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Tips on using this forum..

(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?

(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.

How are you working guys?

38 replies [Last post]
Sat, 2006-08-19 12:39
Morph T
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Hello

From the posts that I read, it’s seems that this forum is for old PP guru, so I assume the risk that my question would not be answered anyway at all, or at least I will look like a neophyte lost engineer.

Our company decides to implement cost control analysis using P3, actually it’s a hype here in the office, after training some civil works engineers for one month, they( the Boss and his staff) hope converting us to serious PP in overnight !!!

Coming back to work, trying to use what I have learnt, getting all the documentations available in the internet (there is not enough really), reading your forum was a very pleasure and useful. But guess what it’s an impossible mission unless we change all habits of work.

- Making budget cost it’s a very hard process. Especially when I don’t know all the assumptions used to establish cost estimated


- How are you getting the updated data from field people, costs, hours, resources materials used associated with each activity in project, let say for a very simple construction projects with 15 activity and 10 cost accounts, I think we need a full time man for each project just to feed back the needed information.


So please, in the state of the art companies;-) how are you doing ????
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Replies

Mon, 2006-09-11 06:25
#1
Morph T
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Hi all

Happy to see, smart people behind my back ;-) (in English you have such a weird expression;-)
I think I found a new trick to make my life happier, as I have explained before resources utilization that I get from the field are summarized for the whole project, i.e., not detailed by activity.
Here is my new procedure (tm ;-)

1- Make a plan in P3, where activities are unite price item. (So I can track them after).
2- Load resource to activities using the budget provided by PM, only quantities, no cost.
3- Make a target.
4- Update the activities using actual quantities installed.
5- As you know in P3 if you don’t introduce percent complete to resources it uses by default the percent complete of activities.

So know I have BQWS (TARGET) and BQWP = AQWP (yes it is a fake value as it is not updated manually)

6- Make a new layout, where I group and summarize activities by resource.
7- Export to a spreadsheet and ad a new column to introduce [real] AQWP.
8- So now for each resource I have the three magic values.

Of course analysis the results is not straightforward process as all the data are consolidated but anyway it is better then nothing. After all, it is all about trend.

I come to the conclusion that: it is nonsense to load item in a plan if you can monitor them afterward.
In practice (at least for me) it is better to separate cost accounting, monitoring process from scheduling process.
If only we can manage to track actual progress, productivity and activities slippage from the target and make this practice mainstream, it will be a great leap for us.

Regards
Morph
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Fri, 2006-09-08 06:41
#2
James Griffiths
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Hi Morph,

Don’t be sorry - you have done nothing wrong. Your topic on this thread is perfectly good and proper. I believe that it was Clive’s comment about the-grass-being-greener that started the tangential discussion.

Keep up the good work!

James.
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Fri, 2006-09-08 06:33
#3
Tom Farmer
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To the interested parties out there:

Tools such as this facilitate global communications. As project professionals the better WE understand cultural diversity, the better services we can provide. Philosophy, culture, and planning go hand in hand with "How us guys are working" and offer insight into experiences that we might not ever have. Keep up the great dialog.
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Thu, 2006-09-07 12:37
#4
Morph T
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Sorry, ok perhaps I abused this thread, as I am not used to have open discussion with foreign people, I become zealous. so don’t be sad I’ll shut my mouth.

Regards
Morph

Ps : James don’t be devious !
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Thu, 2006-09-07 10:23
#5
James Griffiths
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Hi,

How do you know that I’m not PLANNING the evolution of humankind. So I’m only doing exactly what it says on the forum. No-one said that it had to be exclusively buildings, power-stations or oil-rigs.

Anyway - who started all this?

James :-)
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Thu, 2006-09-07 09:10
#6
John Lawson
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Hi

Agreed all very interesting stuff on this thread.

But should we not stick to more weightier subjects i.e. planning matters and leave philosphizing to other webb sites and those that get over paid to do it!!

John
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Thu, 2006-09-07 08:29
#7
Hashim Muhammud
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i hope the moderator will stop this topic, as it is going out of the limits... incase if you guys forgot where you are standing, please look into the address bar, which clearly says, "PLANNINGplanet.com"...
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Tue, 2006-09-05 03:41
#8
James Griffiths
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Uh Oh! We’re getting into Politics and Religion. Do we really want to do this?

