Cost Controlling And Construction Of Buildings Roads And Bridges A Critical Analysis Assignment Sample

Cost Controlling And Construction Of Buildings Roads And Bridges A Critical Analysis

Introduction-Cost Controlling And Construction Of Buildings Roads And Bridges A Critical Analysis

Want the Best Assignment Help in the UK? Look to Native Assignment Help for unparalleled expertise and support. Our dedicated team of professionals goes above and beyond to ensure you receive top-quality assignments that exceed your expectations.

Research background:

The research is based on analysing the critical relationship between cost control in the process of developing buildings, bridges and roads. Cost controlling is an important part of a successful project in construction and the research will focus on analysing and identifying the relationship of different Strategies and approaches is associated with cost control in construction projects. The following report is the proposal of a research project based on the stated topic and will demonstrate the rationale, aim of research and associated objectives to construct a blueprint to conduct future research properly. The proposal will also highlight the purpose impacts and appropriate strategies of cost control in construction through a systematic literature review to understand the relationship between research variables from valid arguments. The research proposal will work on identifying and justifying the research methodologies associated with the appropriate strategies and approaches of collecting and analysing data from multiple sources. The potential ethics in research will be demonstrated to consider while working on an overall research project with appropriate integrity of data.

Rationale:

The research is based on analysing the relationship between cost controlling in large projects of construction like developing roads bridges and buildings because there are unpredictable changes in designing and evaluation of project scheduling and budgeting because while planning and actual actions are different in expenses and are different from prediction too. This research is important to understand the role of cost control in large construction projects because the cost has an important role in all projects and it requires to be an effective role in terms of performance, resources and financial balance (Ali et al, 2019). The research will focus on the positive and negative impacts of cost control and relevant approaches to understand the impact of each strategy in conducting effective cost management in construction. The expected outcomes of the research will support the construction organisations and the project developers of bridges, buildings and roads to achieve better expenses management and optimising profitability. This research will work on identifying the effectiveness of approaches and strategies of cost control to support construction projects and their impacts on productivity and management of resources. The research outcomes will support the construction industry to develop better economical utilisation of limited availability of resources and manage the continuous employment for human resources. This research will also act as aid previous judgements regarding cost control and construction of bridges, roads, etc. for better achievement of projects and successful integration of relevant approaches.

Aims and Objectives-

Aim

This research aims to critically analyse the role of cost control in the construction process of bridges, buildings and roads to identify the purpose, impacts and strategies of cost control on construction procedures.

Objectives

• To analyse the purpose of different cost controlling approaches in constructing buildings, roads and bridges.
• To critically evaluate the impacts of different approaches to cost control in construction projects and the efficiency of the different cost management processes.
• To evaluate the different strategies of cost control to improve overall cost management of constructing buildings, bridges and roads effectively.

Literature Review-

Purpose of cost controlling in construction of buildings, roads and bridges:

The study of Stanitsas et al (2021), elaborates cost controlling as the process of managing and tracking all the expenses of a project by processing planning and controlling associated costs with required resources. Cost control is an essential part of Cost Management in project management processes because it helps in keeping the project under budget and reduce the negative impacts of extraordinary expenses on the final budget and profit margin. The Cost control is based on the idea of project management practices for identifying as well as reducing the expenses of a project to increase the profit margins and achieve better effectiveness of budgeting process. The overall concept is focused on managing and achieving profitability by investing in important areas rather than spending unknowingly. The cost control also ensures the overall achievement of project deliverables on scheduled time by ensuring the accomplishment of each activity on time for saving cost. The cost has a significant impact on the success or decline of a project because it focuses on the financial attributes of a project that are most important to carry out project activities properly and make projects profitable.

