Building and Construction
In project architecture and civil engineering, construction is the building or assembly of any infrastructure. Although this may be thought of as a single activity, in fact construction is a feat of multitasking. Normally the job is managed by the construction manager and supervised by the project manager, design engineer or project architect. While these people work in offices and make the most money, every construction project requires a large number of labourers to complete the physical tasks of construction.
The construction industry's primary function is in the building of houses, offices and any other infrastructures such as bridges and road. In almost all instances it will take the form of a project with various milestones, strict budgeting and costing, human capital requirements and asset management. Most often a project will also be accompanied with legal documentation in the form of contracts to provide the guideline under which the project is run and managed.
Common characteristics of the building and construction industry
The construction industry shares many common characteristics:
- Process and discrete manufacturing.
- Capital intensive.
- Project based.
- Deadline driven.
- Labour intensive.
- Quality control.
- Long lead time.
- Specialisation.
- Complex quotations.
- Hierarchical jobs.
- Project accounting.
- Make-to-order.
- Make-to-stock.
- Configurable components.
- Progressive delivery.
- Complex invoicing.
- Progress payments.
- FIFO costing.
- Cyclical.
- Project resources leasing.
Building and construction industry challenges
The challenges the construction industry faces are to:
- Estimate accurate project costs.
- Estimate accurate landed costs for purchased materials.
- Procure and manage labour resources and subcontractors.
- Estimate and track project costs.
- Manage risk.
- Reduce waste.
- Manage asset acquisition and maintenance.
- Comply with health, safety and environmental regulations.
- Manage project schedules.
- Track project activity and progress.
- Track and control project costs against budget.
- Provide accurate project financial information.
- Ensure profit performance.
- Ensure adherence to delivery dates.
- Streamline the construction supply chain.
- Manage and report customer delivery performance.
- Track supplier delivery performance.
- Manage long lead times.
- Calculate material requirements.
- Cater for flexibility in design during the life of the project.
- Record and manage deposits and retentions.
- Improve electronic collaboration with suppliers and customers.
- Enable data capture from remote sites lacking IT infrastructure.
- Cater for different project contract pricing.
- Manage cash flow.
SYSPRO product modules can address these challenges
SYSPRO addresses these challenges with the following modules from its extensive enterprise resource planning suite. Suggested modules include:
