Development of Worker Safety Attitude Construct and Model in Oil & Gas Construction Projects

In construction industry, there are lots of factors that affect accident rate. Attitude of the worker is the one of factors which has influence to it. Thus, worker attitude is important to prevent accident from occurring.

The companies have implemented a lot of safety programs in construction site to reduce the accident rate in the construction industry. Also, they want to increase productivity of their work. However, the safety programs might have influences to worker positively and negatively. The companies must be alarmed and take extra care in these both effects of safety programs.

Although there are many researchers conducted study related to safety programs, still the problem now is that, companies do not know how to develop workers’ attitude. Therefore, companies cannot implement safety programs to make safety attitude and behavior for workers in construction site.

Mr. Thanaporn Buaklom made a research which aimed to determine the worker’s attitude constructs and model in Oil and Gas industry. To accomplish this primary objective, three specific objectives were also needed as follows:

• To develop safety attitude constructs and model.

• To study the implementation level of safety program in Oil and Gas industry.

• To determine the correlation between safety program and worker attitude.

Conclusion

The effect of difference worker attitude base on Age and Experiences to worker attitude

As the result of this study, age and experience were analyzed to determine their different effects to safety worker attitude. Normally, the age and experience have effect to the worker attitude. However, in the Oil and Gas projects, they play more attention in safety occupation. Thus, the safety attitude was established at the beginning stage of work, and it was found out that the age and experience have no influence to the worker attitude. In conclusion, the age and experiences of worker have no effect to worker attitude in Oil and Gas projects.

Development of worker attitude constructs and model

There are six factors for worker attitude constructs found. The worker attitude was established from the environmental impact such as worker experience, company support, and personal perception and so on. Therefore, to develop the worker attitude, the important factors have to consider. In addition, this study found the factors that construct the worker attitude. If the companies try to improve worker attitude, they have to improve these factors such as Personal motivation for safe behavior; Personal effectiveness; Positive safety practice; External motivation; Cognitive; and Belief

These factors present the element to improve worker attitude in construction work. The personal motivation for safe behavior is the most effective to worker attitude, because this factor is influenced by the company’s motivation to do their work safely. In addition, the worker can improve their behavior following these factors. Moreover, each factor can represent some element as shown in the table below.


The implementation level of safety programs in Oil and Gas industry

This objective measured the implementation level of safety program. To achieve this objective, this study distributed questionnaire to safety managers, and conducted an interview to know how they implement the safety programs in their company. Moreover, the data was ranked by the implementation of safety programs. The result is shown in the table below.

The meanings of range are:
Ranges Level of implementation
1.00-1.50 Poor level
1.51-2.50 Fair level
2.51-3.50 Good level
3.51-4.00 Excellent level

The meaning of ranges explained about implementation level as elaborated in the previous chapter.


As the result of this study, there are two safety programs which were most implemented 1) In house safety rule 2) Personnel Protection Equipment. These two safety programs are provided for carefully preventing the accident with worker. These are proactive safety programs, which implement before the accident occurred. The reasons for implementing these programs are to easily supervise the worker. Therefore, the safety managers prefer to implement these two programs. Thus, these programs are highest implementation level in oil and Gas industry.

On the other hand, the behavior base safety program has the lowest level of implementation because this program builds for change the risk behavior of worker. For example, the worker is risk taker, who want to work with risk behavior, behavior base safety program are provided to change the behavior of worker; to work safely which is difficult to change. Therefore, this safety program has a lowest level implementation.

As the result of this study, the implementation level of safety programs show the capability of company to implement the safety programs in their company. Each company has different approach to implement safety programs. Some company want to emphasize on management programs, thus, the company will provide more special safety programs. Especially in Oil and Gas industry, they have more safety programs to implement in their work places. Therefore the implementation level of safety program tends to have high implementation level.

The Regression model between safety programs and worker attitude

This research used multiple regression method to find the correlation between safety programs and worker attitude. The data was collected from safety managers and workers in Oil and Gas industry.

The result showed that, there are no significant relationship between safety programs and worker attitude. The model summary of multiple regressions show R square equals .083 which means safety programs has correlation to worker attitude only by 8.3% Consequently, the correlation among safety programs and safety attitude is very low.

The main reason that makes this situation occurred is the assessment of safety program which cannot use to predict the relationship between safety programs and worker attitude in Oil and Gas project. Moreover, there are many factors which affects to worker attitude as cognitive and personal perception. Thus, the safety program cannot signify which safety programs have direct influence to worker attitude.

On the contrary, the safety programs have impact to worker attitude in term of indirect way to worker. This effect encouraged the worker to work safely in the site. This effect is shown by the average that worker attitude is high. This means that the worker attitude have effect from safety programs.

The correlation between organization and worker attitude

These analyses determined the correlation between organization and worker attitude in the company. The relationship between organization factor and worker attitude is the effect of organization to safety attitude. Normally, the organization factors have influences to company employee. In this study, the researcher focused on the influence of organization to worker attitude.

To achieve the objective, which organization factors were implemented in the company, safety managers were interviewed, and the worker attitude comes from the factors analysis.

The result showed that there is a little correlation occurred between personal effectiveness of worker and organization structure, leadership, management style, communication, job responsibility, training and trust. The result explained that the relationship among organization factors and worker attitude is in term of personal effectiveness.

Conclusion, the personal effectiveness is sensitive with the organization factors. There is a small correlation between personal effectiveness and organization factors; while it is evident the other organization factors have no relationship with factor of worker safety attitude.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted below.

Abstract

The construction industry started to boom recently. The construction works have greatly impact in developing the economy particularly in Thailand. Many infrastructures have been built and many investors have been encouraged to bring their business in the country. Many new technologies have been used to upgrade the construction process, but despite of this new knowledge, problems keep on arising at different level in any construction site. Therefore, this research was conducted to study about safety in construction work which is specifically related to safety attitude of worker.

Moreover, the safety programs in construction works were also studied. There were three objectives in this study such as follow:
(1) to develop worker attitude construct and model;
(2) to study the implementation level of safety programs in Oil and Gas industry; and
(3) to determine the correlation between safety programs and worker attitude.

In order to carry out the research objectives, the author collected data from workers and safety managers by using questionnaire. These data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. In addition, the safety managers were interviewed to understand more the safety occupation they applied in their companies.

As the result of this study, the worker safety attitude construct was found having six factors. These are personal motivation for behavior, personal effectiveness, positive safety practice, external motivation, cognitive and belief. These factors represent the worker attitude, which the company can apply to develop more the worker attitude.

For the implementation level of safety programs, the result of this study shown that the safety programs were more implemented in the work place. It was also found out that among the safety programs which implemented; in-house safety rules and personal protection Equipment have the highest levels.. In the contrary, behavior base safety has the lowest level of safety programs implementation.

The correlation study between safety programs and worker attitude revealed that these two have no correlation at all. These can explain that the safety program have indirect impact to worker attitude. Moreover, there are many factors which affect the worker attitude. Thus the safety programs are not the only possible reasons having direct impact to worker attitude. iv
In conclusion, this study suggests to policy implementers, construction firms and to the reader to develop factors for worker attitude too. The implementation levels of safety program are shown. Therefore, this research can be of great help to the construction industry to develop safety occupation in the future.

Internationalization Process of Pakistani Contractor

The fourth paper “Internationalization Process of Pakistani Contractor” which was presented during the International Design and Construction Management Forum in Hilton Millennium Hotel, Bangkok on March 13-15, 2011 is authored by Mr. Hassan Fazliani.