Similarly, the analysis of Ali et al (2019), demonstrated that in construction projects the cost is considered as the most influential element and requires appropriate potential management. The cost control focuses on supporting overall project management procedures to eliminate cost overrun that increase the problems in construction projects and lead over budgeting that creates negative consequences. Cost control can be defined as the process of reducing overall expenses from a project or business by limiting the expenses in let important activities and resources for maintaining the availability of sufficient money to carry out other important activities of the project properly for achieving good productivity and final results. The construction projects are very vulnerable towards the expenses because after significant implications of cost control techniques and effectiveness of architect at the planning stage the cost due to differences in designing decisions and making actual actions. 

However, Mohammed et al (2018), argued that cost control is part of the project management triangle to support the fundamental procedures of construction projects including cost, time and scope management. The author believes that cost controlling leads to several implications on business resulting in abandoning the projects by restricting three procedures of innovation and creativity. Construction projects need to have appropriate systems and procedures for developing coordination between major constant of projects and maintaining the overemphasis of cost and control activities on the final results of the project. The improper cost control techniques also result in complicated production procedures and abandon development strategies.

Impacts of cost controlling in construction of buildings, roads and bridges:

In the words of Panfilova et al (2020), cost control is a vast term and constitutes a large share in overall projects for construction roads, bridges and buildings. Cost control is often good and important for construction projects for helping the expenses on the tracker and managing the resources properly. The proper execution of Cost Management strategies to improve the flow of information and material in the supply chain of construction projects and reduce troubling factors. The efficient two flow in the supply chain improve the procedures and efficiency of construction projects and positively impact the overall construction of large projects like buildings and roads. However, the major issues with the impacts of cost management in the construction of different projects like building roads and bridges because they are subjective according to the size and scale of each project. The subjectivity of projects reduces the efficiency of strategy is applied in another project because all projects are different from each other and require a different approach. 

Cost control loses efficiency due to different requirements of construction projects and creates problems of cost overrun or the lack of resources. The proper distribution of cost between different elements of construction projects and their appropriate use is subjective and it results in negative consequences on the planning of Cost Management by minimising the accuracy and increasing the project cost. The proper distribution of costal improve the effectiveness of a project and save the time of constructing large projects however the improper distribution of cost results opposite. In support Ali et al (2019), stated that cost control techniques like field study and statistical tests improve the effectiveness of projects and increase the management of expenses. The overall cost management focuses on cost control for enhancing equipment performance resulting in better project productivity and quality of developed buildings, bridges and roads. The proper management of equipment performance and other resources improve the efficiency of project management and leadership that increasing the chances of the development of high-quality projects.

On the other hand, Sanchez and Terlizzi (2017), argued that addressing the dynamic cost of a project while cost control is more important for optimising the appropriate pm practices and successful development of constructing large projects like buildings and bridges. The dynamic cost procedures support construction projects to develop flexibility in budget and create some fluctuations according to the Future requirements of the market and project positively impacts the development and final results. For example, a dynamic cost strategy allows the construction projects to develop projects effectively by allowing the availability of different resources for developing bridges, roads and buildings. The implementation of information systems for controlling costs such as CTPMS increases the effectiveness of cost control in construction projects however it derives from the combination of other constraints in projects like time and scope. The controlling of cost among human resources is easier than controlling the overall cost of a project and impacts the overall performance and achievement of construction projects by managing specialised resources according to budget. This increase the effectiveness of resources in developing high-quality bridges and buildings and the overall impacts are positive. It is believed that controlling cost is much easier with the system because it includes better techniques and managerial capability is however it requires proper synchronisation with project goals to be achieved and availability of resources based on project capabilities.

Strategies of effective cost controlling in construction of buildings, roads and bridges:

Xu (2021), believes that for improving the effectiveness of cost controlling in construction projects earned value analysis will provide significant help. The earned value analysis is an important factor of successful construction projects because it allows managers to efficiently measure the required cost for actual work performed by the planned expenses and schedule. This method allows effective cost control that results in the overall cost management of construction projects by adding up a basic budget according to each activity completed in the project. This method also calculates the actual cost require for accomplishing each task of a project based on the previously completed task to develop accuracy in cost control. However, the major challenge with the execution of this concept in construction projects is the lack of sufficient performance data and information of the project for a specific period that creates inconsistency in reporting and leads to errors resulting in bad performance due to wrong analysis. The problems with earned value method are also extended during construction projects due to improper capabilities of achieving each minor detail of project work according to the imagination and planning. This method also negatively impacts the training of staff and create a critical path for the successive resulting in bad variances development and non-applicability with Perfect measures for capturing the desired performance. Hence, it is important to understand the overall concept of earned value model before implementing it in construction projects and it will support the project managers to understand the benefits and limitations of this approach for improving project performance and achieving success for making better decisions.

