Page 194 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition
P. 194

Civil Engineering Project Management
                          174
                            Contractors sometimes use the critical path method to support a claim for
                          delay; but the same problem applies that any critical path is based on only one
                          particular order in which work is constructed, and other orders may be possible.
                          14.6 The part played by the agent in achieving
                                progress

                          It is the contractor’s agent who has on-the-spot responsibility for programming
                          the work and keeping progress in line. The resident engineer’s job is to assist
                          the agent, if asked, and provide any information that the agent needs or that
                          will be helpful to him. As the work proceeds the resident engineer will keep
                          a check on progress, and must advise the engineer when unacceptably slow
                          progress is occurring. Before acting formally in this matter the resident engineer
                          should put his comments to the agent, seeking to find out why work is going
                          slow and endeavouring to persuade him to take steps to speed up construction.
                          He must also identify causes of delay for which the employer is responsible.
                            A contractor’s slow progress can be caused by many factors – lack of labour,
                          lack of skilled key men, a weak general foreman, or an agent not sufficiently
                          decisive or good at organization, or tending to under-estimate the difficulty of
                          a job and failing to foresee problems arising. Sometimes the cause may lie with
                          the contractor’s head office, such as slowness in getting materials or equip-
                          ment to site. This may be indicative of the contractor being outstretched, either
                          organizationally or financially. It is important that the resident engineer gets
                          sufficient information to give the engineer reliable advice as to where the cause
                          of slow progress lies because, if the lack of progress continues, the engineer
                          will have to take up the matter formally with the contractor.
                            A good agent is an inestimable benefit to a project. He automatically thinks
                          in terms of the ‘critical path’ that lies ahead, and has clearly in his mind where
                          the job ‘ought to be’ in a month’s or 2 months’ time. But to get there he has
                          to make many decisions in the present. He has to seize opportunities, over-
                          come delays, take extra work into account, suffer inefficiencies of labour and
                          breakdowns of plant, find solutions to unexpected problems, face the vagaries
                          of the weather and, despite all these, keep the work going at the required pace
                          to gain his targets. The immediate targets are short term – this week’s in detail,
                          next week’s in outline. If he can achieve them, he knows they are within the
                          longer term strategy he has already worked out.
                            He has also to be aware of the need to have safety margins of time in hand for
                          overcoming all sorts of difficulties that his experience tells him will inevitably
                          crop up, even though he cannot forecast the precise form they will take. Many
                          factors influence his judgement. He will be quick to detect when things are in
                          his favour – when weather seems to promise fine, when the spirit on the job
                          is good and the men are working efficiently as a team – and, grasping such
                          opportunities, he will use them to drive the job onwards, knowing that one
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