Clive:

Within UK society, we all think that the grass is greener in some way shape or form. We all moan, whinge and pontificate about life being unfair etc. However, that we whinge about is different to the things that other, less westernised nations NEED to whinge about. It is because we take-for-granted the fact that we can walk the streets in relative safety; because it’s a forgone conclusion that we can drive to work without being assassinated; because it’s a minimum expectation that we can turn on the tap and get clean running water. Once we have satisfied all these basic needs, our whingeing is based on, comparatively speaking, mere trivia. All it would take is for everyone in Britain to visit somewhere like Iraq. They would soon shut-up and count their blessings. Yes, there are elements of Political Correctness, yes there are elements of racial discrimination, yes there are still elements of greed, power and politics. These, however, are just minor irritations relative to other countries that will hang you for just being born into another tribe. People who live in those societies have every right to think that the grass IS greener.

It is in man’s nature to evolve, experience, modify, test, explore, develop, examine and push the boundaries of both himself and nature. This involves technological, cultural and social evolution, all keeping pace with each other. Neither of these can exist in isolation...and this is where the diffculty lies. In general, highly Westernised, Industrialised and Capitalised nations have managed to combine these three elements. However, it is extremely easy to "export" the technology and put such technologies into the hands of societies that, perhaps, are not able to readily absorb their enormous implications and responsibilities.

Yes - we in the UK are fat - but we, the people, at least have the opportunity of changing that......and that’s all that anyone asks for.

James.
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Mon, 2006-09-04 12:38
#9
Morph T
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Hi Clive

A society with caste system as a model for the democracy is rather a strange statement !
What is politically incorrect in England? I suppose saying the new royal couple are not the sexiest couple in the world is not permitted there ;-)

If you mean war on terror[ freedom by bomb, or democracy by force], I really don’t understand, people make huge manifestations in road against it, then they vote for the party supporting the war!

Regards
morph
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Mon, 2006-09-04 01:59
#10
Clive Randall
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Morph
Having just returned from the uk i am not sure that having a high level of education and an active middle class helps socities.
In the uk it would appear that people are becoming fat, and if you question some things it is considered not to be politically correct while the politicians continue to do pretty much what they want on what is called the "grace and favour" benefits,
I guess despite what western democracies may think, freedom is fairly limited in many ways often the person who shouts the loudest about democracy finds it the hardest to be democratic, by getting courts to decide who should be president, while India who has perhaps the largest number of issues to deal with in any democratic state can computerise its voting system and announce the result almost immeadiately.
That was a long ramble but what I am trying to say is the grass appears greener but it may not really be the case
Clive
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Sat, 2006-09-02 12:17
#11
Morph T
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Hi James

Laugh loudly @ your post. That is the funniest theory about how Planner born.

Regards
Morph

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Fri, 2006-09-01 03:33
#12
James Griffiths
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Hi Morph,

To extend on my theory, starting back a long time in history:

1. Person makes lots of money – and has satisfied all his physical and emotional needs. Lots of money left-over – ask himself question as to what he’s going to do with it all.
2. Has mildly philanthropic personality or egomania– spends excess money on starting a school, hospital etc. so that his name can live forever.
3. School educates the masses – and this gives them the knowledge to develop technology and industry to make peoples lives easier and better as well as making lots of money. But they need the masses to manufacture – therefore employment in industry is provided.
4. Employment provides income and allows the workers to buy the goods that make their lives easier and less of a struggle. It also helps buy their children a little more education.
5. You now have more people, slightly better educated. Therefore there are more people with mildly philanthropic tendencies or egomania. Some of them are now making lots of money – all them far more than any one person will need. Upon what are they going to spend it? Starting universities, more schools, hospitals, social programmes and technologies.
6. Iterate steps 1-4 several hundred times and education, hospitals, industry, technology and social welfare becomes pervasive throughout the country.
7. Industry is so pervasive that there are now many competitors. Competition helps remove waste and inefficiency via a more and more detailed understanding of how the industrial process works. Voila, a Planner is born!

Something like that. It’s just unfortunate that an awful lot of other things just happen to get in the way of this process – like greed, politics, power, revolution, war, disease, geography, sex, drugs, rock-‘n-roll – not to mention the horrible food that is served at the restaurant at the end of the galaxy. Yuck….I’m going to complain about it.