On the other hand, Bovsunovskaya (2021), argued that for creating sustainability in cost control during cost management in construction projects it is essential to implement a cost controlling system to improve the engagement of stakeholders and their efficiency to achieve better outcomes. The purpose of a cost control system within construction projects is to monitor the expenses all outflow of cash from projects to keep a track of the effectiveness of the budget. It is a significant and complex system that comprises combinations of controlling procedures and reporting systems for aggregating the appropriate management of project profitability through effective cost management. However, the implementation of a cost control system also comprises several challenges such as the control over scope variation is difficult because it is inevitable and resulted in unwanted variation in budget. The system also faces difficulties in analysing the cost accurately because the management of different resources and maintaining their cost is subjective that negatively impacts the accounting analysis and budgeting procedures of the overall system. The system also requires appropriate integration of different important aspects in construction projects such as schedule management and scope management along with cost controlling that creates frustrating procedures and adversely influenced are transaction capabilities of the overall work breakdown structure. The associated challenges with the cost control system required expertise understanding for achieving the benefits with the implementation of the system in the project rather than being troubled by the unknown challenges.

Whereas, Safapour et al (2017), stated that the construction projects are subjected to a lot of uncertainty is that negatively influences the decision-making procedures and the management of large projects like building roads and bridges. The proper implementation of phase-based cost performance behaviour has the capabilities to control and manage the overall cost of construction projects. Although it includes high complexities due to the requirement of a high-level alignment, constructability, front end planning, best approaches of Change management and consistent team building within Complex projects. The construction of roads bridges and buildings is a challenging area of project management and it is negatively aligned with several uncertainties is resulting in the bad implementation of cost control procedures and the results of approaches. 

Methodologies-

Data collection and Data analysis:

The data collection is an important part of research because the overall results are based on collected data and information and the appropriate analysis. There is a different type of data collection in research including primary and secondary methods (Mazhar et al, 2021). The primary method includes a collection of relevant information from direct human interaction such as a questionnaire survey, marketing Analytics and online tracking, social media monitoring, etc. Whereas the secondary method of Data Collection includes analysing previous researches and concepts as a basis and forming new information with better concepts. Data collection in this research project is to be done by utilising the secondary method. The secondary research Method can be defined as the collection of information and data that is already reviewed and collected by previous scholars.

The process of collecting data from secondary sources include the analysis and evaluation of work done by scholarship relevant topic previously in the form of Peer-reviewed journal articles. The following research will collect data from secondary aspects such as journal articles based on different approaches of cost controlling to analyse the impacts and challenges while managing cost in construction of large projects like building, bridges and roads. The online method for identifying appropriate articles will be used with the help of a computer system and the internet for conducting the research (Formplus, 2021). The secondary source is selected for conducting this research because it allows a researcher to analyse the existing data and develop better hypotheses based on extending previous researches. It is also an easy and effective method because it focuses on collecting and summarising existing data for increasing the reliability of the information in the research and overall effectiveness.

Interpretivism philosophy will be applied to the research project. This philosophy focuses on the principle that States the process of research by observing a specific role of variable in a specific social world. For example, the critical analysis of construction and cost control will be analysed based on relevant area and information based on constructing bridges roads and buildings. Interpretivism allows conscious analysis of identified information on the variables and observing the reaction of a particular variable on the other one (Lê and Schmid, 2020). The technique allows in-depth insights into a relevant variable and supports quantitative interaction with data. This philosophy is adopted for this research because it provides a deep level of understanding and support high-level validity. After all, the collected data is trustworthy and honest based on reliable resources. Although this approach is subjective and sometimes create several chances of biases that will be considered by the researcher with the help of generalizing reliable data with a combination of personal viewpoints and valuable facts (Syed and Donnellan, 2020).