His full paper presentation is posted below.

Construction Claim Negotiation In International Projects

Mr. Ahsen Maqsoom is the third student who presented his paper entitled “Construction Claim Negotiation In International Projects” during the International Design and Construction Management Forum in Hilton Millennium Hotel, Bangkok on March 13-15, 2011.

The topic of his doctoral research is “Factors affecting the internationalization of multinational construction firms”. Below is his full poster presentation.

Building Trust in Contractor - Owner Relationships: Case Study in Vietnam

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam is one of the Doctoral students who presented his paper during the International Design and Construction Management Forum in Hilton Millennium Hotel, Bangkok on March 13-15, 2011. The title of his presentation was “Building Trust in Contractor - Owner Relationships: Case Study in Vietnam”.

His poster presented is posted below.

Theoretical Framework of Strategic behaviors in Thai contractors: an empirical case study

Four students from the Construction, Engineering and Infrastructure Management field of study presented their paper during the International Design and Construction Management Forum in Hilton Millennium Hotel, Bangkok on March 13-15, 2011.

One of the presenters, Colonel Arthasith Hastheetham presented his paper on “Theoretical Framework of Strategic behaviors in Thai contractors: an empirical case study”. This study is also published in Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 2011, Vol.18 issue 2.

CEIM open applications for August 2011 Intake.

We open the application for August 2011 intake for AIT Thailand campus. Limited numbers of scholarships are available for talented applicants. Some of the scholarships are Royal Thai Government scholarship, The King of Thailand scholarship, The Queen of Thailand Scholarship, Asian Development Bank scholarship etc.

What is CEIM? CEIM master and doctoral programs aim to prepare engineers to manage large construction projects starting from planning, design, tendering, construction and commissioning.

What will you learn? you will learn important knowledge and skills in project management in construction such as project planning/scheduling, project cost and financial management, organizational management, project contract, project risk, project quality management, project performance management and project financing.

Where will you work after graduation? You can work in strategic industries that highly need project management such as:
- Contractors (highway, building, oil/gas and energy)
- Consultants
- Property and real estate developers
- Bank and Invesment companies
- Public Private Partnership Consortium
- Financial and Banking institutions that lend fundings for construction projects
- hotel and apartment development
- oil and gas construction

What else will you learn during your study with us in AIT?
AIT is a very multicultural insitute. Our students and faculty members come from different parts of the world such as Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Taiwan, Pakistan, Indonesia, China, Korea, European Union. Aside from studying knowledge, you will also learn different cultures and different ways of thinking from your friends; and develop your global international networking.


Please contact CEIM Secretary (Ms. Woranuch, phone 025246060 or email woranuch@ait.ac.th) for further information.

Visit CEIM: http://www.set.ait.ac.th/ceim
How to apply? http://www.ait.ac.th/AIT/admissions/admissions


Regards
Dr. BHW Hadikusumo
Associate Professor
CEIM Coordinator
MPM Coordinator

Communication ManagementiIn Construction

One of the traits and probably the most important factor in all successful construction projects is communication both internal and external. So, how the communication would be helpful for construction targets? What effective measures and medium should be used in modern construction now? What is the adverse way/manner in construction communication that should be avoided and eliminated for ensuring smooth and as good as practice performance/activities in construction?

There are a lot of possible problems of communication in construction. Each of those also can negatively affect to the goal and success of construction project. The most common problems related to communication in construction are the following:
- Miscommunication or misaddressing
- Misunderstanding due to misinterpretation or misconception
- Unclear/ambiguous understanding
- Lack of link or interruption of connection of communication
- Cultural barriers and/or language differences
- Complexity of the unique construction or very high technology
- Too extensive of scope
- Inadequate information, time constraint, insufficient control
- Conflict and/or poorly informed participants

Mr. Du Thien Duc made a case study on the Tallest Tower in HCMC project. Due to limited time and resources, his report only focused on the following objectives:

i. Identify what and how an appropriate/effective communication should be useful in a construction project.

ii. Study the application of communication in a case of construction of the tallest tower now in Hochiminh city: THE 68-story BITEXCO FINANCIAL TOWER.

Conclusion

Communication is always an indispensable necessity and demand of individual, collectivity, community, and organization. In construction and for construction projects, especially for big project or trans-countries project, such regard becomes more and more important. It plays a vital role for the link of all resources to create a collective and common force for the well-performance of the project, hence bring benefits to every involved individual and team/group, company, community and society.

Building an effective and powerful communication system for a construction project is not a simple/easy work at all. It demands good background, expertise platform, life experienced and a brain-storming as well as an open soul and inspiration; and – of course – subject to the specificity, particularity and size of the desired construction project.

All manners and measures are settled for the ultimate goal: the success of the project - meant benefits brought to the clients, contractors, supplier, all parties involved, community and society.

The success of construction project also mean success in every phase of the project. Therefore the communication plan or method applied to the project should be deployed and mobilized effectively and productively through every stage of the construction project such as:

Planning stage:
- Quite understand the intention of the client; the purposes and functions of the project.
- Deeply discuss and consult with the client for common understanding
- Collect experience from expert on each specific and particular disciplines of the constructed project, to learn the best estimation on technique, technology, cost and schedule.
- Anticipate and evaluate the pros and cons for the project; and then exchange, dialogue with the client and project team.
- Create a harmonious team which will result in perfect teamwork consists of project management, conceptual architects, quantity surveyors and the authorized representatives of the client.

Design stage:
- Clearly classify and discriminate sets of drawings: architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, façade, curtain wall, interior, setting-out, schematics, plan and section layout
- Collect and then select a qualified list of designers with the approval from the client.
- Timely and validly update for revised set of drawings or bulletin so that any update of drawings is always recorded, documented and controlled.

Construction stage:
- All contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, installer, and others must conform to and comply with a very clear, strong and powerful project procedure.
- A very effective and valid method and means of communication is media. This will not be interrupted and limited as much as expected on the variant, deformation or distortion of the information transmitted to the destination.
- Have an effective mechanism of sending, receiving and feed-back of information.
- A very clear, transparent, friendly and open-minded mechanism for inter-communicating between the client, project management and contractors, suppliers.
- Instruction or notices should be prompt, timely, and accurate.

Close-out stage:
- Clear instruction and schedule for contractors to hand-over.
- Close coordination with the client for taking-over
- Thorough checking for the compliance of local and international codes.
- Documentation of all paper works for hand-over and take-over process.
External relations and communication:
- To court, to win the popularity, especially for the supports from local
authorities and press, public opinion.
- To strictly keep the security of adjacent community and environment.
- Keep informing and communicating positively with press and media.
- To create opportunity and influence for any possible chance.

Always consider the very important role of external communication, public and media, and especially the support from local authorities and community.

Important role of ICT and advanced technology:

Role of ICT – information & communication technology plays important and efficient factors in project communication. Telecom and Communication equipment/devices in a construction project should be sufficient, redundant, back-up and standby and as advanced as possible. Computers, servers and routers used in construction site, document control as well as project management should be powerful and durable; sufficient to handle a lot of information coming at the same time. And also be ready for a satellite leased lines for contingency.

For a very big project or trans-country/trans-border construction project, an intermediate server and/or share-point; share-archive is recommended for convenience and help for inter-communication.

