Site Waste Management Plans - Burden or Benefit to Contractors?

From April 2008 on Contractors in England shall have another legal requirement to comply with among the host of national and European regulations. The requirement is the provision of Site Waste Management Plans (SWMPs) which will be a legal requirement for all construction projects in England over £300,000, after the 6th of April.

On the face of it one would think that this would be just another pen pushing/PC keyboard keying burden, but the research says otherwise. In fact there is evidence to suggest that the SWMPs should actually save the construction industry significant sums of money in a manner which is also sustainable as it results in reduced energy utilisation and a lower raw material consumption rate.

Site Waste Management Plans should also help the construction industry to get maximum value out of its waste and make better use of resources and in this way they will be moving towards more sustainable waste management. It will also expose the cowboys in the industry, and reduce fly tipping as a result.

These plans are cited as being extremely beneficial in formalising a comprehensive recycling and waste management strategy for each project. If they succeed in this they will become important tools for the construction industry. Those that propound their use say they will be a good way to help businesses be careful about how they use, store and dispose of materials which at present usually only get consideration AFTER all other factors have been decided.

By taking early action on waste before the planned enforcement of Site Waste Management Plans (SWMPs) contractors are said to be benefiting from significant cost savings, much to the surprise of all concerned. These Plans should provide a structure for waste delivery and disposal during construction projects, reduce waste going to landfill and increase recycling rates on-site.

The industry has been following a voluntary code of practice launched by DTI in 2004, but implementation has been patchy. Defra resolved that enforcement would be necessary and has developed proposals for the introduction of compulsory site waste management plans in England.

Contractors seeking more information about the plans should read the latest news on construction waste on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) website. There is also guidance for anyone working in building, demolition, civil engineering or building trades on the UK Government's NetRegs website. It has also been possible to download the non-statutory guidance for site waste management plans from the Defra website (PDF) for some time, and before the deadline for the new regulations this April there is likely to be updated information provided for downloading..

Construction Waste

Construction and demolition waste accounts for around 33% of controlled waste in the UK (over 100 million tonnes/ year), making it the single largest waste stream.

Construction is the single largest user of material resources in the economy and generates 100 million tonnes of waste every year WRAP. Construction firms are being urged to take early action on waste before the planned enforcement of Site Waste Management Plans (SWMPs) next year so that they are not overburdened when enforcement commences.

If they work as intended by the government, SWMPs should do a lot to change the construction industry's attitude to waste by raising the profile of waste management planning. Defra held regional workshops for the construction industry during the consultation period at which a two way dialogue helped to do just that.

But, don't forget that it is not all about cost saving and sustainability for the government. Our English MPs are also concerned about the small, but increasing amount of construction waste that is illegally dumped or fly-tipped and which causes enormously bad publicity wherever locally it takes place.

The SWMP regulations will encourage contractors to recycle suitable spoil, demolition materials, prunings, and surplus construction material arising from the works on site to avoid the need to transport materials. CIRIA are currently developing Best Practice examples of waste minimisation in the UK Construction sector. Also, a SWMP, guidance document and a Code of Practice were launched back in July 2004 to help the construction industry face the major challenge of changes in waste management legislation, including SWMPs.

The purpose of SWMPs will basically also encompass a new site task to provide accurate projections for waste delivery and disposal at every stage of a construction project. Many will see this as very burdensome.

SWMPs will apply to all construction work including preparatory work such as demolition and excavation, civil engineering and engineering projects, and projects involving maintenance, alteration and decoration of existing structures. Also to be included in the plans is the installation, maintenance or removal of related services such as electrical, gas, water, sewage and telecommunications.

Conclusion

The workload required to produce and maintain and circulate the Site Waste Management Plan is significant, but these actions are seen to be of great value as an important tool for cost savings for construction companies and their clients, of all sizes. The new enforceable provision of SWMPs should provide another step in the quest to improve the environmental performance of all English construction contractors, and help them to meet regulatory controls, and reduce the ever-rising costs of disposing of waste.

The implementation of this statutory duty to prepare construction site waste management plans will be starting very soon. We recommend that all construction professionals should familiarise themselves now with the Code of Practice.

The SWMP should not be seen as a negative development as it aims to assist contractors in their own management of their waste development and disposal planning. Contracting industry staff will surely soon be able to roll out of Site Waste Management Plans rapidly and efficiently for the benefit of all involved after a short initial period of learning, and in most cases the SWMP should then save money for the site developer and users.