For collecting data, the qualitative technique of research will be utilised. The qualitative method is the process of analysing individual experiences and believes for developing content in research projects and it generates non-numerical information and facts. This method also integrates effective attention for disciplines and gain better interventions of overall Research Design. However, there will be a lack of statistical representation of data and information in the project due to the implementation of the qualitative method (Arndt et al, 2020). The researcher has to consider the limitations of qualitative research techniques for addressing the adverse impacts on research quality and representation by proper structuring and systematic reporting.

Ethics or ethical considerations-

Ethics in research projects or Ethical considerations can be defined as the moral principles that provide proper guidelines among researchers for conducting as well as reporting the information without deception or intentionally harming the study members or violating the legal rights of others. The purpose of ethical consideration is to eliminate the possibility of harming any individual with researcher processor or unintentionally hurting the sentiments or using the information of others without permission (Suri, 2020). Ethics are important for researchers because it promotes the reliability and accuracy of knowledge and information represented through research projects and supports the management of value systems for creating collaborative and mutual respect between different parties. This research will also consider those ethics and perform the research with integrity by providing relevant and important information among stakeholders (refer to appendix 1).

References-

Ali, L.T., Ali, R.S.A. and Khaled, Z.S., 2019. Investigation of Cost Control Measures for Main Contractors in Construction Projects. Journal of University of Babylon for Engineering Sciences, pp.222-241.

Arndt, V., Holleczek, B., Kajüter, H., Luttmann, S., Nennecke, A., Zeissig, S.R., Kraywinkel, K. and Katalinic, A., 2020. Data from population-based cancer registration for secondary data analysis: methodological challenges and perspectives. Das Gesundheitswesen, 82(S 01), pp.S62-S71.

Bovsunovskaya, M., 2021. Development of a cost controlling system for an investment and construction project. In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 263, p. 05048). EDP Sciences.

Formplus, 2021. [Online] 7 Data Collection Methods & Tools For Research. Available at: https://www.formpl.us/blog/data-collection-method [Accessed on: 14 December 2021]

Lê, J.K. and Schmid, T., 2020. The practice of innovating research methods. Organizational Research Methods, p.1094428120935498.

Mazhar, S.A., Anjum, R., Anwar, A.I. and Khan, A.A., 2021. Methods of data collection: A fundamental tool of research. Journal of Integrated Community Health (ISSN 2319-9113), 10(1), pp.6-10.

Mohammed, T., Haron, N., Alias, A., Muhammad, I.B. and Baba, D., 2018. Improving cost and time control in construction using building information model (BIM): A review.

Panfilova, E., Dzenzeliuk, N., Domnina, O., Morgunova, N. and Zatsarinnaya, E., 2020. The impact of cost allocation on key decisions of supply chain participants. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 9(1), pp.552-558.

Safapour, E., Kermanshachi, S., Shane, J. and Anderson, S., 2017. Exploring and assessing the utilization of best practices for achieving excellence in construction projects. In proceedings of the 6th CSCE International Construction Specialty Conference (pp. 1-9).

Sanchez, O.P. and Terlizzi, M.A., 2017. Cost and time project management success factors for information systems development projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), pp.1608-1626.

Stanitsas, M., Kirytopoulos, K. and Leopoulos, V., 2021. Integrating sustainability indicators into project management: The case of construction industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 279, p.123774.

Suri, H., 2020. Ethical considerations of conducting systematic reviews in educational research. Systematic Reviews in Educational Research, pp.41-54.

Syed, M. and Donnellan, M.B., 2020. Registered reports with developmental and secondary data: Some brief observations and introduction to the special issue. Emerging Adulthood, 8(4), pp.255-258.