Recommendations

The communication system for construction project must satisfy the following requirements:
- Only one common language (English) to be used in the project.
- Simple & precise.
- Prompt & instant
- Clear & accurate
- Internal & external
- Suitable & proper for any circumstance
- Effective and productive
- Timely and synchronous
- Friendly and appropriate

Communication in construction project is the art of control, monitoring, verification, recording and documentation. Obviously, a lot of factors affect to the process; positively and negatively as well. This requires the project management to be smart to filter and identify what are the helpful and active things that bring the advantages and conveniences to the project implementation.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

Everyone is aware on the legend of “Tower of Babel”. According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where they resolved to build a city with a tower "with its top in the heavens...lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the Earth". God came down to see what they did and said: "They are one peoples and have one language, and nothing will be withheld from them which they purpose to do." So God said, "Come, let us go down and confound their speech." And so God scattered them upon the face of the Earth, and confused their languages, and they left off building the city, which was called Babel "because God there confounded the language of all the Earth." (Genesis 11:5-8).

The legend “Tower of Babel” has often been associated and implied with the impossibility, the delay in completion of a program, a schedule, a target because of weak or deficiency of communication in the process; particularly in construction process .

That is the story in the old days; how about of the similar case in nowadays? Let see a piece of news of BRE (Building Research Establishment, Scotland – enquiries@bre.co.uk _ www.bre.co.uk):

Poor Communication Costing UK Construction Industry
PRESS RELEASE
It is estimated that defects in the UK construction industry, many of which are the result of the inefficient use and communication of information, cost at least £20 billion to correct every year.

In Vietnam, yet a comprehensive report on losses and damages caused by unsound communication in construction but through over many poor-quality construction project completed; it is affirmable that poor, bad, insufficient, ineffective, improper, and so on related to communication are involved.

• What is project communication? Project communication is a link which connects the major goals of a project: time schedule – quality expected – cost estimated and safety requirement.
• Why project communication is important? Because depending on the thoroughness, comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the communication; the goals of the project would be perfect and as expected or not.

From this viewpoint, the objective of this report is to study on various factors impact to communication in construction projects and how to improve the communication in construction so that it can help and support the construction management team to get the planned targets effectively and conveniently.

Application Of FIDIC Contract In Bridge Project

FIDIC is a document that has been used worldwide and is constantly updated with new versions. The application of this provision was to raise the efficiency of project management in Vietnam and help the Government to improve the basis of their legal system on the Project Management. However, in practice, there are still some contents which are inappropriate and not feasible when applied to projects in Vietnam.

In order to improve the efficiency of the application of FIDIC in Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Thu Trang made a case study on Can Tho Bridge Construction Project. The objective of his study were to: (1) analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using FIDIC as a standard contract; and (2) propose recommendations for improvements.

Conclusion

The applications of FIDIC conditions of contracts for projects using ODA in Vietnam are:
- as a basis for the competent agencies of Vietnam's research, and
- update current regulations to gradually access the international practices, as well as to complete the domestic policies to make them applicable in a feasible way.

Although there are some disadvantages, in overall, FIDIC conditions of contract are clear and it demonstrates fairness to both parties, especially for contractors compared with provisions of current contract in Vietnam.

Recommendations

For improvements of FIDIC
The process of negotiating and signing contracts for ODA projects in Vietnam today is shown in the figure below.

The proposed procedure of negotiating and signing contracts is shown in the figure below.

The following contents must be specified during the contract negotiation through the Particular Conditions of Contract:

- Two parties must identify the time(s) for inspecting the overall progress. If the Contractor does not meet the required progress at such specified inspection times, then countermeasures must be taken.

- If the Engineer opined that such countermeasures submitted by contractor are not satisfactory, or the violation of progress of Contractor after being fined the maximum rate specified in the contract, the Engineer has the right to request the Employer to transfer a part of the contract or the whole contract to another contractor. If the cost transferred to the new contractor is higher than that in the contract of the contractor to be replaced, the replaced contractor has to bear such cost.

- In order to ensure strict management of quantities in the contract, construction diaries must be accurate, specific and confirmed by the Engineer, so that, when disputes arise, their solution will be based on such diaries.

The Employer need to provide sufficient basis to convince the Sponsor to agree when reviewing the contract
For improvements of Vietnamese Regulation of Contract

Currently, the Decree No. 48/2010/NĐ-CP dated 07 May 2010 issued by the Prime Minister applied in all projects under Government’s Budget. Comparison of some Clauses between FIDIC and Decree 48 showed in the table below.

Some recommendations to improve the implementation contract under this Decree:
- Responsibility of Employer: need to specify in detail and perform strictly during contract implementation.

- Variation Procedure: The Executing Agency (Ministry) needs to expand the authorization to IA and Engineer on this issue to shorten the process.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

Official Development Assistance fund (ODA) has brought a major change for transportation infrastructure system in Vietnam, starting in the early '90s. Rural transport systems, provincial roads and national highways, expressways, major bridges has really brought a new face for the transportation system, connecting and promoting the economic development of many regions nationwide.

The management and effective use of these funds are the issues that the Government always attaches importance because it not only brings economic and social efficiency, but also to create credibility with donors as ODA loans to low interest rates with aimed at "Development Assistance".

Management of Road System Construction under the General Construction Planning by the year 2020 of Cau Giay District, Hanoi City

Nowadays, the urbanization is witnessed almost all over the world and has become an inevitable trend given the increasing economic development. However, there has raised a challenge that the development of local technical infrastructures is failing to catch up with the urbanization speed, thus, failing to be a facilitator for the economic growth.

Cau Giay District is one of Hanoi’s newly-developed districts, which has been recorded with a high-speed urbanization level and a lot of newly-built street and road systems. However, a lot of weaknesses from the district’s road systems have revealed. These problems have become increasingly challenging especially given the growing urbanization process and economic development of Cau Giay district. Therefore, it is essential to thoroughly study the current situation of Cau Giay’s road construction and planning to find solutions for more efficient construction management and planning of the district’s road networks as well as better in accordance with the general construction plan at the present and in the future.

Mr. Le Van Thu made a case study which objectives were: (1) analysis and assessment on road system construction under the general construction planning of Cau Giay District, Hanoi City; and (2) proposal for management and planning solutions to improve efficiency of road system construction under the general construction planning of Cau Giay District, Hanoi City.

Conclusion

Some new roads have been planned and developed in accordance with the approved planning, forming beautiful, modern and synchronous streets for technical infrastructure and landscape, settling difficulties occurred from the urbanization process. Management of construction planning has been regulated and improved suitable to the practice for the first step.

Beside the attained results in the road system management construction planning, there are still shortcomings to be settled: construction of many roads is in confusion, not in accordance with the planning; the spontaneous building of works along streets still exists and is not timely prevented. The reality requires strengthening management of construction planning of the road system re-organization of construction administration agency, improvement of inspection and supervision of construction in conformity to the planning, supplementation and completion of regulations on disciplines for violations in road construction.

Therefore, we have to correctly assess the real situation of the construction and development of the road system subject to the construction planning to give solutions for effective management and construction, contributing to and accelerating the development of Cau Giay District in coming time.

Mr. Thu’s thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

The district of Cau Giay is one of Hanoi’s districts achieving high-speed urbanization level. Along the district’s urbanization process, many new traffic systems have been constructed and developed, contributing to renovating and modernizing the general urban picture of Hanoi in general and of the district in particular. However, beside the achievements, there remained a lot of weaknesses in the district’s construction and management of urban traffic systems, especially in that of road systems. This study points out the significant problems existing in Cau Giay’s construction and management of road systems. Among those is the development of road systems in the districts are not catching up with Hanoi’s current urbanization process.

