The Role of Quantity Surveyors and Cost Modeling in Construction
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Introduction: The Role of Quantity Surveyors and Cost Modeling in Construction
Quantity Surveyor is a kind of professional responsibility to estimate the budget and to maintain the costs of a construction company. They are also responsible for meeting all the standards that are required to be met, such as legal and quality standards. They are involved in the whole systematic way of the construction program as they need to maintain the costs. The design phase, also known as the pre-construction phase, is important as it can help the organisation to know that the decision that they are making and the structure regarding the construction can maximize the investments of the organisation. A cost modelling method is a way to find out the total value of the financial investment of a construction project. The main goal of cost modelling is to, find out the accurate way to assess the value input and the values output ratio and to compare and measure them as their financial profitability. This report is going to critically evaluate the role of the Quantity Surveyor during a modern construction phase. It also evaluates the usefulness of “Traditional Cost Modelling” techniques according to the evolution of the construction design.
Role of the Quantity Surveyor during the design phase
The design phase or pre-construction phase, is a very important phase for any construction, as it can predict the way in which the construction company can understand and determine the financial values of a construction project. In this stage, the path in which the company can proceed with the work and successfully determine the profitability of the project. In this, the Quantity Surveyor (QS) have several responsibilities and plays a crucial role in the construction company.
Responsibilities of QS in the Design Phase
In the design, the QS possess a very crucial role; in this case, they have to examine and analyse the plans of the architect and the engineers. After the plan investigation, they have to break down the work into several small parts. Then they have to assess and construct a budget plan for each of those tasks. In the design phase, the QS discuss the project plan with a group of designers who may suggest possible ways to transform the project into economic value and make the project cost-efficient and budget-friendly (Ife, 2023). This process is called value engineering. In this phase, the QS is trying to maximise the investment and the profitability ratio according to the company.
Collaboration with several people in the design phase
Quantity surveyors have to collaborate with other members of a construction project during the design phase to manage several work-related issues and to find out the best way to financially support the cost-effectiveness of construction management. QSs are involved in several types of people and in the designing phase they need to find out the amount that is needed to be spent on the construction site. In this case, they need to be involved with the suppliers of several materials for the construction project as well as the transport management team for the construction plan. They have to find out the cost-effectiveness and discuss this with the client. After the design, the QSs need to analyse the construction plan with several architects and engineers; in this way, they can find out the outcome of the construction site and the economical profitability from it (Lawther et al, 2021). They have to analyse the plan with the engineers; after that, they need to discuss the plan and the budget with the stakeholders of the project. After the survey of the blueprint, the quantity surveyors can create negotiations with the client and the construction management. They have to estimate the costs time and labour requirements for the project. QSs also have to analyse and prove that the estimation can match the real value of the budget.
Discuss the benefits of involving a Quantity Surveyor during the design phase
There are several sectors of the construction industry where the services and use of quantity surveyors are counted as our luxury component. However, there are several large monsters and companies in the commercial sector that are quantity surveyors for private projects. There are several social and economic benefits of using quantitative surveyors for private growth tracks and organizations, as they use them with a continuous emphasis to evaluate and assess the whole construction process.
Quantity surveyors have the knowledge and access to the latest information about construction costs.
In the design phase, they can enable the knowledge and produce realistic construction costs.
In the design phase, they can impose their knowledge and find out the best way to choose labourers, employees, and effective materials from different sources.
They can find out the ratio of input and output economics in a project to determine the best way to maintain the profitability of a construction project.
Traditional Cost Modeling Techniques
Traditional cost modelling is a way of accounting that is used to determine the budget for any construction and how it can make a profit. These are based on allocating the indirect or overhead manufacturing costs (Monteiro et al, 2021). The system can really find out by calculating the overhead rates that were predetermined and given to real metrics.
This traditional cost modelling uses secondary rates for several proficient-cost driving systems. A cost driver is a component that is used to manufacture any construction, such as stakeholder expenses, Construction program, design phase, material and labour management, maintenance and costing, and so on.
In traditional cost modelling, our construction company can develop a team to calculate the profitability and cost of the construction. This team has to maintain the numeric’s and calculate several key indicators such as consumer cost and profitability and then they need to analyse the various events for the retailers and the clients.
Use of Cost Modeling Techniques In the design phase
There are several types of research surveyed that several organizations use cost modelling techniques in the early phases of construction. Later, several studies showed that the use of cost modelling techniques is continuously increasing among consultant quantity surveyors nationally. The results of several surveys pointed out that the traditional cost method technique is used to hold the highest accepted way among the technological modelling that is used, resourced and processed based on several construction companies. Traditional cost modelling techniques are much more effective in countries like South Africa, Wales, England, and Australia. This technique is used to construct and forecast the total budget of a construction program. It can compare the budget of several alternative designs. It can forecast the economic impact of construction sites on society and the changes in regulations and techniques It also allows the construction company to investigate different scenarios and find out the most cost-effective way to implement the construction program.
Advantages and disadvantages of using the Traditional Cost modelling technique
There are several benefits and disadvantages to using traditional cost modelling in the field of construction; they are:
Benefits
It is simple
Traditional cost modelling assigns several costs and expensive effects according to a mediocre overhead rate. The companies can calculate these rates by encountering all the internal indirect costs and by applying them to several common units (Alhasan et al, 2019). They can also calculate the cost of each construction project and material, products and services using the rating scales. It is comparatively less complex than other methods.
