Claims in Building Construction of Pakistan: Statistical and Pathogenic Analysis

The Causes of Project failures in terms of cost over runs, schedule over runs and depleted quality have been identified particularly for different countries conducting case studies and questionnaire survey based upon the opinions of Employers, Consultants and Contractors operating in that Country. Generic identification of causes of claims in one country may not be very helpful for the other country and would not address the particular problems prevailing in the relevant Construction market of that country. According to Acharya et al. (2006), the sources and reasons of conflicts are different according to the nature of the projects and conditions of a particular country. The differences in the types and levels of conflicts from country to country are due to the unique local environment of the country in which the project is going to be executed. Therefore a study is required to investigate the frequently occurring causes of claims and their types in Building construction market of Pakistan. The sector of Building construction is chosen because Building construction is the sector in which both Public and Private sector clients invest and develop the projects; Economic downturn in the Industry and double digit inflation have already created problems for Employers and contractors to procure and to deliver the projects respectively. Therefore, the projects under planning stage should be planned and designed in such a comprehensive manner so that they could survive the harsh and tough market conditions of Pakistan.

Causes and types of claims provide an insight into the list of factors responsible for the development of claims but lack in identifying the underlying causes of claims. Love et al. (2010) also state that many of the causes of claims and disputes identified in many studies are not dissimilar in nature and moreover do not identify the underlying causes of disputes which are essential if the reduction in claim and dispute potential is required. Therefore, it is required to find the pathogenic influences on the causes of claims and disputes so that proactive measures could be aligned in organization rather than aligning reactive measures.

Mr. Hassan Ashraf made a research in order to reduce the dispute potential in project beforehand and to view causal factors behind disputes through holistic approach. The objectives of his study were to : (1) identify the critical causes and types of claims against frequency of occurrence, degree of severity and level of importance in the Building Projects of Pakistan; (2) identify the Pathogenic Influence on the causes of claims in Building Projects of Pakistan; and (3) To propose recommendations for the minimization of claims and disputes.

Conclusions

1. Causes of Claims

Competitive market conditions, delayed payments by the Employer, ineffective planning and scheduling by contractor, poor financial management of the contractor, price hike of materials, improper technical study by the contractor during the bidding stage of the project, are the causes which have been identified as critical causes of claims against level of importance based on overall response. The causes are mainly related to economic conditions of Pakistan which lead to less number of construction projects resulting into tight competition for project award, these tight competition forces contractors to bid low and then proceeds for claims practice at the later stages of the project. Contractor’s incompetence and market inflation also lead to claim causation due to poor quality of work and escalated costs of work respectively. It was also seen from both case study of project “A” and the response of survey that inadequate early planning of the project also lead to claim causation due to limited understanding of Employer about the project and what is really required out of the project.

Scope changes and design changes and variations are most of the times caused by inadequate early planning of the project by the Employer. It has also been seen that regulatory and execution delays in terms of delays in obtaining permits also lead to claims and even disputes like in project “C” the conflict between Employer and Contractor was developed due to unavailability of permit `and consequently the contract was suspended and ultimately terminated by Employer which led to Claims by Contractor and counter claims by Employer.

It is seen that poor financial management of the contractor also leads to claims and this fact is endorsed by Contractors themselves by ranking this cause very high on scale of frequency and severity, this result leads to an interesting yet critical finding that delays in payments by the Employer would certainly push the contractor to adopt extreme measures in order to get its payment and to keep its company alive; most of the times this cause leads to conflicts and ultimately become the cause of suspension of works by Contractor. So, this is to be understood by Employers that Contractors should be assisted in terms of timely financial compensation as their financial management is already poor and delays could lead to conflicts and disputes. Studying the project details, evaluating costs and assessing the risks properly also leads to reduction of conflicts and claims in implementation phase of the project, Cause “Improper technical study during bidding stage of the project” was ranked high on the scale of frequency and degree of severity which shows that this is a cause of considerable importance.