In fact, the construction and management of urban landscape along the district’s streets is not efficient. The local technical infrastructures in some areas of the district are not modern and synchronous enough. There remain a lot of problems in the activities of technical infrastructure construction management in accordance with the district’s general construction plan. Based on the facts and figures, the study refers to the theories to describe the roles of road systems in the city’s urbanization process as well as the role of planning road networks in the city’s general urban plan. It also mentions the requirements and legal basis of road system management under the general construction plan.

In the following part, the study use Cau Giay as a case study for this topic, in which solutions to all the existing problems in the district’s road systems management are analyzed so that the road system development is in accordance with the district’s general construction plan by 2020.

To the study’s conclusion, it is essential to build traffic systems synchronized with the district’s other technical infrastructure systems. At the same time, there need to pay more attention in improvement of the local residents’ compliance with the regulations on construction. In addition, the study also emphasizes that importance of building short-term investment plan within the long-term plan for road system construction and attract the other investment sources beside the state budget by encouraging the various investment forms such as BT (Build- Transfer), BOT (Build – Operate – Transfer) and BTO (Build – Transfer – Operate).

MPM Field Trip in AIT-Thailand

Arrival at the Suvarnabhumi Airport on February 26.



First lecture on Commercial Course under Mr. Burin on February 27.



First site visit: Perfect Part Rama V Project on February 28.



Briefing at the MRT Purple Line Office on February 28.



Second site visit: MRT Purple Line (Bangyai-Bangsue) on February 28.



Lecture on Real Estate under Dr. Theerathon on March 1.



Lecture on Highrise building under Mr. Noppadol on March 2.



Third site visit: Pruksa Precast Factory on March 3.


The students had 2 more site visits at Highrise building Bangkok on March 3, and at Dow Chemicals on March 4.

They also had a lecture in Petrochemical under Mr. Hussarungsri, Mr. Chaiwichit and Mr. Kanchai with Mr. Kiatkhajon who served as Facilitator, and lecture in Applied Management in Airport Project under Mr. Hoang Man Chi.

Development Infrastructure Program to Support the Van Don Economic Zone

Infrastructure plays an important role in the economic development of Viet Nam and Economic zones. Since Van Don Economic Zone will focus on maritime tourism, financial and trading services unlike most of the Economic Zones which focus on industrial development, a wide range of economic activities are permitted in the VDEZ.

The development of utilities infrastructure is a principal prerequisite for the successful implementation of the Van Don EZ. Mr. Pham Van Thanh made a case study which objectives were to: (1) investigate and identify key infrastructure for developing Van Don economic zone; (2) determine the overall progress of the program and analyzing the feasibility of the program and the critical difficulties in capital investment; and (3) propose solutions and recommendations from the state authority’s point of view for developing infrastructure system.

Conclusion

The case study had analyzed the development of infrastructure at the Van Don economic zone, which is defined as dynamic economic development and regional areas. The analyses revealed that:
• Infrastructure development plays a decisive role in the development of economic zones in particular and economic sector in general.

• The investment in infrastructure construction needs a large and sustained fund, while the project has long life cycle, many risks, capital recovery is slow, and less attractive to investors.

• At the macro level, Government will play a major role in investment and development of public infrastructure, because the investment in infrastructure development is low financial benefit but high in Socio-economic benefits and security social welfare.

• State funding is not enough, thereby diversifying investments fund is necessary solutions for allocation of the risk of capital scarcity in the future.

Besides making uniformity of implementation planning, analysis to develop sustainable financial resources for infrastructure development is a critical condition. Diversify forms of capital to increase capacity to mobilize capital in the application of financial modeling is essential. Special issue of privatization, project finance, public private partnership should be carefully considered depending on the maturity level of the economy as well as the sustained commitment of the government through the mechanism management.

Advanced methods can be successfully applied in developed countries but by no means will succeed when brought into Vietnam without appropriate adjustments, there are reasons for differences in the provisions of policies and economic conditions - social, especially when developed countries already have experience and maturity level of the market economy.

The adoption and implementation of the program should have a general policy relating to all political system in which government plays a key role in forming the mechanism.

Recommendation for Improving Developing Infrastructure Program

Within the scope of research at the Van Don economic zone, the author proposes three other group solutions in policy mechanisms to ensure the viability of the programs such as:

1. Source of State Capital Financial Risk

• Government needs to approve the plan capital allocated for investment in infrastructure of Van Don economic zone in a 5-year cycle. This program needs to be passed by National Assembly.

• Government should allow Quang Ninh province actively planning and using land fund along the highway to create capital from land use fees for development infrastructure.

• Allows the Quang Ninh province to keep and use tax revenues in Van Don EZ to invest in infrastructure construction.

This policy will ensure the resources of the state capital and overcome the risks of capital investment.

2. Government Support Public Infrastructure investors

• Complete planning and publicizing a list of infrastructure projects, which required investment.

• Government should issue legal and Regulatory Framework of PPP, PF, Concession model, to ensure the objectives of attracting private sector capital in the country and foreign investment in developing infrastructure to provide public services.

• Governments should publicize the commitment when establishing forms of cooperation in Public-Private Partnership or Private public infrastructure project.

• Create all favorable conditions and methods to ensure the recoverability capital and interest of enterprise or SPV company.

3. Government Support Business investors

Development of infrastructure for economic and social development. Economic and social development, and business development are the keys to making business in public infrastructure a success. Thus, promoting business investment has an important role but might also the cause of infrastructure investment.

• Special tax incentives for investment projects in the VDEZ, profit repatriation and reinvestment incentives.

• Special land tax and leasing rates.

• Simplified and fast approval process for key development initiatives.

• Special incentives and simplified approval process for foreign skilled workers.

• Land allocation complete with infrastructural facilities provided to expedite development.

• A more liberal policy on housing ownership and lease arrangements for Vietnamese, Overseas Vietnamese residents, Permanent Residents and Foreign Investors.

• A preferential policy to regulate sources of revenue and increase reinvestment capital.

• To establish special development funds to promote development initiatives in Van Don.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

Vietnam is developing country having population of about 90 millions. From 90s year of 20th century, After 20 years of renovation, Vietnam has achieved important milestone in economic development, politics, society as well as foreign affairs such as remaining sustainable and high development rate (average 10% per year), stable politics, attractive and potential market to foreign investors. Nowadays, Vietnam has become member of UN, WTO and many international organizations and forums, especially playing important role in ASEAN. Vietnam has never have great opportunities and challenges to develop country like now.

Vietnam also located in trading hub area and economical corridors of region. In order to utilize such advantages with consideration to importance of economical integration to provide equal development in country wide, Vietnam has established 15 costal economical zones in decision 1353/QD-TTg dated 23 September 2008. It will be cores and driving forces for economic development of Vietnam.

However, one of basic and key matter obstructing the development of Vietnam like other economies also, is the lack of financial capital to improve the shorted infrastructures Providing proper policies and directions to mobilize capital sources investing in infrastructure development in economic zones is the key of Vietnamese economic development policy to promote the effects of such economic zones.