James :-)
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Thu, 2006-08-31 03:00
#13
James Griffiths
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Hi Morph,

I fully sympathise with your anger and frustration. I sometimes feel very much the same. Moreover, I also fully appreciate there are huge cultural differences between Westernised companies and those that are attempting to follow in their footsteps.

Yes, I suppose that I am an idealist - and sometimes it is very difficult to come-to-terms with the hard realities of commercial life - and perhaps I am lucky to have more choices than a lot of other people. For that, I am thankful. However, perhaps I can spend my energies trying to implement such Best Practice Idealogies precisely because of the fact that I don’t have to spend my life trying to just stay alive. And the reason I don’t have to struggle everyday, is maybe because my forebears also held such idealistic viewpoints and spent their lives trying to makes things a little better. From all their energies, perhaps there was a 1% improvement - but on that basis, all it takes is 100 people to make a 100% improvement.

Morph: don’t give up. May God give you the strength to accept that which you cannot change, and the courage to change that which you can. Where you can make a difference, though, is to teach your children the good ways.


Best Regards.

James.
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Thu, 2006-08-31 12:18
#14
Morph T
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Hi James, Tom

How many joint venture between a us company and Algerian company are working in EPC sector here in Algeria? Easy question, just one, I think it the time for me to improve my CV writing ;-)

James, it is an interesting theory, specially the part, where you speak about children (my mother will be happy if she read it ;-)

I read a lot of paper about how western countries (and some eastern countries) had managed to become what they are, how middle class can dramatically change societies, but prior to that we have to get an educated population, (what do you expect from a country where the majority of people are illiterate), let’s be optimist, perhaps we get a miracle with next generations, after all we are still (I hope) in the beginning of history ?

James, it was a real pleasure to have this discussion with you.

Regards
Morph
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Wed, 2006-08-30 15:49
#15
Clive Randall
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He Tom
so you worked for Condor
I am sure you can understand exactly where our Algerian colleague is coming from
Clive
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Wed, 2006-08-30 12:41
#16
Morph T
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[Warning; this is an angry post not related to this forum]

Hi James

I don’t want to be rude, but have you ever been abroad in third world counties? Or are you an idealist?

Welcome to hell, man, there is no rule, no freedom, no law, no justice, no honest vote, no independent journalism, no real democracy, no internet access , no intellectual property( all software are leaked here), we have one TV channel, one truth, one party, one good thinking, one regime.

Companies are philanthropic, as workers are paid it is ok, why bother with net profit, and EV cost control? It works like that; it is neither fraud nor deluding, even it is not a bad practice at all. No one is responsible for anything; it’s a kind of prehistoric economy. A black market call it what you want.

We have high oil revenue, why should we work after all, it is a God gift, we sell you our oil, extracted by your companies, and then we bought your goods, so it’s fair all the parties are happy.

And to answer your question, don’t worry James, I am not sad, I love my job, you can’t imagine how was difficult to get it, ( after working for five years for another company ) I am happy, I am quiet, I am well paid (360 $, it is a fortune here),I am not an idealist, perhaps people should better appreciate simple life, even yesterday, I managed to have a phone call with my sweet heart;-) yeah, I think that I’ll marry her;- ) love in the air

It is really funny, I was trying to understand how the other world work, then the discussion turned to be how we work, I think now you get it, we don’t work ;-(


Regards
Morph
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Wed, 2006-08-30 07:11
#17
Tom Farmer
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Mimoune,

I just read this posting from the start and can well understand the challenge before you. I worked in Algiers from March 2001 until November 2004 for a joint venture between an Algerian company and a US company. Being my first "overseas" assignment, you can imagine the many cultural challenges I faced. One the significant observations I made was that while our company requires profit to stay in business, hence the emphasis on cost control, this is not true for state owned companies. From labor practises observed on site, job creation seemed to be more important - lots of labor, little equipment, and little productivity. Another observation I made was that sometimes management says things because they are "obligated" to say it not because it is what they really want or they may want it but can’t ask for help. I learned to key my actions off mangement’s behaviors rather than what they say. One final observation is that while the PM is the responsible for the project, all significant decisions are made by the PDG. We had an excellent project team and the PM I supported often listened to suggestions on ways to improve. I held these discussions in private and let the PM put out the ideas or changes as his own. I also had good success in working directly at my peer level i.e. with our controls manager, construction manager, and procurement manager. It’s tough to implement change from the bottom up, but it can be done if there is a good reason to do it. I too saw many folks that were just happy to get a paycheck and not make waves. Best wishes in your endeavors.
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Wed, 2006-08-30 03:03
#18
James Griffiths
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Hi Morph,