2. Types of Claims

Extra Work Claims and Change Claims were found to be mostly occurring according to overall response. However, according to Employer’s response extra work claims and change claims were found to be critical types against level of importance and Delay claims, change claims, delayed payment claims, and extra work claims were found to be critical types against level of importance based on consultant’s response. Similarly, according to contractor delay claims, extra work claims, changes claims, delayed payment claims and design error & omission claims are critical types of claims against level of importance. These results signify that extra work claims and change claims are quite important types of claims in the Building construction of Pakistan and if the claims need to be minimized then it could be thought that reduction in these two types of claims would certainly help in mitigating the negative impact of claims on the project performance.

3. Pathogenic Influence on the Causation of Claims

Pathogenic influence was determined by identifying the causation of claims from case studies and then finding out the reasons for these causations. Mostly it was found out that task, Practice and Circumstance were the three pathogens which were mostly responsible for claim causations; Convention and Organization pathogens were also found out to be present but mostly practice, task and Circumstance pathogens gave rise to claim causations. Also, it is worth to be noted that Circumstance pathogen is the critical pathogen as it leads to the development of the other pathogens.

Recommendations for the minimization of claims are as follows:
• Adequate planning of the project needs to be done by the Employer in terms of major and minor deliverables of the project, financing issues, availability of technical resources with the Employer to get the project executed effectively.

• Engaging experienced Design consultants for the Design development in such a way that errors and omissions don’t take place in the Design Documents and the Design produced is workable and practical. Also, preparation of Tender Documents should be prepared with no ambiguities and errors. Pre-Bid meetings must be arranged to clarify the reservations/misunderstanding of contractors if any.

• Procuring project is the most crucial aspect in terms of preventing or minimizing claims. Claims generate from the poor analysis and allocation of risks among stakeholders of the project. Considering the project complexity and financial constraints, projects should be procured with such innovative contractual schemes where risks are rightly distributed among all stakeholders. Unjust allocation of risks will ultimately result in conflicts, claims and disputes which need to be avoided for smooth completion of the project.

• Standard form of contracts should be used on projects to increase the understanding of the contractual provisions and contractual provision for “price Adjustment” should be drafted in such a way that inflation and price hike of materials and equipment could be adjusted without creating any conflicts and disputes.

• Cooperative and problem solving approach should be employed on a project which is called as partnering so that negative attitudes which could lead to conflicts and misunderstanding are minimized.

• Engaging third party to review the contractual documents prepared for bidding purposes. This would help in decreasing the errors and ambiguities in documents which would later help in smooth execution of project.

• Escrow-of- bid documents clause need to be mentioned in the contract agreement so as to avoid the opportunistic behavior of the contractors during the course of execution.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

Construction industry is getting competitive and complex due to increasing demands of the Employers and global economic downturn. This complex environment leads to claims and dispute causation which is totally counterproductive for the project Success. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the types, causes of claims against the frequency of occurrence, degree of severity and level of importance so that preventive and corrective measures could be taken accordingly. Causes and types of claims provide the information on the elements which are responsible for claim and dispute causation in general terms with no pin pointing detail. For that matter, Pathogenic influence on the causation of claims was determined in order to know the practices, tasks, circumstances and other pathogens which lead to claim and dispute causation.

Data analysis was done on the responses of 59 respondents belonging to all three target populations i.e. Employer, Consultant and Contractor. Causes and types of claims were ranked against frequency, severity and level of importance. Most important causes which have been revealed from this study are delayed payments by the Employer, competitive market forcing contractors to bid low leading to tight profit margins, ineffective planning and scheduling by Contractor, poor financial management of the Contractor, price hike of materials and increased rentals of plant & equipment, and improper technical study by the Contractor during bidding stage of the project. For types of claims, extra work claims and change claims found out to be the most critical. Case studies were conducted to figure out the pathogenic influence on claims causation; Practice, task and circumstance pathogens were found to be the main pathogens responsible for claim and dispute causation. Recommendations were developed specifically for Employers, Consultants and Contractors with the theme of preventing and avoiding claim causation.

Key Words: Claims, Pathogens, Building Construction, Causes of Claims, Types of Claims, Pathogens and Types of Claims.