This research focus study on Van Don economic zone of Quang Ninh province, which is one of costal economic zone established in year 2007 according to decision 120/QD-TTg dated 26 July 2007, and having administrative and natural area of 2171km2 and 553km2 respectively. It is northern costal economic zone having many potentials regarding to tourist, luxury recreational, industry and high-tech industry, and free trade. Study of mechanism, funding program of infrastructure development support for this economic zone is the objective of this research.

Schedule Planning and Control in Engineering, Procurement and Construction Project

In Vietnam, many building projects funded by government experienced budget overrun and schedule delay. The main reason is lack of knowledge in applying project planning and control, and also how to use the proven principles and methodologies of modern project management techniques to improve the projects performance. In order to understand the impact of project planning and control in project implementation, a case study was explored, and its results show the strengths, weakness, and consequences. However, there are also some problems that can occur when applying project planning and control such as cultural thought, political and social systems, lack of knowledge and inexperienced consultants. As a result, the negative effectiveness of unsuccessful practice of EPC project schedule planning and control can lead to more budget overruns and schedule delays.

Applying modern project management techniques in schedule planning and control for EPC project which funded by government is very difficult. It is important to explore the practice of EPC project schedule planning and control. Therefore, Mr. Vo Si Hoai made a case study on city hall project to increase a better understanding on schedule planning and control systems, and how it can be applied effectively in construction projects.

The objectives of his study were to: (1) identify schedule planning process in EPC project; (2) study and develop the schedule of each stage in EPC project; (3) develop schedule planning and control in EPC project; and (4) identify the potential problem, consequence and solution in EPC contract, also identify the advantage and advantage as suggestion should apply the EPC contract for which of project well as.

Conclusion

The case study found out that there is similar EPC project planning strategy from local EPCC. It can be concluded that EPC project planning strategy in terms of design, procurement and construction from EPCC has been aligned and organized, but, in terms of schedule aspects, it has been yet organized. Major improvements are needed for the EPC project planning strategy in EPCC in order to improve the management performance. In contrast, it can be concluded that the EPCC planning strategy has been aligned and organized in all aspects. However, there are some major points, which need to be improved in order to strengthen and continually improve the strategy performance. This study found out the good points and the “not” good point yet of schedule planning and control as shown in the table below.

Recommendations

Re-evaluate current project planning e.g. schedule planning and control in project implementation, and explore the possibility of training for weak areas. Encourage an expert in project management to explore ways to fund and put in place a specialized body of knowledge, potential certification program and cooperate with world’s project management community for the advancement of professional and its disciplines.

The recommendations to improve the schedule planning and control are shown in the table below.


His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

Nowadays, construction market is growing rapidly in Vietnam so that the needs of knowledge of professional project management are very necessary. Many high-rise building construction projects funded by government are implemented using traditional method for project management. Lacking of knowledge of applying the proven principles and methodologies of modern EPC project management techniques is one of the reasons that cause project delay and cost overrun. Schedule planning and control is one of the factors that project managers have a lot of interest. By investigating and analyzing the weakness, and consequence for EPC project schedule planning and control in public building project funded by government, the result show the reasons cause schedule delay and cost overrun are the method delivery, using professional project management software, and lack of modern EPC project management knowledge of Vietnamese project manager. Therefore, the government should encourage professional with experience in project management to explore ways to fund and put in place a specialized body of knowledge, potential certification program and cooperate with world’s project management community for the advancement of professional and its disciplines.

A Study on Risk of Delay in Power Plant Projects

During 35 years of recovery and development, Vietnam economy has become stable and strongly developed. Many factories have been opened and producing a large quantity of goods for domestic and international market. Therefore, the demands of electric power become essential. Understanding this huge demand, Vietnam has focused on developing the domestic power production.

Looking at the picture of Power development in Vietnam, and with the characteristics, complexity and high rate of construction and installation, all of the Power project must be done under EPC Contract. EPC contract is the best solution that has been selected for such project in Vietnam. Like any other types of Contract, risk of delay also occurs in EPC contract under different stage such as:
- Engineering: Delay caused by change in design, lack of input data, and mistake in design
- Procurement: Risk of transportation, shortage of material, and cost fluctuation
- Construction: execution capability, inappropriate construction management, and bad coordination

There are a lot of participants who take part in Power Plant Project, and each of party plays a different role and therefore carries a different potential risk of delay. When delay occurs, it will not only affect the time schedule, but also the cost, and quality of project. Understanding delay factors and root causation is a foundation to help Vietnamese companies to develop their project management system, thus to avoid risk of delays in future projects.

Mr. Nguyen Le Minh made a case study on Nhon Trach 1 combined cycle power plant project in Dong Nai, Vietnam. The purpose of his study were to: (1) identify & classify delay events in Thermal Power Plant Project; (2) investigate major delay events, detail analysis to find out delay behaviors and main causations; and (3) propose recommendation for improving so that such delays and causation factors can be prevented for future projects.

Conclusion

From the case study of Nhon Trach 1 Power Plant, out of 10 major delays that have been found out, there are 5 delays which are critical to the whole projects. These factors are events in engineering stage, procurement stage, and construction phase. In these 10 delays, 4 factors are caused by owner, 1 factor by consultant, 3 factors by unforeseen condition and 4 factors by contractor.

By analyzing situations and key factors, it was discovered that the major delay behaviors includes:
i) Owner’s failure in making timely decision
ii) Owner’s failure in following up contract commitment
iii) Consultant’s mistakes in design/specification
iv) Contractor’s mistakes in project scheduling, planning
v) Contractor make fault in project management
vi) Lack of cooperation among Parties
vii) Unforeseen/unpredictable situations causing delay

These factors are also classified into:
i) Technical factors: 5 events
ii) Managerial factors: 4 events
iii) External factors: 3 events

We can see that the causations come from not only Contractor but also Owner and Consultant, which postulates a gap in large scale project management of Vietnamese companies (in the role of either Owner, Consultant or Constructor) when being compared with international level.

Although the study may not present typical situations for all Power Plant Projects, it still demonstrates some delay causations that properly happen in power plant projects in Vietnam, including:
i) Inability of large scale project management from Owner, Contractor and Consultant;
ii) Being inactive in problem solving due to bureaucracy mechanism; and
iii) Parties’ interaction which is based on personal relationship rather than contract commitment.

For each delay factor occurred in this project, and to prevent such root causations in this project that may re-occurs in the future, below are recommendations which have to be considered.

i) Establishing a Site Coordination Board: Most of problems can be reduced or eliminated impacts by strengthening cooperation among Parties. Therefore, it’s very important that the project should have an efficient information transmit and coordination system. It should have a Coordination Board comprises of members of all Parties (Owner, Consultant, Contractor, Subcontractor), this Board makes sure that information and coordination will be transferred from top managers to site supervisors. Coordination Board is supposed to take responsibility of analyzing any arising problem and suggest most suitable solutions.

ii) Employing advance management technology: Most of Contractors in Vietnam haven’t fully developed a total management system. Instead of this, they usually use human experience and old management mechanism which is mostly based on paper and meeting work. This system is hard to manage a huge information and activities of large scale projects. To fulfill large requirement of power projects, Contractors should apply advanced management technology (i.e. Primavera) as the first step; and build up an own management system for their long-term development.

iii) Improving contract management competency: Most of local companies consider Contract just a binding of cost and payment. In fact, Contract binds responsibility, authority, scope of work and of Participants. Learning from the case study, Owner, Consultant and Contractor sometime cannot comply with Contract commitment, which cause delay in the whole projects. Hence, it’s very critical for domestic companies to understand and comply with the contract thoroughly.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

In recent years, construction industry in Vietnam has been developed dramatically, contributing to national development. Besides civil construction, infrastructure, residential development, there are a large number of Power plant projects are and will be implemented in the next 20 years.

