must approve it. This approved requirement list is in the form of a document called the labor request form, which is in an ISO format. These requirments are then sent to the respective sub-contractors before 3pm. Once this is communicated, the labour subcontractor will provide the required labourers at the required time. Though these labourers are paid according to the work they complete, there are exceptions if any unforeseen delays take place. For example, when we visited the site on the 23rd of August, we got to know that no work had taken place on the 22nd due to incessant rains. In that sort of a situation, the contractor (Sanken) had to pay these labourers even though no work had taken place. To the benefit of Sanken however, such delays can be informed to the client and the consultant and an extension for the completion date can be obtained. In order to properly manage this, a weather report chart is updated daily and is kept at the site. This is required to ensure that the contractor will not be penalized for delays due to weather that he cannot control.

Bad weather is not the only reason that can require Sanken to pay the contract labour even without obtaining any output. If the labourers are present but the conditions are not conducive for them to work still Sanken has to pay the contract price. For example there may be occasions where an important piece of machinery is not present at the site or when the labourers are expected to work at night, the lighting may not have been supplied. In order to reduce such situations, and for many other reasons, site meetings are conducted.

2. Site Security and protectionSite security and protection is one of the main aspect that we should consider when managing a construction site. Especially the security and protection of the construction site is challenging area due to professional thieves and loss of equipment, materials due to stealing. And because of that we have to put some money to recover that materials and equipment. So therefore to overcome this problem it is better to have proper security plan for the construction site. For that there are few things that we can practice to achieve good security and protection at the site.Appoint a security officer for the site is important and he is the person who consults with the police on site security issues and he is the responsible person for security at the construction site.Develop a proper security plan is also very important. The site security plan should be created before starting the construction project. And according to that we can plan all the related security aspects, where the security hut should located, types of security equipment (like lightings, CCTV cameras, remote alarms , locks etc.) needed and where those should place. And other thing is perimeter protection of the site. For that site boundaries best thing is having proper fencing around the perimeter of the site. And it should be strong and high enough to ensure the protection. And the site should have only one entrance, and comings and goings from the construction site should be clearly visible to the security hut to ensure the good security at the site.

Security hut - situated away from the entrance

In our site visit, we found some improvements that can be done. First thing is the security hut was located away from the main entrance and therefore the visibility problem was there. As an improvement it is better to shift the security hut near to the entrance. But the problem was the space is limited at the site. And all the three sides of the building was bounded by surround buildings and also having fence (about 2.5m high) for necessary side including front side. Because of that the perimeter protection of the site is ensured.And lighting at the site should be established and it is better to have standby generator to maintain site lighting.

Comments about securitySite security can be considered one of the most important control aspects of construction management. A proper security plan ensures that there is no loss of equipment, material etc due to stealing or negligence, while ensuring that productivity is not lost due to unnecessary security measures and demotivation.There was a site security officer and a security hut at the site in order to ensure site security. There was also only one entrance, so the safety would be further ensured. The fact that the security hut had a good view of the entrance was also a good sign.POINTS FOR IMPROVEMENTThe security hut was situated away from the entrance, thereby reducing the visibility of the security officer. Thus if this could be moved to the entrance, it would have been ideal. However, according to the contractor, the security hut had to be placed at the current location due to lack of space with the current excavations and once the building comes up to a certain degree, the security hut would be relocated close to the entrance.While the ability to move in and out of the site at will enhances the motivation of the workers, it may be considered to be a security liability. However, since this is a small site and the amount of equipment and material at the site is minimal, any attempts to steal may be seen quite easily.