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Contingent Project Management - A Definition

In an IT systems context, contingent project management ("CPM") is the ability to select an appropriate methodology to apply to and successfully deliver a project, tuning the method as the project proceeds. 'Contingent Leadership Style' is analogous. Wikipedia (Fiedler) provides an explanation of contingent leadership.

Yes, a project manager can have a contingent leadership style, but may not have a contingent project management approach.

Let us look at a range of project management framework processes:

Waterfall (gather requirements, design, build, test, deliver, train) - the 'traditional' way of building systems. This worked well for systems where the rate of business and technology change was low, having grown out of engineering and construction. It still works well in a construction (civil engineering) context, where generally, the rate of technology change is low. Requirements of a building may change during construction, but the rate of scope creep is still low as compared with many IT projects. In the right circumstances, it can still work well with IT projects.

Agile methods (gather and prioritise requirements, design a prototype, test, deliver, re-cycle - design, build, test, deliver, train and go live). On the scale of low risk/low complexity to high risk/high complexity some of the methodologies would be: XP, Scrum, DSDM ®, RUP ®. Note that risk and complexity do not always equate - some low complexity systems can have profound organisational risk associated with them.

Prince ® could be used in either of these contexts for governance of the project on a wider organisational scale, or locally on a smaller scale. Indeed, the advent of Prince2 moved the methodology into a wider non-IT specific context.

Agile methodologies are most appropriate for example where requirements are unclear at the outset, and/or the technology is new or being stretched, and/or a new business model is being adopted (to name just a few reasons). The range of Agile methods also relate to scale of project and team size.

Sophisticated organisations may have their own 'pet' methodology, maybe having invested heavily (financially, managerially and politically) in developing their way of doing things, even 'branding' the methodology. After all this investment, they will want to 'sweat this asset'. Projects will have to fit into the corset they impose - this can cause strangulation at the extreme, building a high probability of failure into a project, even before it is initiated.

After all, Prince ® was developed in the UK Public Sector (and the UK Government still has massive problems delivering projects). At the top end of projects, Prince is often seen as excessivley bureaucratic, but it shouldn't be like that. CPM should ensure that the appropriate processes are selected for a project and that they are applied judiciously so that the project is not strangled by administration and red-tape.

This choking of projects by heavy methods was observed by the author in an investment bank. The project managers running a large number of smaller projects were unable to meet the centralised project reporting requirements imposed on them, leading to frustration in the managers, frustration in the programme office, and frustration in and with the 'methodology police'. The recommended solution was to

- Prioritise the projects according to risk (measured on several dimensions), report project status on an 'exceptions' basis, and tune reporting frequency to project risk.

This levelled the project managers' workload, and the centralised need for control of risk and comfort.

So, what of contingent project management?

It is clear that a significant degree of experience is necessary to be able to select the appropriate methodology for a project, and the programme board is not always best placed to decide for reasons mentioned earlier - investment and political capital for example.

An effective project manager will have

- the wisdom and experience to select the correct tool for the job based on his or her perception of the risk profile; the ability to persuade the programme board or sponsor of the relevance of the methodology and the basis of selection; worked with a number of methodologies experience enabling the 'heavy' or 'light' touch application of a methodology; an innate sense of the risks and their relative salience, meaning that a focus is developed and maintained on the things that matter; finally, the ability to dynamically tune the methodology to circumstances without loss of control (finance, timeline and quality), as the 'things that matter' change

Dynamic tuning means applying the tool judiciously - some projects may require very high levels of stakeholder communication, others will have to be highly focused on technology/ performance and proof of concept, others may have political governance issues, new or immature business models, and so on. Some projects, of course, will exhibit all of these risks and more beyond. This list and balance of risks will change significantly during the lifecycle of the project. In addition to ongoing Risk review, CPM requires ongoing process review and change.

How is it that more than 30% of projects fail? It is because failing projects continue in the same old vein, without contingent project management being deployed and the management not responding appropriately to changes in risks.

Contingent Project Management is really straightfoward in principle: adapt and survive - that is, Darwinism. To apply it successfully requires a great deal of experience and flexibility.

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Dealing With Multiple Activities in Civil Engineering Project Management

Project engineers have to deal with multiple tasks at once. It may seem overwhelming at times, especially when you may have 10 to 20 active projects under your control.

It is imperative that project managers understand the status of each project, their urgency and deliverables. It also seems the better you are as a project manager, the more projects you have to handle at once.