Similar to other types of construction project, power plant project must also deal with risk of delay on construction stage. As a large scale project with thousands of activities, power plant project requires a very carefully planning, scheduling and monitoring to avoid these risks
There is a fact that in reality, implementation of power projects usually goes behind the schedule, causing a huge loss to social economy and obstructs the development of local construction market.

The purpose of this report, by studying a real case in Nhon Trach 1 Power Plant project, is to analyze some main factors that cause delay in such power plant projects; from that, to suggest solutions to prevent occurrence of same delays in future projects.

A Feasibility Study of Curtain Wall Testing Company in Hanoi

Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, has been growing very fast since 1995. The construction in Hanoi booms with a great number of high-rise buildings, which significantly contributes to the new face of the transforming city.

The architectural elevations of those high-rise buildings are almost glass, and curtain walls are typically used. The main features of curtain walls are noise insulation, anti-heat, water proofing, stain resistance, high wind pressure tolerance, easy maintenance and energy saving.

However, what worries developers and contractors the most, is the quality of curtain walls. While there are a large numbers of suppliers – both joint ventures and foreign ones – there is no official standards for curtain walls since Vietnam has just recently exposed to this new technology. As a result, developers and contractors of each individual project apply their own standard, which makes it very difficult to confirm and identify the quality of the products.

Unfortunately, no laboratory can carry out this testing as there lack of equipment, technology and commonly accepted standards. Owners have to take samples to overseas such as from Korea, Hong Kong or Singapore for testing, which is very costly and time consuming.

As no current wall test is being conducted in Vietnam, there is a need for the establishment of a quality testing company.

Some considerations include:
(i) whether such a company is feasible and profitable,
(ii) how to process this kind of testing company technically and economically,
(iii) Whether the demand is high, and what are architecture demands and trends?

Mr. Nguyen Duy Duc Thu made a case study which objectives were to: (1) develop technical and economic feasibility study of Curtain wall testing company; (2) identify demand (volume and market trend) and the needed supply of curtain wall testing company in Vietnam; (3) identify technical requirements of curtain wall testing in Vietnam which includes testing specifications, labs and equipment engineering knowledge competency and quality control; and (4) develop business plans and marketing plans.

Conclusion

The table below summarized the conclusion of this study.


His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

Nowadays there are many high rise building had been built in over Vietnam, especially in Hanoi. The building was using for many find of propose such as office building, commercial building, hotels… and others. But they had a common that is using the curtain wall for elevation.

But there’s very difficult in order to testing and qualify this kind of material.

The thesis is focus on feasibility study of curtain wall testing company, under the perspective of technical requirement, business plan and marketing plan.

Project Schedule Delay and Risks in Rural Infrastructure Development Project: A Case Study of Rehabilitation of Calamity Damage in Vietnam

Viet Nam has been visited by more than 10 tropical storms and typhoons every year. In 2005, a tropical storm and typhoon caused damage to many infrastructures especially the sea dike system from Nam Dinh province to Quang Tri province. The Government evaluated the damage of flood brought about by this typhoon and submitted to the Asian Development Bank who agree to finance the Initial Loan 2273-VIE(SF)-Emergency Rehabilitation of Calamity Damage Project.

During the project implementation, problems occurred like rural infrastructure is affected directly by nature, lead to ground features, and geology changes year by year. Besides, problems in designing and constructions leading to project schedule delay. These factors create many risks in progress of the project.

Mr. Bui Duc Luong made a research which objectives were: (1) to know the sources and type of risk; (2) effect of every type of risk on the project; and (3) to set-up strategies to avoid or mitigate effectively the negative impact of major risks.

Conclusions

The risks came from various sources. These can not be eliminated but can be minimized and changed to other forms. There are some methods to overcome these risks such as avoiding these risks, minimizing its negative impacts, and accepting some or all results of these.

The period of the construction project implementation in general as well as the rural infrastructure development project in particular from the first phase to the final phase is so complex. Furthermore, there are so many agencies and other partners that will take part in the construction project, especially for Emergency Rehabilitation of Calamity Damage Project. The related agencies are ADB, CPMU, PPMUs, investors, designers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants, material suppliers, equipment suppliers, authorities, and etc.

Risk will affect schedule, quality, cost estimate and life of public in rural infrastructure development project. To reduce and mitigate risks, establishing a strategy is essential because it is the most effective and efficient response. Thus, author tried to identify major risks and carry out a risk management study for Emergency Rehabilitation of Calamity Damage Project. Besides, the author suggested appropriate strategies to mitigate these major risks.

Identify main risks

Characters of Emergency Rehabilitation of Calamity Damage Project as follow:
• It takes a lot of time to recruit international consultants who will review the documents in relation with the project such as Safeguard, construction design and bidding before ADB approves;

• The Project is financed by ADB, during the progress of the project there are some works that must be approved by ADB as construction design, safeguard, bidding and disbursement;

• Normally, it takes time (between one year and 2 years) to approve the construction design until construction commencement;

• Scope of the project is large; number of staff is not enough in CPMU and PPMUs. Beside most of the position is working both in PPMUs and another place;

• Inflation in 2008 caused increase in price of material and changed basic salary in 2009 and 2010.

These above information show major risks and uncertainties that are occurring in the project. We have to know these risks in order to method to solution such as mitigate or remove.

Based on the data from rural infrastructure in 10 provinces, statistics of Emergency Rehabilitation of Calamity Damage Project (ERCDP) and the same as projects in rural infrastructure, a lot of major risks were discussed, identified and analysed. According to their level of effect and sources of occurrence, author’s purpose is to setup strategies to mitigate them. The table below showed the main risk factors.


Data analyses revealed the top three risks occurred in this project as follow:

• international consultants recruited late;
• typhoon and flood will happen every year
• delay in constructions because of material price increased

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

Risks and uncertainties affect schedule, quality and cost estimate of the project and relation with most of participants involving the project.

Risk management is very important, controlling risk and reduces risk to increase economics effectively. When risk can not removed, will be minimized, transferred or retained

Risk management is implemented step by step including: Risk identification, Risk classification, Risk analysis, Risk response, Risk evaluation, every step must be implemented carefully, when has a problem in one step will affect the project.

When happen risk, the project will be used methods such remove, minimize, transfer and retain suitable for actual situation.

Contractual Risks of SME Contractors: A Case Study of Mechanical and Electrical Contractor

Before starting any construction project, at least two parties or companies have to prepare or design a contract based on the agreement between them. Once they agreed on each clause in the contract, they will officially enter the contract ruled by laws and other relevant construction regulations.

In Vietnam, all parties working in construction shall sign contracts complying with current laws and rules, Government’s decrees, Ministries’ circulars and local authorities’ regulations. For Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), there are many rules and regulations for them to follow.

By studying the case of a specific project in an FDI investment in Ho Chi Minh City, it was found out that many contractual risks had faced by the SME contractor and obviously taken a serious loss of profit at last.

These risks include: site inspection and work measurement; quantity acceptance and payment certificates; project delays; work omissions by the owner; and payments from the owner.
Mr. Vo Quoc Vinh made a research which objectives were to: (1) identify the risks of a construction contract; (2) verify the causation of contractual risks; and (3) propose possible solutions to protect SME Contractors from uncertain contractual risks.

