Review of a Construction Company

Introduction

Construction industry has developed rapidly in last few dictates. Today it becomes very essential for a country for its development. It spreads from the small to the large scale construction. The most obvious thing about the construction Industry is that its products are exceedingly expensive and have a long run tendency to increase in price faster than most other goods and services.

This report is presented as a means of summarizing the three different size of construction business organization (Small, Medium, and Large). Also consideration is given on introductions of organizations, explaining company background and business control procedure. ICTAD grading of the organization

(ICTAD 2008)

Large Size of construction

State Engineering Corporation

State Engineering Corporation is one of the superb consultancy services considering the Sri Lankan construction industry.

It was established in 1962 with the name of “Engineering Corporation”. By the end of 1962 name was changed as “Sri Lanka State Corporation” and currently it is known as State Engineering Corporation.

This is semi government establishment, because of that most of the state project handled by this organization and also it has good reputation and popularity due to its grateful services on construction project to the client in all over the country. The head office has located No: 130, W.A.D. Ramanayake Mawatha, Colombo-02.

Service provider by State Engineering corporations

The Organization consists of seven main sections. Since then, it’s capability in the latest techniques of design and construction has equipped in to handle any type of construction work. Under this field, they mainly carry out following activities.

• Design and construction of buildings
• Foundation and piling works
• Supply & installation of water supply, drainage and sewerage systems
• Contracting foundations for towers and erecting towers
• Civil engineering construction including highways, bridges, water supply projects and irrigation projects
• Provision of construction management services
• Landscaping & real estate development
• Construction Components
• Consultancy
• Human Resource & Administration
• Finance Division
• Internal Audit Division

Construction, Construction Components, Consultancy and Mechanical & Electrical section under profit obtained category and other Human Resource & Administration, Finance Division and Internal Audit Division under public benefit category.

Machine and Equipment: There are machines and equipment’s in every site which belong to State Engineering corporations. State Engineering Corporation has the financial strength to purchase what they want in construction sites. And also most of the offices are fully equipped with photo copiers, fax machines, telephones, computers etc.

Reputation: State engineering corporations has gained a sound reputation over Sri Lankan society and the government. Therefore currently the government contracts and private contracts are awarded.

Facilities: State Engineering corporations has extensive in-house computer facilities, an excellent technical laboratory, a well-managed stock of survey and drawing instruments, geological and soil investigation laboratories and a large fleet of vehicles to provide construction services on major engineering projects in any part of the country. They have their own batching plant and Machineries to handle any kind of job.

Construction group

The Construction group has two divisions. They are contracts & estimation and construction division. First division is mainly handling pricing BOQ and tendering process. Second division is performing after getting the contract. It carries out all types of heavy and light civil Engineering construction and building construction work for state and private sector.

Consultancy group

The Consultancy group is providing a complete Consultancy services such as Architecture, civil, structural, Electrical & Mechanical and quantity surveying.

Organization Structure & Management Style

The administration of State Engineering Corporation is directly under the ministry of housing construction. There are one GM, one assistance GM, and six DGM, under control of MD and well qualified staff.

This is a decentralized organization. The objective of decentralization is not only to improve the efficiency of the group, but also to furnish a sense of belonging even to non-technical staff to strive towards the wellbeing of the group. The organization structure is given in annex 1.

The organization mission is to continuously advance their position of leading civil Engineering construction in the country and to build a reputation for quality speed, efficiency and reliability. To achieve their mission they are having following polices.

• Maintain the budgeted turnover
• Execute all project within time
• Optimize return on capital

Performance of the Organization

• Planning, Investigation, design and construction of industrial and engineering project in public sector and with the approval of minister in private sector.
• Functioning as consultant to state corporations and government department for pre mentioned works.
• Carrying out research with a view to improving existing construction materials and techniques and methods.
• Training of architect, engineering, quantity surveyors and others technical staffs necessary for carrying out the construction of industrial and engineering projects.

Quantity Surveying Section

State Engineering Corporation consists of a separate Quantity Surveying department & through it providing Quantity Surveying services. The Quantity Surveying department is mutually functioning with other section. In QS section there are 35 members work together. The chief QS as head of the section & senior QS & project QS are working under head. The chief QS have the authority of making decision within that field.

SEC renders professional services in a Quantity Surveyor’s capacity both in pre contract and post contract stages.

The SEC is one of the leading consultancy organizations in the construction Industry. Most of the time projects are obtaining because of the goodwill of the organization & past performance in handling of large number of projects.

In accordance with the management point of view synergy concept creates the high efficiency. So the team work is the main concept of this firm. For the concept good relationship between subordinates are very important. SEC firm there is better relationship between subordinates.

State Engineering Corporation is a semi government firm and a formal organization. So the decision is coming from top level managers. Because of its higher hierarchy level, the command tasks long time to reach the bottom level of management and works.