3. Operating hours, noise and vibration controlOperating hours, noise and vibration control are very much related to the location of the construction site, because it is the reason for many related problems and difficulties. The construction site we have visited is by the side of the Gall road, in Bambalapitiya as shown in the map extracted from Google Maps. As we can see, the site is located between the Bagathale Road and Alfred House Gardens and any heavy vehicle we are to bring to the site will has to face the high congestion conditions during day time especially during school/office hours. Hence, the idea of bringing any heavy machinery during day time will be a start to many unwanted stressful problems. And also according to the police order, the site is prohibited in using road to park heavy vehicles under any circumstance. Also, the environmental police has a regulation that the road and the newly constructed pavement should be cleaned after every work that will violate the clean, pleasing condition.Maxons Residencies

The heavy vehicles are to be used for mainly concreting purposes such as transporting and pumping. Hence, the site management has decided to do concreting work at night time, specifically from 10.00 pm to 5.00 am on the next day. And also, after every such work, they bring a water bowser to clean the road and the pavement on the early morning before 5.00 am. And make sure the road is back to normal condition.The site is scheduled to be operated from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm over the whole week except on Sundays, but due to the schedule updates and the unexpected delays due to weather and such reasons, the site is operating after 5.00 pm and even on the Sundays when it comes to catch up the missed progress. On extending the working hours, the site management achieves to be within the schedule with negligible deviations, but this solution brings along with some other problems. There is a house just behind the construction site. Concreting work makes a lot of noises and during the night time, it will be a real nuisance when the site keeps going for a particular time period. (As scheduled, 450 days) Due to this, the site management has talked to the respective house owner and explained the situation and they have been able to come to an understanding point to continue with the work. Like such, the problems arising with the start of the project has been solved by the site management with their experiences and adoptable nature.With the continuation of the site work, during the excavating period, the nearby buildings (especially the TNT Building) has shown cracks increasing. Then the site management again has to go for a solution to stop further development of cracks.They have done a photographic survey in the beginning of the project in the nearby buildings and insured the damages. With the development of the cracks, they have started to use chemical pressure grouting where they inject cement grout with some chemicals through narrow drilled holes with pressure guns. This is a technique that is used all over the world by construction engineers as a solution to settlement problems arising due to various reasons. On the site we have visited, the pressure grouting has been used especially over the perimeter. A floor where the pressure grouting has been carried out is shown in the picture. Speaking directly about noise and vibration preventing the steps that the site has been taken are more managerial than technical. As seen on the site, we also think those are the cost effective, easy to implement methods with respect to the site and the construction work. But in general and even in this particular project as it goes on, the management may consider following techniques to prevent/reduce the noise and vibration generated from onsite work. The project layout planning can be allocated so that the movement of heavy machinery are away from the residential units Reduce/refrain from using earth moving machinery if possible Allocating demolition, soil compacting works in to different phases if possibleWith using these techniques and others which are appropriate, the construction process will go smoothly with less distractions and this will ultimately lead the construction company to obtain good will and also the certificates related to environmental friendliness of the project and the construction firm.

4. Air and dust managementOn the construction site we have visited, the air pollution and dust emitting do not seemed to be an issue because there were no such work going on. The surrounding was much wet due to the rainy weather conditions. And also, much of the foundation work has been finished and so the ground that was open were very much limited.But, on the other hand, when the project proceeds there will be some tasks that will cause these problems. The best example is the cleaning of formwork to make it free of any alien material after finishing the fixing of reinforcement using compressed air. During this process, there will be dust going away and as the building proceeds it will become a problem to the surrounding people and institutions. As a basic solution, setting up the protective net can be suggested. Other than that, with simple steps like making the employees aware of the problem and asking them to work so that the problem will be minimum will be successful. Other than that, regular cleaning and following acceptable working procedures will also be solutions for the problem of controlling dust.