Conclusion

Contractual risks were found in the contract between two parties or more. Lack of contract review before entering into it would be a failure of a party. Project failure means that the project has failed to meet its cost, schedule and technical performance objectives, or it does not fit in the organization’s future (Cleland and Ireland, 2007:365).

In this report and other similar cases, SME contractors have often taken such risks when dealing with the owner or main contractor whose sizes of business are always larger and stronger in many fields.

That result of project failure came from the way people actively take the chance to prepare, design and compose the contract documents. Instead, SME contractors tend to avoid or ignore the opportunities of transferring the risks by the work of contract design. Moreover, the level of professional policy and working manners in SME contractors cannot compare to big companies, especially the knowledge and experience in legal issues.

The report can be a useful tool for SME contractors in dealing with problematic clauses in similar construction projects in some ways, such as the implementation of current laws, rules and other regulation; systematic frameworks from contract literature reviews; international institutes of contract forms like FIDIC or the organizations of AGC, ASA and ASC or The ICE Conditions of Contract.

The report also raised the way which Lessons Learned documents should be organized to review the good and the bad activities in the project and encourage to be used for future projects in terms of reduction of the same problems in construction contracts.

Last but not least, the report also recommended SME contractors to apply the latest version of ISO 9001 in their businesses for a better quality performance in a rapid competitive market. Invest now, take later!

Recommendations

It is recommended that contractors should avoid or reduce the same type of problems in future projects by applying these approaches as follows:

Post-Project Reviews - offer insight into the success or failure of a particular project as well as a composite of lessons learned from a review of all the projects in the organization’s portfolio of capital projects (Cleland and Ireland, 2007:327-328).

Site Inspection - to maintain smooth operations and the quality of site inspection in construction stage and avoid unforced conflicts from this trade; owner should employ qualified, experienced technical staff. Good coordination and cooperation between project teams are needed.

Project Delays - After being awarded the contract, contractor must prepare and submit a proposed construction schedule for the review and approval of the project owner.

Omissions by Owner

Contingency Cost - To protect from financial loss in a project for any non-prevented reasons, it is important to estimate contingency costs and add them into the tender. These costs are usually expressed as percentage of direct costs or as a specific amount of money in the tender. Mullin and Kantor (1994) compared that “contingency allowances are much like insurance”. Along with contingency cost, hidden costs should be recognized and added to the estimation for bidding. Borg and Borg (1994) advised contractors to examine carefully the general conditions of the contract and visit the site, so as to have a full knowledge of all the possible hidden costs.

Concept of “Unexpected” and “Equitable Price Adjustment” - normally, the specifications give the owner the right to make changes in scope, with specific compensation to the contractor (Borg and Borg, 1994:17-35).

In order to avoid any dispute or different interpretations on this matter, the authors suggested establishing “a formula for pricing changed work” in the contract.

Risk Transfer - “The form of the contract plays a significant role in the respondents’ perception of risk” and “Transferring the responsibilities for the construction documents to another party also transfers the risk” Simu (2006).

Payment Delays - payments from the project owners are considered a vital source of any contractors in construction industry. Late payment will definitely damage contractor’s cash flow in the book of account receivables. Once periodic payment certificates are prepared, properly signed, and forwarded to the owner, prompt payment should be made (ASCE Manual, 1988:145).

Application of ISO 9001 in Quality Management - it is very useful for SME contractors to apply the latest version of ISO 9001 (partial or the whole regulations) to manage their businesses as well as the construction projects in a professional, effective method. This kind of quality control system will need time, effort and some budget to apply ISO in construction but contractors will save a lot and reserve their planned budget.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

This report reviews the theory of contractual risks in terms of project delays with no compensation, delays in payment with no penalty, work changes by the Client, delays in site inspection and acceptance for quantity of work done, omissions by the Client from the signed contract, and so on.

From a detailed literature review, the report explores major risks that SME Contractors often face during the construction stage throughout a case study. The collected information from the case reflects the hypothesis that the Client has used an unfair treatment to the Contractor by the application of the Contract – obviously prepared by the Client.

The report also suggests some recommendations to minimize the risks from the construction contract in the stake of SME Contractors. These suggestions will somehow help them control the benefits from the protection of losses in the implementation of the contracts. On the other hand, the report asks for a fair treatment from the owners of projects in term of win-win negotiation in the contract preparation by using the theory of FIDIC, ICE Conditions of Contract and other useful, reliable sources.

Hopefully, this report will show the contribution to a better environment of risk reduction in the construction contracts from its findings, analysis and recommendations. It is studied especially for the legal support to SME Contractors in construction industry in Vietnam.

Owner’s Project Schedule Management for High - Rise Office Building Projects: A Case Study of

Applying modern project management techniques in schedule planning and control for high-rise office building projects is not easy. The project schedule is crashed by reasons that are investigated in high-rise office building projects such as the following:
- Using the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for schedule planning.
- Using the Critical Path Method (CPM) for schedule planning.
- Proposing the methods for crashing scheduling.
- Making reports for work performance.
- Measuring work performance.

It is very important to explore the project schedule management of the owner. Hence, Mr. Le Nam Binh made a study to enhance understanding of schedule management systems, and how it can be utilized effectively in construction projects. The objectives of his research were: (1) investigating the practice of the owner’s project schedule planning and control for managing high-rise office building construction projects in Vietnam; (2) analyzing the foregoing factors to identify the critical affecting issues, the strengths, weaknesses and consequences of schedule management practices, and (3) proposing particular recommendations and effective methods for managing the project schedule from the owner’s point of view for these projects.

Conclusion

The modern project management era started half a century ago, was the young branch arising from the management discipline, and developed stormily on a stable fundamental with broad application in most of the manufacturing and construction industries over the world. The stream of these scientific technicalities has just been imported into Vietnam along with the expert groups serving the implementation of the petrochemical refinery project and the skyscraper projects of new urbans for the latest ten years.

The project schedule management, or project time management, as one of the four core functions of project management, is an important element contributing to accomplish timely completion of the project through six mutual-interacting processes comprising of activity definition, activity sequencing, activity resource estimating, activity duration estimating, schedule development, and schedule control. The schedule management is the most considerable concern of the project manager as well as the project owner, as an investor, cares mostly about the profitability of the invested capital.

This report develops the framework of project schedule management, which is joined with the selected tools and techniques of schedule planning and control to be applied in practical projects. These theoretical utilizations are monitored, investigated, analyzed and compared with the experienced knowledge of on-site engineers, whereby the rules and principles are generalized to form the more perfect theory.

The case study focused on applying the researched framework to the typical high-rise office building project for checking the applicability and usefulness of the theory with a particular construction project. In consequence of the actual situations in the building site and their profound changes towards better, the fact leads to the conclusion that the application of these techniques has made some considerable improvements to the project schedule, helps the project manager to catch up the target schedule in case of project delay, and lightens the pressure of stakeholders’ workload.

Moreover, the theory is applied to the construction project, which is always unique and temporary in nature, therefore it cannot help exposing the shortcomings in several cases. These particular limitations are also studied in order to propose some useful solutions for the project manager as well as other partners of the project to mitigate the potential contingencies in hazard prevention and controllability.

The project schedule management tools and technique, which are verified through practice and adjusted for specific situations, are given in the table below.These techniques should be combined to enhance the effectiveness, whereby each of them can minimize its limitations and complement the others.

