Samantha: Yeah, that’s an interesting perspective, actually. So Richard, what are some of the biggest issues that you would have, for example, for a construction manager on a large project as opposed to some of the smaller projects?
Richard: Okay, one of the biggest issues a construction manager faces on a large multi-story project, especially is…well, there’s probably two main ones. The supply of materials and materials handling. So we call one of them “supply chain management.” So as you can imagine on any project, at any one time, you can have 40-plus trades on site, and each one requires different materials and different delivery times.
So managing that process is quite arduous, ensuring that certain people are booked in at certain times. In most cases, you’ve only got one crane on site. If you’ve got the luxury of two cranes, that’s great. But you can imagine the process when you’ve got two or three trucks lining up and you’ve got to get them unloaded.
And then on top of that, you’ve got to look at the materials handling process of that. So once the materials arrived on site, on time, without causing problems to the whole neighborhood, you’ve managed to unload the gear. You then have to try and get it to the area that those people are working. And there’s many different ways of doing that in relation to using forklifts or trolleys or dollies, wheelbarrows, or anything of the type.
That’s a constant challenge to any construction manager, and that’s what keeps the job at ease and good harmony within the workplace. If the guys don’t have to walk down two floors to grab one stick of timber, then that makes a big difference to everybody and everybody can get their job done with a lot less stress and hassle. So they’re the two main elements a construction manager should focus on, that supply chain, and then the materials handling.
Samantha: I imagine, you’ve alluded to something there as well, which is that you’re not necessarily managing the people that are specifically allocated to the job. You’re also having to manage access to the site, neighboring properties, council regulations, all that sort of thing. Time of start and stop associated with that. So I imagine that that contributes to making that supply chain management and materials handling all the more complex, because you don’t have unrestricted access and you’re having to deal with the, shall we say, regulations associated with all of that as well, is that right?
Richard: Yeah. The regulations can be quite arduous. This requires a lot of pre-planning prior to the construction starting. Because you do have all sorts of different DA restrictions, which are your development application restrictions imposed to you by the council and any other regulatory authority that might be involved in the process. Organizations such as the unions or work cover and so on.
So it’s important that you’re aware of all of those, you preempt all of those prior to construction. So when you’re under full-steam, you’re fully aware of those, and you can ensure that you protect yourself all the way down to parking inspectors and anything like that. And obviously, the neighbors because if you annoy the neighbors, they can cause a lot of trouble for you, and you’ve got to ensure that the neighbors are living in harmony with a construction building right beside them. Which is never a good thing.
And another thing we didn’t cover as yet is waste management as well, which is a huge issue. Because anything that comes into the building, half of it has to go back out in relation to off-cuts, and packaging, and so on. If you turn back on that, before you know it, you can’t move on site. So the third process is also ensuring that the waste is managed appropriately. Nowadays, it has to be sorted. Most of it has to be recycled because of the costs of dumping mixed waste is off the charts. So waste management, especially recently, has become a major issue in our industry. And that’s another part of pre-planning prior to construction.
Samantha: Just going through all of these issues and challenges, talking about dealing with council regulations, unions, workplace health and safety, all of those sorts of things. I imagine it takes quite some years to get experience across all of these areas. To have all of that experience in the one or two roles on a project must be very challenging to come by.
Richard: Yeah, it is challenging. It takes a certain personality. You have to be tempered and patient. And ensure that you don’t people offside. You don’t get into arguments you don’t need to get into. You have to be firm obviously because it’s easy for people to walk over you, but you have to be fair and listen to people. And that way, everything should be harmonious and that’s the key. If you get a bad personality in the mix, like I stated before, things can unravel very quickly.
Samantha: You mentioned that one of the biggest challenges or obstacles to overcome relate to understanding the true cost of a building, and what’s involved, and the time that it takes as well. What can construction companies do to avoid or overcome some of that misunderstanding or misconception around the cost associated with that and delivering their projects successfully?
