Management is an important task in every endeavor. The same applies to construction. The following are the main forms of management professions in construction:
· Construction Management: This is the ultimate management profession for the construction industry. It is concerned with the overseeing of the three main pillars of the construction project. These are:
· Money: construction costs a lot of money. As such, there is need to account for every penny that gets into the project. Furthermore, it is important to budget and establish when a certain amount of money will be required for the project. This is especially so with projects funded by financial organizations. This is the responsibility of the construction manager, obviously with the assistance of other players, especially the client and architect.
· Men: This refers to the human resource input into the project. Although there are many persons involved, the construction manager is mostly involved with main professionals, contractors and specialists. Here he will advise on the requisite resources, their roles and assist in negotiating their fees.
Of importance is the selection of the contractor to undertake the work, usually through a tendering process.
· Machines: This category includes both materials and plant. The role here is basically adisorial, especially in consultation with the architect and the engineers.
The following are also responsibilities of the construction manager:
· Time: Apart from controlling the construction finances, the construction manager is charged with the responsibility of controlling project time. The overall project time is very crucial and this needs to be keenly controlled. Loss of construction completion time means loss of revenue from the finished product.
· Quality: Owing to the fact that many materials are put together by many hands to achieve the desired product. There are therefore many chances of compromising on the quality of the finished product, and by extension, loss of value for money input into the works as well as high costs of repair and maintenance. The construction manager, through the assistance of the necessary technical engineers.
· Site management: This can be seen as a subsidiary of construction project management but on a lower level. The site manager is concerned with overseeing the daily goings-on on the site of construction. They take direction from the construction manager or architect if they are on the client side or from the contractor. The site manager is charged with the following main responsibilities:
· Site organization
· Document storage
· Material storage
· Visitor hosting and direction