Contractor City Blog

All organizations use projects as the way to translate strategies into actions and objectives into realities. Many companies are project-intensive – they live and breathe project management because they are in that kind of business, such as construction, aerospace, engineering design, engineer-procure-construct (EPC), general contractors, consulting, software, and so on. For them, organizing around projects is a natural way of life as almost all senior staff have “come up through the ranks”, and top management understands what it takes to be successful in project work. On the other hand are less project-intensive organizations such as food, retailing and textiles. But even such companies have projects, e.g., setting up a new distribution depot or a new plant. Even in public sector, it is effective project management that translates politicians’ visions of new roads, schools and hospitals into gleaming new constructions that improve everyday life.

Realization of objectives is not easy, though; especially in today’s increasingly complex and high-stake world – richer technology, distributed / global / outsourced workgroups, culture differences due to inorganic growth, cost pressures, new services and products, mass customization needs for demanding customers, compressed time-to-market, increasing market volumes and stricter regulatory requirements. Numerous studies and observations have Continue reading ‘The Importance of Project Management in Organizations’ »

In this article, we look at the specific benefits of a good document management system for the construction industry. We look at the industry processes and the documents typically generated in these. We will also look at how a construction company could achieve better business results through a good document management system.

Construction Industry Processes

The major processes for any sizable construction project include:

• Planning a project – purpose, funding, environmental impact, legal aspects
• Design – Drawings and Specifications
• Tendering – Inviting bids based on either the whole design or drawings and bill of quantities
• Preliminary cost estimations
• Evaluating the bids and awarding the contract
• Financial planning for profitability and timely cash availability
• Attending to legal aspects like obtaining permits, health & safety regulations, contract terms and conditions and others
• Scheduling the work considering the sequencing of different tasks and deadlines for completion
• Assembling needed materials, equipment, personnel and getting the work started
• Accounting, monitoring and progress chasing
• Inspections and handing over the completed structure to the owner

Each of the above processes (and sub-processes) generate considerable documents, with some of them creating massive volumes.

Planning and Design

Both the planning and design Continue reading ‘Document Management System in Construction Industry’ »