Strategic Management Implementation of Vietnamese Construction Organizations

Nowadays, more and more foreign companies invest into developing countries which have a lot of potentialities and Vietnam is one of them. Besides that, Vietnam’s participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in November 2006 also brings numerous opportunities for domestic and foreign investors.

Therefore, Vietnam construction industry in generally speaking or Vietnam’s property market is facing with many opportunities and is considered long term potential market for both domestic and foreign investors. If Vietnam has strategic planning, goal development, good vision, and mission or knows what the steps should be executed for the future market, chance of success is a seeable thing. On the other hand, strategic planning and implementation management is an important key which will lead to success.

But in Vietnam, strategic management receives less attention. Some companies or organizations think that the future can be depended by many factors which related to God. Besides that, Vietnam’s investment climate is change slowly which affected to investment abilities of investors. According to Haley (2000), that is the barriers prompted many investors to leave.

Mr. Nguyen Tuan Tu made a case study which major objective was to find ways to improve the Vietnamese construction companies in related to planning and implementing in strategic management (focus on implemented in strategic management). To support his major objective, three sub-objectives were needed to accomplished:

• To study about strategic planning development and implementation of companies from the top to operational structure in public and private contractors.
• To analyze the critical problems in strategic management implementation in public and private contractors.
• To conclusion and propose recommendations to improve the implementation in strategic management applicable for Vietnamese construction organizations.

Conclusion

To study about strategic planning development and implementation of companies from the top to operational structure in public and private contractors

Strategic planning development and implementation of public and private contractors were defined following vision statement application, organizational structure, leadership style, organizational culture and project management style. The results indicated that there were many significant differences between two groups in strategic management implementation and T-test was used to analyze the mean of those significant differences.

Specifically, public contractors have mechanistic system, task oriented leadership style with focusing on rules and procedures while private contractors have organic system, relations-oriented leadership style focusing on relationship between leader and members, communication among each members. Besides that, public contractors pay attention on hierarchy culture because of stability and performance with efficient operation but private contractors are different. Competitiveness and productivity were paid attention so marketing culture is suitable to private contractors.

To analyze the critical problems in strategic management implementation in public and private contractors

From the results of objective 1 and respondents’ experience in data collection, five critical problems which affect to strategic management implementation in public and private contractors were discussed. There were four critical problems having significant difference between two groups such as: strategic manager is not enough managerial skill to monitor implementation strategies, organization has rigid structure following rules and procedures so a result control mechanism may be ineffective, networking structure in organization is limited in each department and financial risk affects to strategy implementation. The mean of public contractors is always greater than private contractors; it means public contractors agreed with those problems appearing in their organization. To solve those problems, suggestions or recommendations can be delivered as follows; top management and supervisor team should involve to implementation in the organization. Besides that, top management or supervisor team also pay attention on networking which create good relationship between each member and to reduce the financial risk, top management must be careful in analyzing and allocating of budget.

Generally speaking, the main reason which created problems in each contractor is separately characteristics of organizational structure and leadership style. Or we can say that, organizational structure and leadership style will affect to culture in the organization. However, culture also plays an important role in establishing and solving problems in the organization. So to overcome those problems, management should participate not only in planning but also in implementation.

To propose recommendations to improve the implementation in strategic management applicable for Vietnamese construction organizations

The proposed framework of strategic management implementation has been suggested in figure below. First, strategic management implementation should be started with Leadership and commitment by top management combined with organizational structure. Work environment in the organization will be defined by three groups (work tasks, goals, procedures; work group behaviors and manager behaviors). Second, the process can be continuously done by effect of Leadership, commitment and organizational structure to organizational culture. From that point, organizational culture will affect to internal environment. In other hand, people attitude and behavior are main factors which affect to outcomes of organization. Finally, audit and evaluation are the keys to check whether strategic management has been implemented effectively in order to improve the organization and fulfilled existing gaps.



His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

To gain and maintain a contractor’s competitive advantage is not easy as it depended on a large number of factors. In other words, identification of problems in strategic management implementation allows one to reduce the vast numbers of obstacles to bring back success for the organization. Based on literature review and expert’s experience, this study describes how Vietnamese public and private contractors implemented strategic management in their organization.

