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Construction Crew Mix Survey

17 replies [Last post]
Thu, 2009-09-17 10:48
Mikhail Hanna
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Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Hi,

I’m conducting a study in determining the average construction crew size mix for an Oil and Gas project. The information collected will be used in a simulation excercise to generate typical manpower loading per construction activities.

Please follow the link below:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=E_2fg60tvbiEzMpkB4Uli9Hg_3d_3d

Regards,

Mikhail Hanna, PMP, PhD Candidate
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Replies

Sun, 2009-09-20 16:07
#1
Samer Zawaydeh
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Posts: 1664
Groups: Civil Engineering, Regional Representatives
Dear Mikhail,

What you are describing is management of the project. This is a standard kick off meeting and communication matrix issues.

So what you is a tool for all shareholders on the project to input their information and be available to everyone one else.

With kind regards,

Samer
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Sun, 2009-09-20 11:46
#2
Mikhail Hanna
User offline. Last seen 13 years 27 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 17 Sep 2009
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Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Hi Samer,

One of the challenges in the EPC is that the realization of full EPC relationships are only mapped once a schedule is fully complete, this does take a long time depending on the type of project and the level of interdependencies between disciplines and activities. As a project manager, I need to be able to examine the viability of a project from the first milestones set by the client to those proposed to equipment vendor.

The simulation tool currently being designed allows for the evaluation of such elements from the start of the project. The simulation tool requires the PM, Procurement and Construction Manager to be present during the initialization of the project, this allows the whole team to be aligned from the beginning.

Regards,

Mikhail
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Sun, 2009-09-20 06:39
#3
Samer Zawaydeh
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Hi,

Activities for Design, Procurement, Finance, Close out, Testing and commissioning can be modeled similar to the EPC activities.

You defined the activity with an active verb and a measurable noun and then set the resources or duration.

With kind regards,

Samer
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Sat, 2009-09-19 14:28
#4
Rafael Davila
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Groups: Spider Project Team
Mikhail

Thanks, is good to know GPSS is still around. Is not just a few regression formulas you are looking for, seems like the whole thing, probably an interactive application not what we had during the IBM370 era.

Because I am not from the oil and gas industry I was not qualified to answer your questionnaire. I wish you the best of luck with the survey being answered; I am sure the other you will figure it out.

I was to suggest you contact RS Means and Gulf Publishing Co. in search of your raw data. This with the help of your department and your advisor to push them for a positive response but most probably you already tried it.

Best regards,
Rafael
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Sat, 2009-09-19 13:06
#5
Samer Zawaydeh
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Dear Mikhail,

You can include the PMI processes as options in your program. This way it will be more comprehensive and according to an industry standard.

You can also include all the Construction Industry Standards 16 Divisions as options. After all, Construction activities are most likely to fall within one of the 16 Divisions.

With kind regards,

Samer
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Sat, 2009-09-19 13:04
#6
Vladimir Liberzon
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Hi Mikhail,
do you mean that nodern PM tools do not properly link EPC activities? Please clarify what necessary functions are absent?
Best Regards,
Vladimir
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Sat, 2009-09-19 12:59
#7
Mikhail Hanna
User offline. Last seen 13 years 27 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 17 Sep 2009
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Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Hi Rafael,

I’m actually building my own GPSS tool. The primary function is linking Engineering, Procurement and Construction activities at a level where a Project Manager can make use of it.

Regards,

Mikhail
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Fri, 2009-09-18 12:38
#8
Rafael Davila
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Mikhail

What software are you using to run your simulation?

I used many years ago GPSS or General Purpose Simulation System to model Construction Activities as part of a course; it was long, long ago, in the 70’s. Probably this thing no longer exists, something friendlier and more powerful you got to be using.

Best regards,
Rafael
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Fri, 2009-09-18 11:12
#9
Samer Zawaydeh
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Dear Vladimir,

Thank you for sharing this with us. I enjoyed reading it. I hope that Mikail will benefit from it as well.

I believe that Mikail is working on coming up with a database for resources. The ideal location for him would be to work on modeling the requirement of a large organization. Working on a generic formula is much more difficult.