5. Waste managementWaste management is an issue that have to be addressed at the construction management. Main expectation of waste management is to reduce the amount of waste discarded from industrial sites. That means reusing the waste as much as it can be used until it cannot use again in a useful way. Main problem in Srilankan legislation is there are no specific laws or regulations addressing industrial waste management. Even there are few laws they are free of considerable penalties. So addressing this issue in a legislative manner is so week. And construction agencies also do not pay much attention on these issues.In our site visit we could have less information about waste management. Because that site is ongoing in its primary stages at the same time that land also a barren land prior to the construction. So there is not much constructional waste to be rehabilitated. But there are some steps they are taking in order to have a good working environment. Normally they do a site cleanup in every Sunday which is obviously a closing day of the site. Since there is only one entrance point to the site which is facing the gall road, they are managing their waste in a controlled manner. They normally dump their industrial waste near the entrance inside the site. Although this creates an untidy and unsafe conditions inside the site, they have to do it with the limited space.Industrial waste can be divided in to various categories. They are solid waste and fluid waste. This fluid waste is consists of liquids and gases. In the site we visited there was not much fluid wastes. And in solid waste also they were managing them to minimize them. As an example they were using ready mix concrete in their construction. And it helps them to have environment free with empty cement bags and remaining bulks of sand and aggregate here and there. And we could see reinforcement also using in economical way as to reduce the wastage by using remaining steel pieces in curtailments. Waste management play a crucial role in construction management. Because it helps to carry out the project more economically and efficiently. Even though construction industry do not pay much attention on waste rehabilitation considering its economy, it is a good way for preserve environment with reduction of direct material usage.

6. Traffic managementTraffic management is also a very important aspect when managing the construction site. It directly affect the efficiency of workers and construction. By maintaining good traffic management level efficiency will increase due to reducing unnecessary delays during providing materials and due to improving travel path and distances. Finally the cost and time will save during the construction process.Traffic management is totally depend on site layout planning and it is a one task that can be listed under site layout planning. Accessibility inside the construction site, arrangements of walk ways and paths, material handling and equipment controlling will be improved by site layout planning and it will helps to managing traffic. When workers are traveling and transporting the materials through the access paths in the site there should be arrange those paths such that the travel time is low and comfortable enough to travel with heavy loads of materials and the access paths should be without disturbances to travel easily. And other thing is width of the walkway or the paths should be enough to accommodate the exchange for both ways. When handling materials and equipment, they should be well planned to avoid unnecessary delays and waiting until finish the task of other equipment.In our visited construction site, traffic management is not good. Major reason for that is lack of space. Walk ways are too narrow and not enough even to travel one person. It is difficult to exchange two peoples traveling different sides through the walk way and one person has to be stay side until others are travel.Therefore traffic management of that site should be further improved to ensure the performance of the construction site.

Traffic due to narrow walkways

7. Material procurement management & storageMaterial procurement was done at the site using two main forms.Common MaterialCommon material such as cement, sand, coarse aggregate, reinforcement, blocks and bricks were purchased by the stores at the site. This is directly done under the procurement department of the site. Stores maintains a buffer stocks in order to avoid any delays in providing materials to the construction activities. All the invoice will be collected by the quantity surveyor of the site.Special MaterialWhen a special material is needed for a construction activity, the method of purchasing is different from the method used for common materials. The required special material will be informed to supervisor (In-charge for relevant construction activity) by the sub-contractor or labors. Then supervisor should enter the required special material with the required quantity, in the MATERIAL ORDER BOOK at the stores, in advance to the construction. Then the stores will purchase the material and issue it to necessary party at the required time.

Every material comes to the site will be accepted by the stores and then issued to the labors. Every worker of the site has to follow a formal procedure to release required material for the construction, from the stores. The procedure follows to issue any material for the construction work has mentioned below.

Stores will release the material to construction and send the MR to QS officerLabor or sub-contractor will inform the requirement of the materialsSupervisor will forward the Material Requisition (MR) to EngineerEngineer will sign the MR and give the note to Stores

The site visit was done at the initial stage of the project. Hence only the foundation has begun when our team went to visit the site. With the scarcity of the space at the site premises, lot of material such as sand, blocks and reinforcements were spread everywhere in the site. There wasnt much organization of the material storage at the site. However there was a storage container as the main store unit and one storekeeper was there. Some of the construction equipment, electrical items (bulbs, wires etc.) and few materials were stored at the storage container. Documentation of the material requisition and purchasing was done at the store (container) by the store-keeper.According to the site manager of the site, once the first floor is finished there will be a separate space for the stores at the first floor. Once that space is constructed, material could be properly stored without any problem. Separate space will provide for reinforcement storage and cement storage at the new stores.