The study was surveyed in two big cities in southern of Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh and Can Tho city. Strategic management implementation can be delivered into framework, namely, leadership style, organizational structure, organizational culture and project management style. The result in this study indicated that there was significant difference between two groups contractor about strategic management implementation. From that point, it provides a vehicle for guiding a contractor in managing its organization in order to improve competitive advantage which helps them to survival in new market. Additionally, this study also provides insights into the management of competitiveness for contractors in operation of Vietnamese construction organization.

Keywords: Construction, Leadership style, Organizational structure, Organizational culture, Project management style, Strategic management, Implementation

Quality Management System for Different Construction Project Strategies

Construction industry is a big business which needs a lot of capital investment. Each project has sophisticated mechanism which composed of any elements to manage. Therefore, head offices should have effective strategy to boost the organization to grow up. Moreover, quality of the company should follow strategy to enhance the managerial power of the organization.

Quality management is not only helping the organizations to grow to the market’s higher level but also increase creditability of the company to encourage a lot of customers. Without quality management, the organizations will have difficulty to improve, because if the organization manages to build the project without any quality standards, then they can get many claims or reworks. Therefore, quality improvement is one of the success factor that lead to the project successful.

Juran has identified the hidden costs of poor quality as represented in Figure below. Many organizations are only concerned to a few cost of poor quality such as reprocessing and rejects, but in reality there are many costs of poor quality such as delays, and damaged goods.
Therefore, quality management is important to implement in the organization to ensure the quality of products or services. Moreover, it also can be reduce cost and time that can lead the organization to be loss by increasing their quality level.

Hidden costs of poor quality Juran (1993, P.23)

Mr. Kittawat Sukosi made a research to study the project strategy and quality management. In order to accomplish this major objective, three majors were needed to achieved:

1. To study quality activities in the differences of project strategy of construction sites in Thailand.

2. To study how construction sites measure quality performance in the differences of project strategy.

Conclusion

Quality management is important for conducting premium performance of construction services.

Nowadays, quality management has been used for many construction companies in Thailand. In order to study about the relationship between project organization and quality management, two objectives was established. The first objective is “To study quality activities in the differences of project strategy of construction sites in Thailand”. This objective was established for study the mechanism of quality management activity in differences of strategy. The second objective is
“To study how construction sites measure quality performance in the differences of project strategy”. The purpose of this objective is to study about measurement of quality performance in differences of strategy.

Quality Activity

The project which established differentiation strategy is required to conduct ISO 9000 series, especially ISO 9001:2008 (newest version), while cost-leadership strategy is not require ISO standard. Quality manual report is just only established for differentiation project. Cost leadership strategy is focused on zero defects, while differentiation strategy has varied aspects such as safety and environment. QMR and quality manager is in-charge only differentiation project.

There are some activities which implemented for all cases such as quality inspection and testing, internal quality audit, equipment calibration, and corrective and preventive action. Environmental inspection and testing is implemented for some differentiation strategy. All cases are conducting safety management, but only differentiation project were implemented based on OHSHA 18000. Quality improvement program are performed for both strategies. However, the improvement relies on the quality activity that implemented and keeps record for analysis.

Quality Performance

In order to measure quality management, quality performance is an indicator of quality measurement. Cost-leadership strategy measures cost reduction and amount of rework in order to reach zero defect objectives. Customer satisfaction is implanted for both strategies, however, the factors of customer satisfaction checklist is differences. Internal audit is implemented in every case. The audit report can be used as a quality performance; again, the issue of internal audit of each project is different. Non-conformance report is performed only in differentiation project in order to improve work procedure by using this report. All cases have performed safety report, however, only differentiation project will raised safety to be a major issue in quality management. Moreover, environmental report is implemented in the differentiation project (only
on case study).

Recommendation for Further Study

This study is completed to discover the familiarities and differences of quality activity and quality performance. As a result, there is one case which they implement all of quality management system (QMS), safety management system, and environmental management system.