With kind regards,

Samer
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Fri, 2009-09-18 05:00
#10
Vladimir Liberzon
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Dear Samer,
the approaches to creating corporate PM system are described in http://www.spiderproject.ru/library/tt.ppt
If you will download Demo version of Spider Project Professional (http://www.spiderproject.ru/enter.php?ver=prof&lang=eng) that is full functional with 40 activities per project restriction then look at Project Scheduling Technique section in its Help and Sample construction schedule that is based on activity volumes (quantities of work to be done) and assigned resource productivities. In this project on different types of work were assigned different crews (multi-resources). This approach is typical for creating construction schedules here in Russia.
I’ll be glad to answer your questions.
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Fri, 2009-09-18 04:09
#11
Samer Zawaydeh
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Dear Vladimir,

Thank you for your kind reply. Do you have any books or references on this matter? I would like to read some more.

Actual applications on Construction Projects would be very appreciated.

Witk kind regards,

Samer
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Fri, 2009-09-18 02:04
#12
Vladimir Liberzon
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Hi Samer,
parametric estimate of activity durations is used not only on pre-construction stage. It is necessary for planning resources in construction (and not only construction) projects. It is much more precise than estimation of activity durations based on intuition and experience. And it permits to optimize necessary resources and thus to save a lot of money.
I can add that it is the usual practice in Russia and other East Europe countries.
Best Regards,
Vladimir
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Fri, 2009-09-18 01:09
#13
Samer Zawaydeh
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Dear Mikhail,

Thank you for your reply. What you are trying to do is a parametric study for a pre-construction purposes. Usually this information will have value at this stage for project evaluation and finance. The percentange of error is around 25%, but it might be higher at this of general information.

With kind regards,

Samer
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Thu, 2009-09-17 14:57
#14
Mikhail Hanna
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Hi Samer,

You are absolutly correct, the cost and productivity for a given type of work will depend on a large number of factors, from material availability, to location, to weather, etc.... It would be very difficult to undertake such a task.

What I’m hoping to do is create a generic crew quantity (number of individuals), then based on the type of work to be completed, location, average salary and productivity I can calculate duration. This survey is a small part of a much larger study.

The research is not funded by a specific client, I’m trying to establish a generic formula that can be further adjusted according to the conditions available.

Regards,

Mikhail
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Thu, 2009-09-17 13:38
#15
Samer Zawaydeh
User offline. Last seen 5 years 39 weeks ago. Offline
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Dear Mikhail,

Thank you for the information.

Pipe Fabrication can be done at shop or at site. The production rate depends on the material of the pipe and the thickness of the pipe and the welding process. The survey should be project specific in order to account for the necessary welding procedure tasks.

The cost of crew is welding procedure difficulty, site location dependent and nationality dependent. These are actual factors that are all important and relevent to the cost of the job.

Is your research funded by a specific client that has a specific problem that you want to solve? Or are your trying to find generic formula and solutions to specific cases in the industry?

With kind regards,

Samer
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Thu, 2009-09-17 11:33
#16
Mikhail Hanna
User offline. Last seen 13 years 27 weeks ago. Offline
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Hi Samer,

Thank you for your reply.

The objective of the survey is to quantify the cost savings/overrun associated with schedule slippage.

A given work force is comprised of work crews broken down by task. A task can have one or more crews working in it to complete a job. The purpose of the survey is to determine the average size of a single work crew for a given task, such as pipe fabrication.

Depending on the schedule, and the productivity rate of the crew I can determine the number of crews required then the cost of each crew.

I hope that clarifies the purpose of the survey.

I’m completing my PhD in Civil Engineering, Project Management Specialization at the University of Calgary, Canada.
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Thu, 2009-09-17 11:08
#17
Samer Zawaydeh
User offline. Last seen 5 years 39 weeks ago. Offline
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Dear Mikkail,

Generally, construction activities are divided into durations that are less than two weeks. I am quite sure that the information that you will collect and analyze in your survey will not be practical. It would be better to start with a core project that generalize into simialar projects.

We did a heater for a refinery and had 200 people at the steel factory and about 300 people at site. This can not be represented with the survey.

On another Gas Train project, we have 100 people in the fabrication shop and 1000 people at site. This also can not be presented by the survey.

It would be much easier if you follow the sequence of work at site:
1. Develop a Bill of Quantity
2. Know your production rates
3. Factor in the Environment, location, availability of material.
4. Factor in contingency.
5. Divide the quantities required by the production rates.

What university are you doing your PhD at? and in which discipline. Good luck.

With kind regards,

Samer
PS. I did complete the survey for you.
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