What excellent perception you have :-)

That which you believe is happening is probably not unusual. I know of many occasions where the numbers have been manipulated to make the project look good (how many of us are guilty of this?). If you think of ENRON or WORLDCOM, they were doing the same thing. The only problem is that it will all catch-up with them at some point in the future. How long, though, is anyone’s guess.

You have now learnt that any form of performance measurement relies entirely on the honesty and integrity of the individual team members - including the company owners, Directors, Managers, Engineers and Administrators. If the rules are not followed, how are we ever to understand how well we are playing the game? Moreover, if different companies play by different rules, we will always be comparing apples with oranges. This is where the "person in authority" makes a mockery of us Planners whom are trying to do the right thing. It’s a case of: "I-don’t-like-the-numbers-so-I’ll-change-them".

It now comes back to our individual choices. If they are deliberately defrauding, you could "blow-the-whistle" or you could keep quiet. See the thread about ETHICS AND INTEREST. If they are NOT defrauding but only deluding themselves, then you can try gentle persuasion or you can just play-along with it, earn your money and not worry about it. However, where money and ego are concerned [especially with the company owner], it is very, very difficult to persuade someone that they are living in fantasy-land.

As they say: The Choice Is Yours.

Cheers.

James :-)

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Tue, 2006-08-29 15:45
#19
Morph T
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Hi James

PS :sorry for the last post, the net connexion was lost

Thanks a lot for the explanation you give; I’ll try to explain some cultural background.
The process of budget approval is very fast here; as for each project it takes only 3 hours to convince top management that your budget rock.
Worst the process of making budget is really a joke.

1- The PM prepare his plan (using a spreadsheet, we only use P3 to #draw# the grant chart).
2- Then he loaded his plan using equipment labor etc …..
3- He presents report showing planned resources ( labor, equip etc ……. utilization
4- Hold your breath, the serious stuff is cash flow report

• Planning the expected billing is a real fun, planned activity completion X unit price you get it for each month.

• Wages ; number of labor X the average salary( what you gain in north is not the same in desert near Mali )

• The other costs account let start with office overhead is billing X 3%

• Material cost is billing X a percent ( it depends on the PM humors )

• For the other cost accounts it is a mater of simple arithmetic,

I imagine you scratching your head, we make the opposite process, we have the value of contract then we make related costs cooooooool isn’t ? so the expected net profit is a nosense.

So the planned budget don’t really matter ( for us ;-), the only think that matter for the PM is ACWP don’t exceed BILLING for that month then, the Cost at completion don’t exceed the value of contract and he must respect the duration of the contract.

So for this particular project,

- Either the ACWP are assigned to other projects, it is a very used technique to make a project profitable even if they are not. Or

- The estimated budget is wrong (I prefer that version)

The external cabinet who made audit at the end of fiscal year, it cares only about financial audit AKA check paid = registered invoice ( hell on my English)

AFAIK making underestimated budget is not illegal in term of law, at least here ?? of course I imagine top management likely will not be happy, but only if they can control it; ) hihihihh

So think tank in the head office (a well intentioned motivated engineers) are trying to implement cost control using P3, so all what I have write before become a history, we really need lucks otherwise, we will be doomed

I am really sorry, I wasted a lot of your time, trying to figure up this crap, my hope is if multinational company implanted here, begun to seek local cheap PP engineers know what is EV, I can be a serious applicant.



Regards
morph
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Tue, 2006-08-29 13:01
#20
Morph T
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Hi James Thanks a lot for the explanation you give, some background The PM prepares the budget, then the top management come to the district office, and approves the budget, all you have to do is to make an interesting dinner? So the planned budget is a nonsense, the only think that matter for the PM is ACWP don’t exceed BILLING for that month then, the Cost at completion don’t exceed the value of contract Regards morph
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Sat, 2006-08-26 12:37
#21
Morph T
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Hi james

As I explained before, it is a price unit contract so the client pay us for the work performed, for example the price of earthwork is 6 $/M3 so if we do 100 M3 he pay us 600 $, so he don’t know – care- how much it costs us to do that work, nearly all contract( in civil works ) are like that in my country, I guess it is not the case for you ?