Interestingly, this approach can be implemented as an integrated management system. Therefore, the further study can be about the advantage and disadvantage of integrated management system.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.
Abstract
The research aims to study relationship between project strategy and quality management. The scope of study was limited in Thailand. Qualitative method was used as a research methodology in order to accomplish the research objectives. Five cases in Thailand were selected in this study.
All of data in this study was given by the interviewees. Cross case analysis was implemented in order to find out the familiars and differences of quality activity and quality performance in each case study.

The result of the study was divided into two parts. The first part is quality activity in differences strategy. Cost-leadership strategy is performed quality management, but ISO 9001 was not established as a quality management system. However, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) are implemented such as quality inspection procedure, internal quality audit, quality inspection and testing, and quality documentation system. Construction project which used differentiation strategy is established ISO 9001, especially 2008 version. Safety management is performed in order to reduce accident which can lead to enhance quality performance. The quality activities are based on ISO 9001:2008 such as combine audit, safety inspection, quality inspection and testing, environmental inspection and testing, control of non-conformance work, and quality documentation system.

Quality performance is the second result. Cost-leadership strategy is using cost of rework and number of defected nonconformities work in order to measure quality performance. Audit result is also the tool to evaluate quality performance throughout the entire project. Audit report, nonconformance work report, safety report, and environmental report are as the indicator of measurement of quality performance which the project which used differentiation strategy is using. Moreover, customer satisfaction is one of the quality performance indicators which both of strategies is evaluating. However, the measurement approach of customer satisfaction of each strategy is different.

The On-Site Behavior of a Construction Project Team during the Implementation of the Planning and Quality System

Changing the procedures and process of the traditional system to the new system involves so many problems.

First, staff members of the contractor have many questions with the new system, but they would not want to find the answers.

Second, the payment of the subcontractor is often delayed and uncorrected in accordance with B.O.Q even though the system has applied the earned value concept.

Third, the traditional on-site work processes have not matched with new system because lack of documentation support on-site.

Fourth, many staff members do not understand how to perform their work in better ways; furthermore, some of them are reluctant to change and think that this is a burden.

Fifth, top management needs to review the accurate information but the project site always covers the truth.

Sixth, sharing the values and norms from existing employees to new employees are lacking and so on.

These problems arise from the lack of knowledge about the benefits of the program and what is the process flow from top to bottom. In addition, due to reluctance of some staff to change and play with the new approach, leaders of the team need to play the crucial role to unite all employees in the purpose of motivation and creating the commitment. As a result, the acknowledgment of which process systems are changed in functions of the project site, and who are in the important position to make the change occurring during the new system implementation in accordance with change management concept are unavoidable.

Mr. Janeyut Naiyarat made a case study which primary purpose was to investigate and find out how construction project teams to behave during the implementation of the new system. To achieve the main objective, the following sub-objectives were needed:

 To investigate the on-site behavior of project teams while the implementation of planning and quality system

 To propose the on-site behavior of project teams affecting the success of the implementation of planning and quality system

Conclusion

The on-site behavior of the construction project teams

Organizational Support - Based on the result of data analysis, the organization provided full support from top managers. There is the specific policy for Planning and Quality system. For staff, the new operational procedures are established along with Planning and Quality form in each project. To transfer know-how to all, the new operational form is demonstrated by executives on-site. Moreover, to ensure the continuous use of Planning and Quality system, construction projects are visited periodically by executives and audit team. Finally, the incentive and rewards are given to appropriate staff accordingly.

Top level (Project Manager, Project Engineer, Site Manager) – Results showed that most of the staff in these levels comply with the policy. The enforcement of the new policy is adopted by top level as well as the specific procedure is established regarding with natures of the project.

Middle level (Senior Site Engineer, Senior Office Engineer) – Result showed that all staff are enforced to comply with the policy by the top level. However, while most of them seem to be forced to participate and use Planning and Quality form, senior site engineer as a key leader in the fourth case study perceiving the opportunity to grow will to lead his project to success in the new system implementation. For others, they all emphasize on the progress of work according to their leaders.