SuggestionsMaterial procurement method and the issuing method at the site can be consider as good case practices in this site. It allows site quantity surveyor to have a proper control over the procurement costs. The method used for special material purchasing will minimize the wastage of the material. But the time taken for making the material requisition may delay the construction activity and in a situation where material is needed instantly the current process may not be practical.Storage of the site has not been satisfactory. It can cause several adverse effect on the continuity of the project. Since labors of the site can go out of the site and come back without any problem, the probability of stealing the material may increase. Accidents can be increased by disorganized storage of the material. Hence safety of the site can be adversely affected. Wastage can also be high due to improper storing. Therefore total cost of materials can increase.Even though the space is scared at the site it is necessary to optimized it for proper storing of the materials. It is necessary to give proper learning for the site labors about the proper material storage and moving them to construction activities. Material can be damaged or loss during the transportation from the storage to place of constructing. Therefore proper equipment such as wheel barrows should be used to transport the materials. Workers should be given proper safety wears such as gloves and boots. These practices will minimize the above mentioned adverse effects on the project.

8. Site meetings

Site meetings are meetings carried out with the parties of different stakeholders in order to achieve different goals. Daily MeetingsAs mentioned before, (under the human resource management section) there are various activities taking place in parallel at the site. As such, there is a requirement for all the stakeholders in the site to be brought to one page regarding the activities taking place in the site. This objective is achieved by having daily meetings, towards the end of the day.These meetings are generally headed by the site engineer. However, if there are any important announcements to be made regarding the progress of work or any major activity is close to atking place, the project manager heads the meeting. All the supervisors, store keeper, a member of the electrical department etc take part in these meetings.OBJECTIVES-To recap the dayswork : In order for each stakeholder tobe updated about the current progress of the project, all the relevant parties give their daily updates. This enables, the different supervisors to get an idea as to whether their future targets can be achieved. For example, if the formwork laying in one sector is delayed, it will affect the concreting of all sections not only of the delayed section.To update targets :Due to various external and internal reasons, the targets may need to be re assessed. This can be done at the daily meetings. Major targets are not adjusted in these meetings. Only minor adjustments are done.Get the necessary equipment, material and services required for the next day:In order to ensure that incidents like not having the required equipment, material or conditions not being present at the site the next day, Each supervisor will speak about what will happen during the next day and what is required for him to do his work. For example, if there is work to be done after nightfall the next day, he will request the electrical department to illuminate the required area.

Meetings with client/consultantAs mentioned earlier, the contractor is only one major stakeholder of the project. In order to update the consultant about the project and any changes etc a meeting with the consultant is held weekly. POINTS FOR IMPROVEMENTWhile as a whole, there were not many points that we could address, maybe if the daily meetings would address the situation of the project for 2or 3 days forward, rather than only the next day, it may reduce the last minute hectic work of getting down unique pieces of machinery eg compressorHowever, since there was no mention of difficulties in getting down material and equipment, it can be assumed that their already exists such a method.