Regards
Mimoune
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Fri, 2006-08-25 06:37
#22
James Griffiths
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Hi Mimoune,

Evidently I failed to understand that your Gross Billing was NOT equal to your ACWP. So you guys send in an invoice for twice the amount which it has cost you so far??? This is why your SPI and CPI values are so high. In reality, you never get a project with such high CPI and SPI values unless something exceptional has occurred.

Now you know why correctly calculating the % complete is extremely important. Let’s put it this way: Most projects will get a SPI and CPI of around 0.95, if they are doing extremely well. When being presented with SPI and CPI figures of 2, it is very, very obvious that the figures are being deliberately fiddled or the wrong ones are being used. In fact, any figure above 1.2 is going to arouse suspicion.

In conclusion, you will have now realised that, for EV to be of any use, (ie. give reasonably accurate figures) all of the figures used in the equation have to be as truthful as possible.

Best of luck.

James. :-)
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Fri, 2006-08-25 05:17
#23
Morph T
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Hi James

My name is Mimoune ( it means lucky in Arabic, hehehehe ;-) and I forget that in English you first introduce name then family name. ( I suppose your name is not Griffiths ;-)
for us contract = budget( costs ) + expected net profit so

I prefer to use actual billing as mean to track progress of project in this case
gross billing is 105 7720 $ and value of contract is 2 127 900 $
so % complete is 50 %

Because

1- Perhaps it’s the only accurate data I get from the project ( it’s signed by the owner )
2- The plan budget is a fake as the actual costs, to be honest even if it is taken from official report it has nothing with the real expenditure.
I am doing this just for educational purpose.


Regards
Mimoune
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Fri, 2006-08-25 03:54
#24
James Griffiths
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Mimoune,

There is an error in your calculations

Your % complete should be $593/$2082 = 0.285 = 28.5% complete

Therefore: BCWP =0.285 X $2080 = $592.8

SPI = BCWP/BCWS = $592.8/$513.4 = 1.15.

CPI = BCWP/ACWP = $592.8/$593.7 = 0.998

James :-)

PS. I knew it was too good to be true!!!!!

PPS. Should we address you as Mimoune or Djouallah??
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Thu, 2006-08-24 16:54
#25
Morph T
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hi James
who tell the britains are not funny !!!!

I really don’t know witch side I have to be, as how to understand a poor detailed budget like this. perhaps a budget plan was non sense.

I really don’t know.


regards

mimoune

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Thu, 2006-08-24 12:41
#26
James Griffiths
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Wow, that must be the most fantastic project in the whole world.

From the data you supplied, you are going to complete the project in half of the time and at half the cost. Are you really 50% complete?

Let’s put it this way: If I were to read that SPI and CPI value, I would take you to one side and either kiss you or put you on trial for fraud.

All in the best possible taste.

James:-)
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Thu, 2006-08-24 11:53
#27
Morph T
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Hi Rami, James

Thanks for your explanation, I really appreciate,
My job is just to make report to the boss about actual physic progress versus planned progress and the estimated end of project, it’s a funny work and P3 do that in an easy way.

But controlling cost it’s really tough stuff, Here is a sample case, the project budget is done by PM, and the actual costs are given by finance department.

A rehabilitation of an airfield we get the unit price contract after a competitive bidding.

The value of contract = 2 127 900 $
The project budget = 2 080 140 $ that represent direct costs (labor, equip, materiel, field supervision etc), and indirect costs (office overhead cost)
So the expected net profit is = 47 760 $ - don’t be astonished it is only 2%, by the way how much do you expect from this kind of project ?

Now the actual to date for 31/07/2006
ACWP = 593 760 $
The method we use for % complete is gross billing/value of contract.( as invoices are signed by the client, it is more accurate then the report I get from PM)

BCWP = % complete X Budget = 50 % X 2 080 140 = 1 040 070 $

( shit I know it’s very simplistic way, but the budget I have is in term of cost account allocated to the whole project; labor, materiel etc and it is not detailed for each activity
Although it is only 14 activity project)

The BCWS= 513 420 $ using our target plan

Now
SPI = 1.75
CPI = 2.02

Cool, the project is ahead of schedule, and the costs are under budget??? Or the budget estimation is very conservative?