This is not an avoidable problem in a formal organization, but if top level managers and low level managers have a communication as informal they can minimize this problem.

(State Engineering Corporation of Sri Lanka)

Medium Size of Construction Company

RN Construction

The RN Constructions (Pvt) Ltd was established in 1996 and within those eight years of time it has become one of the leading contractor organizations in the Sri Lankan construction industry today. It has completed more than 150 buildings (over 3,000,000 sq.ft.) within last eight years. RN Constructions has acquired excellence in building constructions such as,

• Factory buildings
• Ware house buildings
• Commercial buildings
• Housing projects
• Manufacturing plants and Processing Units

RN has been in a powerful position of strength, i.e., it has got a group of professionally qualified, experienced in-house staff members are possessed of the high and medium class of specialized technical positions. Also it has been equipped with large no of construction equipment, machinery and tools.

(RN Construction)

Organization Structure of RN Construction

Management structure of RN construction denotes simply a matrix structure and it is flat in its nature where trend toward an average number of layers as well as responsibilities are with non-management employees. The next important feature is its narrow span of control. Today it is believed such an organization design like this is more suitable to facilitate the achievements of corporate objectives and implementation of strategies.

The organization structure is given in annex 2.

RN construction is a recently established organization which building up a good reputation for quality outputs in the industry when compared to the other organization at its own capacity. When considering the organizational structure, it is more applicable to the organization because there is a good relationship between higher level of management and the employees at the middle and lower levels of management. It helps to motivate the employees on their works and to develop the loyalty to the organization as well. That is distinctive advantage to the organization to carry out the missions while achieving their goals in the Sri Lankan construction industry.

When looking at the organization one weakness that I have identified was that lot of pants and machineries were not properly managed among each work site. Hence RN Constructions owns large no of machineries, it is an advantage to the organization to earn higher profits during the construction. But I have noticed that most of the machineries were idling at the work site without generating any output to the construction process. This will be directly affects to reduce their extra profit earnings in the long run. Therefore it is better to have a proper resource management on this area to minimize the idling and to maximize the profits in every work output.

Small size of construction Company

Prasadhi construction

Prasadhi construction is among the most respected construction companies in the country. This construction design, finance, built and operates infrastructure and facilities with highest quality, speed and care in a sustainable manner in the most economical way.

Prasadhi Construction has shown ability to complete his job – no matter how big, how complex or how remote the project, Prasadhi Construction have proven competency over last 25 years.

Professional Staff

As an emerging company we provide more than 50 jobs including civil & electrical engineers, technical officers, supervisors,Masons. Carpenters, Plumbers, Electricians, Welders, Tillers, Aluminum Fabricators

Wefacilitate training programs for our employees. They are being encouragedfor higher education while working in the company.

Achievements

Prasadhi Construction has been rewarded as the best construction company in southern province in the year of 2006.

At present we have C5 grade and our strategic plans are made to achieve C1 in building construction in 2020.

Financial Capability

20 Million Permanent O.D. facility

Equipment

We are not encouraged to maintain a maintenance department. So in most of the cases we prefer to hire vehicles from our suppliers. But some necessary equipment such as

Tipper, road roller, Concrete Mixer, Concrete Vibrator, welding plants, generators, water motors are there.

Organization Structure

One of most important aspect of any organization is its management structure. Prsadhi’s management structure is considerably focused on to a modern hierarchical power delegation. The above-mentioned structure consists of 7 Board of Directors including the Chairman. Prasadhi management structure forms a matrix structure and it consists of a centralized and formal authority and wide span of control. Reference to the organizational structure – (Annex-03)

Competition in the construction industry often results in low profit margins. Also called long-term assets, these are holdings the business intends to keep for at least a year and that typically yield interest or dividends. Included are stocks, bonds and savings accounts earmarked for special purposes. (Jinnett 1990)

Conclusion

This report is based on investigate three different size of construction business organization.

The constructions Professional are the parties that responsible for constructing the project. In traditional management where the owner, design professional, and contractors are separate companies, the contractor would be termed a prime contractor. The prime contractor is responsible for delivering a complete project in accordance with the contract documents.

The matrix organizational structure adopted by most kind of construction head office can be regarded as the most suitable structure, when considering the scope & nature of projects carried out. But the gap between the top management and employees at middle and lower levels is one of the main drawbacks observed in the site organization structure. Lack of communication in between management levels had given rise to distrust and disbelief among employees.

Reference

• ICTAD. (2008). [online]. Last accessed 04 March 2014 at: http://www.ictad.lk/sub_pgs/con_registration.html
• [online]. Last accessed 02 March 2014 at: http://www.rnconstructions.com/strength.htm
• [online]. Last accessed 25 Feb 2014 at: http://www.secsl.lk/
• JINNETT, Linda Pinson and Jerry (1990). BUSINESS PLAN FOR THE. Management and Planning Series,