When you manage multiple projects it is vitally important that you understand the final time deadline (the delivery date) and the overall budget.

Ultimately, the client is interested in two things, when can I have it, and how much will it cost. If you can satisfy time and budget constraints, milestones (as per the client's expectations), you will be 'held in high esteem' by your client.

In order to manage and juggle this many projects, it is vitally important that you understand 5 things ...

The final deadline and budget (
The importance and priority of the project
The overall tasks - High Payoff Activities, and Low Payoff activities.
Activities that can be delegated or outsourced.
Your role as a project Engineer / manager.

1. In order to effectively manage multiple projects, you need to understand your total workload , and compare the projects deliverables. This is usually done using a project planner, or project management tools such as Microsoft Project. Once all projects are considered, hopefully not all deadlines and deliverables are NOT due at the same time. The Tip is to find out the REAL deliverable date. Often when a client is asked when they need to project completed, they have a buffer built in so they can 'sit on it' for a short while. If you establish the real activities that will follow the 'deadline', you may be able to safely extend the final date with the client - with no detriment. If this is not the case, at the least you will find out the importance of the final date.

2. Not all projects are as important as each other. Some projects have other consequences, and tasks that cannot be achieved without the delivery of the initial project. Without sounding callus, you definitely want to look after your most important clients who have constant work flow and pay well and on time. In most cases, it is these most valued clients that should be looked after as priority number 1, as they are your 'bread and butter'. . Keep them happy and your business should continue to motor along. At the same time you need to take good care of new clients who may have millions of dollars in future work for you depending on your performance. They will usually not display all of their cards to you, so the best thing is to make sure you look after them and meet your deadlines. Ultimately you don't want to spend 100 hours on a project that is only worth 50 hours payment. It is fine balance between current and potential future work. The trick is to recognise project importance early , and their future work potential.

3. Within many projects there high payoff activities and low payoff activities. High payoff activities are those that will get the most benefit out of there completion, and low payoff activities don't generate too much benefit at their completion. The tip is to recognise which activities / tasks are high payoff activities right at the start of the project. It is these activities that should be given the priority and attention they deserve. Low payoff activities could be either tackled later, or delegated to others (it is important however to monitor the progress of low payoff activities otherwise they may be forgotten until the end - or at a critical time). Constant updates to the overall task schedule is a great way to stay on track and monitor your progress on each project.

4. You don't want to spend your valuable time on low payoff activities that can be done by others. Project management is also about delegating or outsourcing activities that are better completed by someone else. Sometimes it is better to outsource a 'time consuming complex design' to an expert in the field, while you manage the process and the overall project. The old saying "if you want something done right you have to do it yourself" is not always the case in engineering and project management. You need to recognise and do a cost analysis on your time and cost on their cost (and delivery time). While they are completing the task, you could be working on or managing another high payoff activity, which will ultimately allow an overall timely delivery of the project.

5. As a project manager, you should be generally 'managing' the project, and should not be 'in the trenches digging the holes'. That is the job for the 'soldiers' or workers under your control. It is however important that you understand their skills and what they should be delivering for you. By 'staying on top' of this element (periodic meetings and minor milestones), reduces the frustration of you having to 'check and change' their progress. It is your responsibility to deliver , so you should ensure all things are moving ahead in a timely manner, and communicate effectively and regularly with your team, and your client.

Utilising each of these 5 areas will help organise your 'juggling act'. Hopefully all of this makes sense, and you are able to apply it in your role. Even if you are not yet project managing, you can still apply some of these principles in your engineering career.

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What Are The Common Problems Encountered On Project Management Work-Civil And Structural Engineer?

Reading Level: Intermediate

One of the tasks of civil engineer is the project management. Wherever a project commence, it is starting of 'live' of project problem until it has been completed build. Below are some of common problems that civil engineer may faced:

1. Project commenced without acknowledgment of civil engineer. It is common especially for small scale of project; such as single unit of structure like bungalow. Engineer will only alert whenever problem is happened at site; and problem is unable to resolve it by contractor. Contractor will like to build it without interruption of engineer.

2. Even though civil engineer aware about the construction work, some of un- responsible contractor will try to do some work in the time that engineer is unable to present. As for example; contractor carry out the concreting work after office hour especially in the evening, nighttime and public holiday. Once concreted, engineer is unable to inspect it.

