DESIGN MANAGEMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT -

A CASE STUDY OF THE PHU MY 3 PROJECT

By

 Nguyen Nong Truong Thanh

Abstract

           

Infrastructure is the key to creating a dynamic, attractive, and thriving economic climate in communities around the world. It is important to nations’ future development and plays a critical role in creating and enhancing sustainable living conditions. Therefore, the planning, design and construction of full infrastructure system is of vital importance in developed and developing countries and in rural and urban areas, as it supports and connects our communities.

In recent years, the construction market have been swiftly blooming, especially the real-estate market in Vietnam. Thousands of the residential areas have been sprouting in the metropolis. This is one of important reason, why the government and the local authorities are attempting to invest and improve infrastructure system. This reason not only creating the huge market for construction consultancies but also raising these challenges for owners for managing these ones in design. Additionally, the owners have been facing the complexity of these infrastructure projects increasingly.

However, the role, the responsibility and the involvement of owner and consultant in each phase is unclear. Additionally, the design manager is not enough skills to meet the requirement of infrastructure project. As a result, the delay of pre-construction phase and the poor quality of existing buidlings as witnessed by the process of bad design management. The main purpose of this study is to conduct an intensive exploration and into the most problematic design management areas and to seek the invovement of owner and consultant and their skills as design manager in pre-construction phase for complex infrastructure projects in Vietnam, and assist owner and consultant finding appropriate solution and precise recommendations to improve them. Analysis of a case study in Vietnam suggests that owners requires careful planning, innovative managerial approaches, attention to behavioral issues, appropriate communication and information technologies, and mutual understanding of parties' roles and responsibilities.

Executive summary

Rationale of research                                  

This research has been conducted to identify problems in design process in infrastructure projects in Vietnam.

Objectives of study

To study the design management process and problems in the process for recommendations

Methodology  

The exploratory approach was used to understand the overall role of all sides in managing design and background of important design management with which design management problems are identified. Data were employed through direct interviews with the design managers, documentary evidence including all involved companies information on the internet professional journal articles, books.

Findings and conclusion

Design management is the way of how to get things done through the organization of design process is structured appropriately for project’s objectives, requirements, and resources. With developing market in Vietnam, the changes in legal always bring huge risk and therefore research to find out the suitable process for adapting the potential risk necessarily.

This study has successfully demonstrated an intensive exploration into the importance of design management in construction firm in Vietnam. A Concentration has been on analyzing and exploring the most arising issues in design management that significantly impact project performance. The findings resulted from thorough analyses based on the role and responsibility of design manager and the lack of skills for managing design work.

A case study has also been used that reflected major real-life problems found particularly in design management under a large and complex project in Vietnam, and closely related to the findings identified throughout the study.

Recommendations

According to the above results of analysis and assessment, illustrate that the current design management process has many serious issues that need to solve immediately to repeatedly avoid critical problems in future.

A good management process will effectively support for managers. It helps managers having a whole view of project aspects; detect the arising problems in the process rapidly, so that they can make a best decision to prepare errors. There are some following solutions need to apply to reducing minimal for the above process.

·         Firstly, the project manager must monitor ability of key individuals to know they can deal with their works by themselves or not in order to replace them instantly.

·         Secondly, the project manager must organize weekly meeting to monitor the project progress, know the arising problems, and let key members of the project can understand what they have been facing and find out best solution for them.

·         Thirdly, the project manager must avoid interrupting the project’ information. The issues and solutions must timely inform and send to key individuals via their email. If necessary, he needs to arrange an official meeting and ensure that they must participate fully.

·         Finally, the company must appoint a person to keep soft and hard documents by the best method in order to any people who take part in the project can easily find when they need but do not depend on the keeper or set sharing file for them.