Does this make sense? As I told you before I have not actual cost per activity?
I really believe in this case, with this poor detailed budget.
The only thing that makes sense is BILL-ACWP.

Regards

Mimoune
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Wed, 2006-08-23 12:42
#28
Morph T
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Thanks a lot

Your responses are great, that is exactly what I’ll do, perhaps someday I’ll be in a place where the sun shine, and definitely it will help


regards

mimoune
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Wed, 2006-08-23 04:29
#29
James Griffiths
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Djouallah,

Rami has given a good overview of what has to be done. However, the best way to understand EV, and how the software calculates it, is to construct a little project of, say, 20 activities and then apply budgets, resources, and progress values as you would in a normal project situation. Then you can play with the data and see how the EV numbers change. The principles are exactly the same, regardless of whether you use 10 activities or 10 000. Reading all the world’s scientific papers won’t really give you an idea of how it works in practice – only the button-pressing will.

We have been using EV for several years – and it can work very well. However, when you look at the output curves, do not lose sleep about the accuracy of the value. It is best used to indicate the TREND of the curve.

One of the biggest challenges is the speed and accuracy of the data that you need to acquire, regarding the progress of the individual tasks. In our environment (Design) all personnel book their time once a week. We use a system that allows people to electronically book their time directly onto tasks within the project programme. Just booking your time, though, is not enough – you must be able to calculate your progress as well as re-forecasting how long something is going to take. For this it needs people to be truthful and co-operative. We tend to use man-hours – and even though our systems make it extremely easy for people to do that which has to be done, they still don’t do it properly. However, in other industries, it is perhaps easier to use physical progress ie. the number of piles that have been driven-in; the number of pipe-sections that have been welded etc. Using these units of measure, it becomes easier to tell if someone is being truthful. Remember, however, the all these units of measure must have been decided before you even start constructing the programme. This is because, once the baseline cost values and schedules have been agreed, it is the % complete that is the fundamental value affecting all other EV calculations during execution of the work.


Best of luck.

James. :-)
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Wed, 2006-08-23 04:02
#30
Rami Al Haddad
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Hi all,

I hink cost control is one of the easiest procedures to be implemented in acompany, it’s not a road to hill, it is a road to heaven, and everyone will take on it, for the simple fact... the reward at the end... the periodic bonus for the project team... at least, this is the fact here, for the past 4 successfull years of implementation.

all u need is:
1) To set a budget for all the itemsand works in the project
2) distrubute the budget to all team members directly invovled in cost, especially material cost since it is usually not less than 70% of budget cost! we are talking, PM, CM, Technical, Procurement, Material coordinator...
3) assign a person who would collect cost data on daily bsis and record them against corresponding budget cost... site petty cash, PC’s, PO’s, WO’s... and what ever document that relates to cost. As for Manpower; practice shows that it is more accurate if u report it separetly and get th data from accounting or payroll, unless u have a guy on site who knows where every one works every hour of the work day and how much he is getting per hour... go figure!!!
4) As u enter the data against budget... make sure they are within budget... and if they go above it... make sure u have a very good explanation for that...

theabove simple procedure is working fine for us... so good luck :)
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Tue, 2006-08-22 16:13
#31
Morph T
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Rolyn, James

I really appreciate your responds, you make my life easier,( I sleep now like a baby) I begun to understand the whole picture of activity based costing versus project based costing which we are doing actually. (to be honest we do strange arithmetic, so nearly all our projects are profitable, that the heritage of socialism)

I think you did not understand the meaning of -state owned company- in my country it is a company owned to the government ie to nobody, so you have no obligation to make profit or to justify any weird costs, if you see the chief procurement department’s Villa, you will understand what I mean ;-)

One day our top management made a visit to a project, we were doing subcontracting civil work for an EPC company (a consortium between KBR and JCC), then the big boss was told that those companies are using a software call P3 to monitor the project, so he decided to buy the software, and try to do like foreign people are doing. I think perhaps it is the worst implementation of P3 done in the world.

