Why is Construction Management Important?

What is Construction Management?

Construction management is simply a professional service involving the management of an entire construction project on behalf of the project owner. This typically involves all the phases of the construction from planning, design, scheduling, and budgeting to execution of the project.

Unlike construction contractors, construction managers ensure optimization of industry practices including rational management decision-making, accounting, efficient project controls, materials management, document management, and transparent reporting methods.

Importance of Construction Management

Working with a construction manager can offer a lot of benefits to your construction project. It can, in fact, significantly determine the success of the project. The value of construction management will reflect along each part of the planning and organizing phase, the construction phase, and the post-construction phase.

Here are 6 reasons why construction management is important:

Increased Accountability

Handling each of the various parties and stakeholders involved in completing a construction project can be a herculean task. This is particularly true when you have little or no experience and knowledge about how to hold each party accountable. You are not likely to notice the necessary indicators that could spell doom for the project.

A construction manager understands how to identify these markers and hold the affected parties accountable. This will ensure that the work that is done matches the work that was invoiced. Construction managers also know how to remedy the situation when the markers were not identified early enough without affecting the project timeline.

Secondly, construction managers help to increase the accountability of the parties and stakeholders involved in the project through document retention. They keep all related documents and hand them over to the project owner after completion. This allows the owners to refer to the documents whenever they need to.

Enhanced Communication

Construction projects, especially large ones, require a lot of people to work together. This can be difficult, considering that the teams have different tasks and goals. Without proper communication, the success of the project could be hampered. Poor communication could lead to costly delays. It could cause the project to fall below the owner’s expectations.

Construction managers can enhance communication between the project teams, the stakeholders, the management, and the owner. They have the ability to translate the ideas of the project owner into a feasible strategic plan that will serve as a framework for the project. This will help to eliminate collaborative complexities and increase transparency and accountability during the project.

Construction managers provide regular feedback to the owners on the status of the project. By so doing, they assure the owner that the project is still on track in terms of the timeline and budget, and goals of the owner.

Advanced Efficiency

Construction management can up the level of efficiency of the stakeholders in a construction project. There are many phases in a project, several stakeholders, equipment, and materials involved in construction. A slight disconnect between any of the parties could strain the timeline and budget allocated for the construction project.

A construction manager deeply understands the flow of a construction project and how to translate the idea of the owner into a reality. They can easily advance the efficiency levels of everyone involved by closely coordinating all the project stakeholders simultaneously and linearly. This will ensure that fewer delays happen.

Improved Safety

Construction sites can be very hazardous when there is no implementation of proper safety guidelines and measures or when the workers fail to observe them. Construction management helps to improve safety on a construction site. Construction managers have the duty of designing a system to identify potential safety risks and take steps to mitigate them.

They also build a safety culture among the workers, ensuring that they provide the necessary feedback required to manage the safety system. Construction managers do more than just put up warning signs, they take proactive steps to ensure that the construction site is safe for all the stakeholders.

Skill and Expertise

Another reason why construction management is important to a construction project is because of the skill and expertise that construction managers bring on board. Construction managers are very familiar with the construction process as they have gathered a high degree of skill, expertise, and experience in that area. This is why they are different from general contractors.

Unlike general contractors who have a general knowledge of the construction process, construction managers have an in-depth understanding of every phase of the process. They understand the roles of other project stakeholders and how to effectively manage them.

Most construction managers have a background in construction, with some of them having previously worked with general contractors and subcontractors. A number of them are even trained designers, architects, and engineers. This provides them with a deep well of experience they can rely on as construction managers. It also helps them identify, assess, and mitigate any risks effectively during the course of the project.

Construction managers have a process that helps to realize your ideas in the most realistic way while following the given timeline and budget. This ensures that your construction project is completed successfully as an owner.

Quality Control

As a construction project owner, your primary goal is to have a completed building that meets your expectation and the safety and quality standards of the local authorities. This makes it important to assess the quality of the building every step of the way.

Construction management ensures that quality control and compliance of the project is in good hands. This could even transcend individual construction projects into potential future projects.

Conclusion