Cost-effective
As this process is less complicated than other techniques,, it is more cost-effective. Companies do not have to spend very much money on this calculation program. They do not have to develop any costly system that can track the expenses.
Widely understood
This is relatively older than activity-based costing and for that, it has many drawbacks in the definition. However, it is widely understood and many still prefer traditional costing because it can be reliable and trustworthy fully; it remains effective and fixes the financial issues and indirect costs.
Disadvantages
Limited accuracy
Apart from all the benefits, it lacks some important things, such as accuracy. There are many construction companies that cannot rely on the process; hence, it is not as reliable as the activity based model.
It can avoid vital measurements
This process is responsible for considering faults in numerical accuracy and ignoring unexpected measurements. Traditional costing typically cannot affect the expenses but it could cost the company more unexpected data and produce the product or construction project than it was designed.
Not sustainable
Sustainability is vital for any company these days. That is one of the big reasons why construction companies and owners do not prefer the process due to the lack of its priority for sustainable development. It cannot reduce waste and it also cannot provide any process to develop sustainability in workplace.
Evolution of Design and its Impact on Traditional Cost Modeling
Design changes the procedures of any change in the construction and design of the project after the contract between the client and the company has been signed.
These changes are connected directly not only to the matters but also to the provision of the contract and the work conditions.
The architectural design process is the systematic way of constructing projects that are developed and analysed in a set of stages. There are mainly seven parts to developing the architectural design. In this report, we are going to discuss the first three phases of construction and analyse how the construction process evolved during the design phase.
The pre-design
The architectural process of construction begins with the pre-design stage. DC referred to the programming phase. At this stage, the architect and the client discuss a good plot and understand the outline of the project and how it can take place. They also analyse other rich structures in several plots. In this stage, the architect wants to know the land use restriction project scope scale, the desire of the client surrounding buildings in the neighborhood, and the condition of the site.
Schematic design
In this phase, the architect brainstorms and comes up with an effective and unique architectural plan and creates floor plans and building elevation sketches. In this stage, they need to validate the HVAC system, which is heat ventilation and air conditioning.
Design development
After the satisfaction of the client, the architects focus more on detailing the plan. These details refer to the placement of the doors, windows, pipelines, and structural engineering, any little adjustments, and minute changes in the building (Seidu, et al, 2020). There are several structural engineers who follow up the division and brainstorm to accurate the project. In this part, the quantitative surveyors make the estimates of the project. In this stage, the exterior and interior works are presented to the client, and fixture materials and furnaces are discussed. In this process, the negotiation of how the building has been done.
However, at the end of the stage, the building layout, floors and exterior were finalized and the materials for the building have been ordered.
There are many quantity surveying personnel that can operate with the continuously evolving technology and overcome the traditional methods. The other several who are in the system can help find out the ways to expand the business by using technological developments nowadays “Building information modelling” (BMI) is one of the best tools to find out the accurate cost of a construction program. In this case, the quantitative also needs to upgrade their skills and tools.
In such cases where the engineer's architecture or the client needs to change the structural framework during the working phase of a program, the quantity surveyor leads to changes in the architectural data market value of the materials and the labour price. Recalculate the economic foundation of the structure. They also need to understand the sequence of holidays, labour crises, and other barriers that can affect the workflow of the construction program.
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Conclusion
Quantity surveyors are the people who help with feasibility studies of a project and the involvement of products and materials projects. In the design fees, the quantity survey predicts a way to effectively understand the financial values and develop a plan in which the construction company can follow up this column with maximum economic values. These work to manage the project all the time and keep the project within a budget model, It can dissolve several disputes among contracting parties. Traditional cost modelling technique is a way to make cost-effective designs for the construction and they also help the management to know about the budget of the reconstruction program. However, there are several hurdles and various can be faced by the traditional cost modelling technique in the near future. The BIM technique can overshadow the technique in future.
References
Ife, A. (2023). COST MODEL. www.academia.edu. [online] Available at: https://www.academia.edu/33833339/COST_MODEL.
Lawther, Peter & Edwards, Peter & Lawther, Peter & Edwards, Peter. (2021). Design Cost Modelling – A Way Forward by DESIGN COST MODELLING – A WAY FORWARD. Australasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building. 1. 10.5130/ajceb.v1i1.2278.
Monteiro, F.P., Sousa, V., Meireles, I. and Oliveira Cruz, C. (2021). Cost Modeling from the Contractor Perspective: Application to Residential and Office Buildings. Buildings, 11(11), p.529. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11110529.
Alhasan, Soleen & Amoudi, Omar & Tong, Michael & Kumar, Bimal. (2019). Effectiveness of Adopting BIM on Quantity Surveying Profession During the Project Life Cycle.
Seidu, Rafiu & Young, B.E. & Clack, Jamie & Adamu, Zulfikar & Robinson, Hebert. (2020). Innovative Changes in Quantity Surveying Practice through BIM, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. 4. 37-47. 10.18576/asuj/040105.