So, James, unfortunately the answer to your question is no, if only they suspected me to not be happy with established rule, they simply fired me, I am only interested to be paid each month.

it’s a personnel effort only for my self,as it is not too late to learn I hope

Regards
Mimoune
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Tue, 2006-08-22 06:34
#32
Rolyn Jalea
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djouallah,
My previous company entroduced the "Activity Based Costing" method in which every activity has its corresponding budget cost and actual cost and our project was chosen to become the pilot project. The main purpose of this exercise is to compare the alloted amount versus the actual amount incurred at site for each of the activities.It is broken down into cost codes (i.e. material, manpower, equip., etc.), and each cost codes is monitored according to site usage.
This exercise requires a lot of staff for Project Control Department for implementing & monitoring (therefore much bigger overhead cost). And as what I have seen, it is not advisable on a large scale project with thousands of activities because it will be hard to monitor every bits of cost that should enter in a certain activity.
If it is not required, better stay away from it or you’ll end up in misery. One of the reason why the management opted to implement this one is that it will be used in tendering future project.

Regards,

Rolyn
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Tue, 2006-08-22 03:41
#33
James Griffiths
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Djouallah,

Welcome to Hell. You have just started on the most difficult road possible - changing the culture and working practices.

The biggest question of all: Is it the top-management who is driving the change? Can you go to them and ask them to "have-a-little-chat" with people if you are not getting the co-operaation that you need? Do you have the authority to impose sanctions on un-cooperative personnel? If the answer to the first two questions is "No" - then I advise that you jump ship; otherwise you will be ripping-out your hair all the time.

We have all the electronic systems and procedures to do all the work updating automatically - but it still needs, and starts with, the initial and accurate input of each engineer. It is a team effort.

Best of luck.

James
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Mon, 2006-08-21 12:25
#34
Morph T
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Thanks for your responds

I’ll try to do that just for fun, we are a state owned company, why should people bother themselves about monitoring project ( especially material utilizations).

But as many foreign company are gaining contract here in my country, ( 2 chine’s company won a 7 billions $ contract for building a highway)
I though they will be interested in a cheap local PP engineer

Regards
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Sun, 2006-08-20 21:31
#35
Zhang Haixiang
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Hi djouallah,

Before you start all these works. ask yourself why you do these?
There’re a lot of different ways to do scheduling. first check what is the requirement of your client/boss. and what support can you get from you team.

for your question, prepare a speadsheet with one week(or maybe day) tasks and relevant resources, let your site man fill in actual data and feed back to you.

HTH
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Sun, 2006-08-20 14:59
#36
Dana Qandah
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djouallah,

No, im not doing this job cause im working with the C.M not the Contractor. But i know it is being done. U are talking about 25 active activities, as I said before the contactor should determine the labor and recourses for each activity per day, and then u can monitor this by a Forman for each group of labor.

Good Luck
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Sun, 2006-08-20 13:04
#37
Morph T
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Hi Dana

Sorry for the lag as I have just 1 hour access to net each day and it’s really very
Fast 15 kb/s ;-)

Actually I am working for a contractor, and I am speaking about the monitoring (cost control) stage; I have already planned, allocated resources, cost and so one, let say I am really proud of my project plan ;-) is it a realistic plan? That is another subject and only time will tell me.

My coworkers think I am mad as I told them, we need updated report from field people about actual use of resources cost labor and materiel utilizations for each activity in the project, so guess we have right now for just one project, 25 live task each task have an average of 10 resources, so updating 250 data field each week is not an easy job.

My coworkers are stick with financial accounting; they think we don’t need all the stuff about EV, BCWP, CPI. They only believe in this magic formula
net profit= gross billing- actual cost

So please, I am becoming insomniac , are you really doing that tough job ?

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Sat, 2006-08-19 14:01
#38
Dana Qandah
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I will answer your last paragraph only:

All data can be get from the field, they are usually summarized in daily reports, for man-hours, u just have to know the number of workers and then multiply it by the working hours, but to know for which activities they are assigned , this will depend if u are the contractor or CM. if u are a contractor , u should allocate them, not the opposite, in the planning stage , when u determine the duration of the activity depending on its recourses and quantity, but if u are the CM u get these data direct from the contractor ;)
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