Xu, W., 2021. Application of Earned Value Method in Project Cost Management and Schedule Management. Proceedings of Business and Economic Studies, 4(4), pp.146-152.

Appendices-

Appendix 1: Declaration and Ethical Form

Declaration

Ethics (and/or) Health and Safety

Your ethics (and/ or) health and safety is an integral part of your task 1 assessment. It must be signed off by your supervisor [this can be done by writing 'signed by [supervisor name] on [date] as long as this links to your audit trail (an email, a meeting record, a signed ethics form). 

You are NOT able to carry out any data collection until this has been signed off- if you do it is an Academic Misconduct Offence. Your superisor may request changes to your ethics form as part of the feedback from Task 1, this does not mean you will fail Task 1 but you need to do these changes and get it signed off before data collection can take place.

Please upload a copy of the sign off to the section on the BB site in Grade Centre – it is YOUR responsibility to do this, not your supervisors.

Please note you MUST use Qualtrics as the method for questionnaires – a free account is available through IT Help.

UREC 1 RESEARCH ETHICS REVIEW FOR STUDENT RESEARCH WITH NO HUMAN PARTICIPANTS OR DIRECT COLLECTION OF HUMAN TISSUES, OR BODILY FLUIDS

GUIDANCE NOTES

Protocol

>Do an initial draft

>Supervisor suggests changes and signs off when happy with review

>Signed off version HELD by student [scanned/in paper copy]

>Electronic version {with 'signed off by [supervisor name] on [date] in signature box' uploaded to Grade Centre ( “ethics sign off” )

>Any changes to methods must be communicated to supervisor and a new version of ethics form signed off and uploaded as work progresses

All University research is required to undergo ethical scrutiny to comply with UK law. The SHU Research Ethics Policy should be consulted before completing the form. Answering the questions below will confirm that the study fits this category and that any necessary approvals or safety risk assessments are in place. The supervisor will approve the study, but it may also be reviewed by the College Teaching Programme Research Ethics Committee (CTPREC) as part of the quality assurance process.

The final responsibility for ensuring that ethical research practices are followed rests with the supervisor for student research.

Note that students and staff are responsible for making suitable arrangements to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), for keeping data secure and if relevant, for keeping the identity of participants anonymous. They are also responsible for following SHU guidelines about data encryption and research data management. Information on the ethics website

The form also enables the University and College to keep a record confirming that research conducted has been subjected to ethical scrutiny.

The form may be completed by the student and the supervisor and/or module leader (as applicable). In all cases, it should be counter-signed by the supervisor and/or module leader, and kept as a record showing that ethical scrutiny has occurred. Students should retain a copy for inclusion in the appendices of their research projects, and a copy should be uploaded to the module Blackboard site for checking.

Please note if it may be necessary to conduct a health and safety risk assessment for the proposed research. Further information can be obtained from the Safety Co-ordinator.

General Details

I confirm that this study does not involve collecting data from human participants __ (please tick)

1. Research in Organisations

1. Research with Products and Artefacts

Adherence to SHU policy and procedures

Please ensure the following are included with this form if applicable, tick box to indicate:

Double click on squares to change from checked to unchecked

Checklist Questions to ensure that this is the correct form

1. Health Related Research with the NHS or Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS)or with participants unable to provide informed consent

If you have answered YES to questions 1 & 2 then you MUST seek the appropriate external approvals from the NHS, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) under their independent Research Governance schemes. Further information is provided below.

https://www.myresearchproject.org.uk

1. Checks for Research with Human Participants

If you have answered YES to any of these questions you are REQUIRED to complete and submit a UREC 3 or UREC4). Your supervisor will advise. If you have answered NO to all these questions then proceed with this form (UREC 2).

General Details

Please ensure the following are included with this form if applicable, tick box to indicate:

[1] EARLIEST DATE YOU INTEND TO START COLLECTING DATA – the sign off MUST be earlier than this date

[2] You can use the hand in submission date for Dissertation

[3] NOTE to delete footnotes, select the NUMBER in the main body text and delete it. This will remove the number AND the linked footnote.