3. Whenever construction started, un-experience contractor will do work by referring to civil engineering drawings without read in-conjunction with other professional drawing such as architecture, mechanical and electrical drawings. As a result, there will be a number of hacking during or after completion of structural works. It incurred a number of arguments and costs.

4. Even though an inexperience contractor is read engineering drawings, somehow contractor is build to their own knowledge; especially from contractor previous project. If previously contractor had been built a number of pad footing foundation, contractor obtain a piling foundation project. The contractor will try to change it to pad footing foundation by his own knowledge. Or even in pad footing foundation, contractor will change pad footing to smaller size. It will end up with structural problem.

5. Some irresponsible contractor will ignore engineer instruction. Contractor will build to his own knowledge. Contractor will always persuade client that contractor is builder. Contractor tells client that he is more site experience than civil engineer. Engineer has not much site building experience. Most of the time, client will agree with contractor because contractor shown client with physical construction works and engineer without much of physical product. These will continue until problem happened and unable to resolve by contractor. Finally, they will seek for engineer advice.

6. Contractor perform cost cutting on project work. Now days, project cost is very competitive. In order to obtain a project by bidding, some contractor may lower down the bidding cost to below the cost. When project is awarded, contractor will perform unnecessary cost cutting. This will endanger client.

7. When client is contractor and contractor is client, civil engineer will be in difficult position on dealing with client and contractor. There will be always in conflict of interest.

These problems may faced by civil engineer. How to overcome them will mainly base on engineer experience. Junior engineer shall not advice to send them to resolve these matters. Anyway, junior engineer shall be in guidance of senior engineer whenever problems are being solved.

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Five Time Management Steps That Work

The story of Ivy Lee and the advice he gave to Charles Schwab is well known in the business and self-development world but, even if you know the story backwards, it is still worth studying again and again.

It is also worth putting Ivy's Lee's advice into practise on a daily basis. Like many people, I heard the story and tried out the advice a few times. It worked well but then I lapsed back into my usual ways. So I was glad when I came across a retelling of the story recently by Jason Bates.

What is this world famous story?

About a hundred years ago, Charles Schwab was in charge of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in the USA. Things were not going that smoothly so he asked Ivy Lee, an efficiency expert, for advice for himself and his managers to help them be more productive.

Lee told him that he would increase his company's sales and the efficiency of his management team if he could talk to each man for about 15 minutes.

Charles Schwab asked: "How much will it cost me?"

Ivy Lee replied: "Nothing, unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it's worth to you."

He spent ten minutes with each executive and told them to follow the instructions below:

1. In the evening, they should write down the six most important tasks to be done next day and arrange them in order of importance.
2. Next day they should start the first task and finish it before starting anything else.
3. After finishing the first task, they should start the second most important task. They should finish it and then start the third and so on.
4. After their day's work they should spend five minutes making a list for the next day. Unfinished tasks could be put on the new list.
5. They should do this for the next ninety days and check the results.

This system encourages you to focus on your most important tasks. You will then become effective i.e. you will get your key tasks done and dusted. A merely efficient person may get lots of tasks done but they may well not be the tasks that move their life forward. Effectiveness is all about doing the most important tasks even if you leave minor tasks undone.

Ivy Lee's plan worked well with the executives of Bethlehem Steel. Charles Schwab was so pleased with the results that he paid Lee $25,000 a huge sum in the early twentieth century.

However, nothing is perfect. Many of us, like myself, hate doing what is important first thing in the day because what is important may well be difficult and even unpleasant. What do we do? Stay in bed?

We could warm up with one or two of our favourite tasks like reading our emails or checking out what's on TV and then launch into Ivy Lee's six important tasks. There is a risk of becoming distracted and never getting around to the magnificent six tasks but this modified plan might work and I give it to you for free!

On the other hand, the benefits of following the Ivy Lee plan are quickly evident and they produce a feeling of satisfaction almost immediately. Get your difficult task out of the way first thing and you will feel at once that you have achieved something valuable and in reality you will have done exactly that.

You will feel successful and energized and ready to launch into task number two. Good results will soon start to appear and nothing can motivate like good results especially if they improve your cash flow or relationships with other people. You will begin to feel so powerful that you may even enjoy the challenge of the difficult and unpleasant tasks.

It would help to stick a list of your top six tasks in a prominent place. This will make you feel guilty if you are not focusing on your key tasks. You can then either feel depressed or take corrective action and start work on the most important tasks.

Try making a list of six tasks for the next few days and see how things go.

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