Recommendation

After studying the theories and the case study of an actual construction project within the analyses of application range and limitations for the implementation in Vietnam, the concise recommendations for project schedule management of high-rise office building projects from the point of view of the project owner are summarized as follows:

- The construction projects are unique and specific entities, no one is like others, except for the buildings of mass housing dwelling. This can be compared in images with human being in the society. The theory of project schedule management with its generalized rules and regulations should be flexibly applied to the construction projects to make use of its academic strength and mitigate its certain limitations. This way of looking at the concepts will facilitate the project stakeholders in planning and controlling the schedule. The experienced qualification of the project manager is a key factor for determining the important degree of schedule management techniques and tools to be used.

- In the initiation stage of the project, when many things are still ambiguous around the project vision, the project manager should make plans for basic tasks, using WBS and CPM techniques to organize all the initial activities into a miniature work breakdown structure as a componential subproject. The total project schedule planning is set up after the approval of the project fundamental design and general description.

- Towards more effective management of large construction projects with less confusion of master schedule chart scale, the project might be organized into smaller work packets in controllable view as separated schedule management charts, which are described in their own work breakdown structure for various monitoring purposes.

- If the project has parallel paths with similar durations, the project manager can utilize heuristics for identifying the essential activities of a selected critical path and focus on enhancing the activities’ quality instead of determining the best critical path. If project’s resources are spreaded and reallocated across different projects and activities, the prime contractor may be forced to undertake supplying sufficient resources for normal project operation and accelerating project schedule in the remaining stage.

- From the beginning of the project, a total quality management should be promulgated widely to all the project stakeholders. This comprises of paperwork transfer process, performance report forms and variance evaluation criteria to unite the comprehension of schedule management techniques through the project process.

- Skill training is an integral demand of the project, which help staff and engineers with specialized professions for such a multicultural working environment as the construction project. This contributes to its smooth run throughout stages. The project should reserve sufficient budgets for investment of management software.

Because of the limitation of the scope and time fund of the study, this report has just explored general issues in implementation of project schedule management for high-rise office building projects under the project owner’s point of view. It’s recommended that analytical research of great depth on the specific benefits of this theory to prove its great efficiency should be carried out. Besides, the higher rates of huge skyscraper investment projects with progressive schedule management techniques need to be penetrated. And after all, the further studies should make polydimensional analysis to draw the overview painting of the modern project management discipline.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

Project schedule management, which is described and analyzed in a mind of great depth in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge by the Project Management Institute, is one of the most important knowledge areas of modern project management and interacts closely with other processes. It is a really tough challenge that most of project managers today are aware of but not all of them have done well.

The final report focuses on construction project schedule management for high-rise office building projects in Vietnam from the viewpoint of the owner’s project managers. By reviewing several researches and factual studies on this field, knowledge as regards owner’s project schedule management will be explored gradually.

Through the case study of a typical office building construction project, PetroVietnam Finance Centre in Danang City, the critical issues that affect owner’s project schedule management would be investigated and analyzed. Some proposed solutions based on the reviewed knowledge above will be discussed in order to help project managers improve their project schedule management professionalism better.

Project Owner’s Quality Management System: A Case Study of Sails Tower Project

In recent years, the construction industry in Vietnam is being been recognized having a great contribution to national development as investment has been intensified in many fields such as infrastructure development, industry and public projects. However, more attention have been given to quality management because of the poor quality of some construction projects. Because of these reasons, the development of quality management system is most important concern not only for Contractors, Quality Consultants, but as well as for the investors or developers.

Mr. Nguyen Trung Kien made a research which primary objective was to study the application of Quality Management System (QMS) of Project Owner in a construction project from design to construction phase.

Conclusion

In general, most of the requirements of quality system have been covered and presented in the existing system. However, it was revealed that problems such as missing contract review, improper coordination and communication, lack of the process control, control of quality records and the inspection status monitoring during the course of work are the reasons that caused major problems to owner and caused schedule delay and generating V.O.

In addition, findings showed that there were problems with decision inconsistency relating to quality on job site caused rework and schedule delay. Obviously, besides the reason of work procedures, it would also be the reasons of different quality level and quality perception. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct the internal quality audit and provide training at different position in order to gain the same level of quality perception in the project team.

The causes and the consequences that generated by these missing processes are summarized in the table below.

The complete QMS would be achieved if the missing requirements as mentioned above should be added in the existing Quality Management System. Aside from that, the quality culture in organization should be set-up so that the Company can reach the Total Quality Management.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

The report expresses the key issues in Quality Management System (QMS) that known as the critical factor for any organization wants to develop and survive in the free trade market.

This study, which refers to the theories and the standards system, has expressed the concept of quality in construction, the QMS in organization, system requirements for owner’s QMS in construction and its benefits. The study has briefed the factors that most effect to project quality studied from public reports and the key points to control project quality from the design to construction stage. The report has introduced a QMS to the property developer for the purpose of amendment to the existing QMS in order to obtain a complete QMS for better managing project quality.

Report the findings of a research study, which was undertaken to examine the underlying factors affecting the quality of a building project. It also aims to identify factors that show a strong correlation to good quality performance. The ultimate goal is to provide clients, project managers, supervising consultants and contractors with information that can help them become more efficient with their limited resources and, as a result, achieve better quality outcomes.

AITCV students visit AIT main campus in Thailand

The AITCV Students from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City arrived on February 26 for a week-long site visits, lectures and field trips. They will be here in Thailand until March 6, 2011.

In this photo: 1st Row (L-R): Mr. Bui Viet Thi, Mr. Tran Xuan Canh, Mr. Tran Viet Sinh, Mr. Nguyen Nam Cuong, Dr. Theerathon Tharachai, Dr. BHW. Hadikusumo (MPM&CEIM Coordinator), Dr. Nitin Afzulpurkar (SET Dean), Prof. Said Irandoust (AIT President), Prof. Joydeep Dutta (AIT Vice President for Academic Affairs), Mr. Noppadol Jaisue, Dr. Oulawan Kulchartchai, Ms. Kieu Phuong Ly, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Nga, Ms. Tran Ngoc Bich Tram, Mr. La Nguyen Bao.

2nd Row (L-R): Mr. Pham Viet Cuong, Mr. Chau Anh Tuan, Mr. Tran Minh Nghia, Mr. Vu Van Tinh, Mr. Bui Thanh Nam, Mr. Nguyen Trong KHoa, Mr. Nguyen Nhat Tai, Mr. Ngo Quoc Thai, Mr. Nguyen Thai Son, Mr. Tu Thien Tu, Ms. Phan Hong Ngoc, Ms. Dang Trinh Thanh Phuong, Miss Junya Phuangphay, Miss Huyen Thanh To, Mr. Vuong Hoang Thang, Mr. Pham Quang Cuong, Mr. Tran Phi Long, Mr. Thanapon Buaklom, Ms. Woranuch Chumchat, Mr. Ngo Hoang Linh

3rd Row (L-R): Mr. Nguyen Duc Huan, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung, Mr. Huynh Thanh Quang, Mr. Nguyen Anh Khoa, Mr. Ngo Thanh Duc, Mr. Hoang Manh Chi, Mr. Nguyen Viet Cuong, Mr. San Visal, Mr. Le Quang Son, Mr. Vo Khac Kien, Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh, Mr. Puoy Puthitha, Mr. Hout Venghong, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam, Mr.Senjam Romero Singh