Operational level (Site Engineer, Office Engineer) - Most of site engineers are new graduates and lack of experience, so it depends on the leaders to provide any activities to facilitate site engineers. The behavior of site engineer can reflect the understanding of leaders and the group climate of each case study. In case study I and IV, most of them realize about the benefits by using Planning and Quality form and will to collaborate with all activities and use the form continuously in order to improve individual and project performance. On the other hand, staffs in other case studies reluctant to use the operational form because of lack of understanding about the benefits and lack of facilitating from their leaders. However, to submit the form with the consideration for passing the probation, they make the illusion by trying to fill in the form. Therefore, there are both case study I and IV can success in the implementation of planning and quality system.

The behavior affecting the success of the implementation of the new system

Organizational Support - Based on the result of data analysis, the organization provided full support from top managers. There is the specific policy for Planning and Quality system. For staff, the new operational procedures are established along with Planning and Quality form in each project. To transfer know-how to all, the new operational form is demonstrated by executives on-site. Moreover, to ensure the continuous use of Planning and Quality system, construction projects are visited periodically by executives and audit team. Finally, the incentive and rewards are given to appropriate staff accordingly having good performance.

Top level (Project Manager, Project Engineer, Site Manager) - Staff in this level so as the leader of the team have to comply with the policy. The top level is necessary to participate in entire processes in order to show the serious emphasis on the new system and get staff involvement. Other responsibility of top level is to modify the form regarding with the nature of the project for operational level. Also, the tasks should be assigned effectively to subordinates by top level in order to enforce indirectly to use the form and to get understanding. Moreover, to ensure that staff is using the form constantly, monitoring closely at the early stage and periodically at the next stage has to be performed. Importantly, to develop the team during the implementation of the new system, the arrangements of formal and informal activities are strictly concerned.

Middle level (Senior Site Engineer, Senior Office Engineer) – Executives and top level has to comply with the policy. They have to participate and have to use Planning and Quality Form, while the senior site engineer should cooperate between top level and operational level and to lead the project to success in the new system implementation. In addition, the modified documentation designed by agreeing with all staffs in the team should be developed by senior site engineer. Moreover, to get staff using the form continuously, closely monitoring should be adopted in the middle level.

Operational level (Site Engineer, Office Engineer) - Site engineer should listen and comply with the policy. Participating in all activities to be a part of a team and getting understanding the new system. To understand the benefits and to use the form effectively, site engineers should try out using it and learn from mistakes. In addition, asking questions while having problems and proposing idea while finding the better ways are necessary for site engineers. Importantly, to improve the performance of the project, using the form stably and reporting the progress realistically are essential to detect the problems on-site. The weakness of the form can identify in order to amend to be practical and conformant with the uniqueness of each project.

His report summary is shown below.


His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

In construction company especially building sector, there are huge amount of investment by developer while economics expansion; as well, intelligently spending the budget with refined contractor must be concerned. It is the most important for building contractors to improve or change their operational system in order to compete with others. The sample contractor in Thailand is implementing the new system so-called planning and quality system. The purpose of this system is to facilitate staffs on-site via the tools such as the two-week schedule, the cost control plan and the quality checklist. It affected directly to site engineer who normally work with less emphasizing on documentation. To comply with the new policy, staffs in this contractor have to change their working style. Therefore, a change management process is necessary to adopt because the change always has problems, for example, reluctant to change due to lack of understanding and knowledge, lack of sharing information and fear of losing control and overload of current tasks and responsibilities. Moreover, the practical behavior of construction project team during the new system implementation is not well known and the existing literature is very rare in Thailand.

In order to know how to behave of construction project teams during implementing the new system, the objective of this research are established to 1) To investigate the practical behavior of project teams while the implementation of planning and quality system, 2) To propose the behavior of project teams affecting the success of the implementation of planning and quality system.

The data was collected via interview in four condominium projects implementing the new system located in Bangkok and Nonthaburi. The interviewees have classified into three groups of each project. The first group is the top management level that comprises of project manager, project engineer and site manager. The second group is the middle management level that comprises of senior site engineer and senior office engineer. The last group is the operational level having a responsibility to use planning and quality control form that comprises of site engineer and office engineer. The following section is to present the finding of this study.

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.