10. Health, safety and welfareBuilding construction is a vast area that deals with various subjects with man power management. Man power management is also a vast subject which flows with different varieties. Building construction is all about managing man power, equipment and material in a given time frame. When this management process is going on there are different ways that have to follow in man power managing. Because working with people is way different from working with equipment and material. Not like machines and material people must have some sort of welfare facilities, safety requirements, health caring etc. And to have a maximum efficiency from working forces they must be given a friendly environment to work with. Because man power efficiency will directly affect the success of the project.Health, safety and welfare are fundamental issues to be granted in man power management. Because most of them are related with the lives of the people. Under working environment a good safety precautions have to be taken to guarantee the safety of the workers. Even though construction management is about handling billions of rupees human life cannot be tolerated by money under any circumstance. So health of the workers at the site has to be in a good condition. In construction sites there are various health hazards that workers have to deal with. Lots of health issues would arise to workers because of the conditions at work place. Dusty conditions, humid conditions, exposure to high thermal conditions, exposure to dangerous chemicals are few of the unhealthy environmental conditions which workers have to face. And there are various illnesses related with these bad conditions. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, occupational asthma, silicosis are only few examples related with construction industry. And these unhealthy environmental conditions can be created in various ways. When in our site visit also we could notice some of such activities and situations at that place. At the same time we could see some safety precautions they have taken to prevent such situations. In the site there is a unique officer who deals with safety matters of the site. That safety officer always check with the site conditions with safety.We could see lots of notices displayed at the site reminding the workers about safety. And there were some ethics and rules maintaining at the site in order to maintain the site safety. We could see every worker at the site wearing head gear to cover up their heads from hazard. And relevant people who are working with hard tools were wearing gloves. And we could see some workers without a proper foot wear too. As a safety practice this site is not allowed to enter any outsiders without any kind of a pre request. Major problem about this site is the space problem. They have to do all the construction work in a small area. And that site didnt have proper space to travel here and there. So that could also cause to some injuries. And we could see some workers working in some dangerous places as well. But any way there is some sort of a risk that everyone in the site has to take. That is a normal situation in every site. They cant provide a perfect hazard free environment, but they are trying to have such an environment as much as they can.This construction site is a twelve story building which is constructing on raft foundations. At the time were visiting the site, its form work has done to some extent in raft foundations. So in order to have a raft foundation, they had to do about 5 meters of excavation. At the same time the construction site is bordered by few high story buildings. So when the excavations are done they had to do some safety measurements to prevent settlements of the surrounding buildings. And they are maintaining a good concentration about their settlements by continuous surveying. And they have given the allowable tilt of the retaining walls as 100mms. And these walls were well secured using steel compression beams. And they are maintaining a good communication with surrounding people about any cracks appearing on their walls. Those steps can be identified as good safety precautions in order to prevent a huge catastrophe. To improve the safety level of the site they could add some more steps and features to the site. They can educate the labors about safety. And they can implement a new rule to wear shoes inside the site premises. And they can educate them how to give first aid to a person who is having an injury. And they can maintain a record of day today accidents happening at the site and take necessary actions to prevent those happening again at the site. If they can improve the lightening system at the site in night time it will create more safety environment for people who are working at the night time as well.

When considering about the welfare that is given to the laborers. People at the site were provided few facilities regarding their welfare. All laborers are insured by the contractor. So in case of an accident or any kind of a death of a worker they will claim them on behalf of his family or himself. There are safety regulations introduced on the construction company which guarantee the labor safety. And when the company is granting ISO standards also they have to complete some facts regarding labor safety. There they have stated to have an insurance coverage on every person at the site to have their standards on the site. All the laborers and workers have being provided the accommodation by the company. They normally give accommodations for them in nearby places to the site in primary stages of the site. And after some time if there is enough room in the construction site to give them accommodation at the site itself, they will be provided accommodation that way. Some days workers may have to work until mid-night to complete their work. So those days its not easy to travel to their places. And its quite necessary to give them such a welfare service to them. And it will improve their resting time after hard day of working at the same time it will ensure their arrival at the site at the right time. In addition to those welfare services they are given daily meal and tea at respective time periods. And all the sanitary facilities also provided in a good way. And there is a separate laborer to handle all the sanitary work for other construction laborers at the site. Good drinking water facilities are also provided to the laborers at the site.In addition to all those welfare services provided to the laborers all other people at the site also have all those facilities and a good working area. They have a well maintained site office to work with. It is air conditioned and inside it is well managed in order to have a good working environment. Even though this site is in a small plot of land, they have maintained to give them all these facilities to all the workers. And we could see a good management practice is going on at the site to achieve construction targets while maintaining healthy and safe working environment. And we could see site officers are also dealing friendly with the laborers. And they are having a good relationship between themselves. That is also an important aspect in construction management. Because good communication has to be maintained at each level to have an efficient construction project.