OCTOBER 2006 ISSUE
 |
KEYSER FILE
Building a Better Construction Site
BY TOM KEYSER
Freelance Columnist
The highrise office of one of Calgary’s senior energy moguls had a telescope trained on the construction site of the new Alberta Children’s Hospital, north of the Bow River. The top executive’s visitor — one Dr. Francis Hartman, P.Eng., a project management consultant — was intrigued.
It turns out that Charlie Fischer, P.Eng., president and CEO of Nexen Inc., liked to keep an eye on the hospital’s progress.
Why? Partly because Mr. Fischer and Nexen are among the project’s major supporters. But there’s another reason.
 |
|
“Mr. Fischer was excited about the excellent working environment on the site,” Dr. Hartman recalls. “He said the tradespeople were enthused about leaving a legacy for Alberta’s sick kids. There was a buzz there. People were working together and knew exactly what they were working for.”
If only it were always thus.
Based on Dr. Hartman’s experience, such a positive atmosphere on an Alberta construction site is relatively unusual. Although Canada’s non-residential construction industry is on a winning streak that stretches across five straight record years — driven primarily by a frenzied work pace in B.C. and Alberta — even the most experienced contractors have been hit hard by runaway costs for materials and skilled labour.
They can’t find the workers they need. When they do, they don’t have time to train them.
But in Dr. Hartman’s view, there are more fundamental reasons why project labour inefficiency has reached epic proportions. As president of a consulting company known as Quality Enhanced Decisions Inc., he’s doing what he can to help his clients avoid the many pitfalls in the hyper-stressed, industrial construction sector.
A University of Calgary professor enjoying a three-year leave of absence, Dr. Hartman is a best-selling author who has advised such clients as the City of Calgary, Fluor, KPMG, Shell Canada, Suncor, PanCanadian (now EnCana Corp.) and various provincial ministries. He helps them review project plans while making detailed risk assessments on jobs that range in cost from a few hundred thousand dollars all the way up to a billion or more.
A SMART Past
Dr. Hartman’s practical applications stem from his investigations as primary
researcher behind the development and testing of trademarked SMART Management.
Its techniques are used to enhance effective management in many situations.
Some of these principles are highly technical. But Dr. Hartman has the knack of getting down to basics.
“Try visiting a construction site and asking this question of the tradespeople and the managers on a large or complex project: Does anybody know exactly what they’re expected to deliver by Friday of this week and Friday of next week?
“As part of our investigation, we went to 31 projects and couldn’t find a single person who could fully answer this question.”
At the risk of oversimplification, Dr. Hartman’s success formula boils down to a few words: It’s all about people and planning.
“Picture yourself as a small subcontractor, well down the food chain. You turn up for work and half your materials aren’t where they need to be, the drawings are the wrong revision, the foreman doesn’t know who you are or what you should be doing and shunts you from pillar to post,” he says. “Your productivity gets cut in half.”
In his research, Dr. Hartman has identified a phenomenon he calls “renegade” projects — major jobs in which inflationary costs and runaway inefficiencies seem to take on lives of their own.
In response, Dr. Hartman has come up with Ten Lessons We Won’t Learn, a handy guide to poor project management. Among the Top 10 mistakes made are
-
Rework. Workers do things twice because they didn’t do them right the first time.
-
Skewed priorities. Your priorities should be performance, speed or cost. For example, if the business case is based on performance first, time next and money as the third (but still important) priority, you should first make sure the project works, then make sure it is done quickly. And ensure the budget enables you to take care of the first two priorities.
-
Poor decision-making practices. Managers tend to make key decisions too late in the life of a project. This is often because the real impact of delaying the decision has not been assessed or fully understood.
Of course, it takes management will and skill, as well as precious time, to apply Dr. Hartman’s remedial strategies. But clients who have taken his message to heart report that they’re having an easier time making their deadlines, as well as sticking to budget.
And who knows. Someday, maybe Charlie Fischer will train his telescope on one of their job sites.