Cost Control is an obvious objective in Construction Management and Construction Scheduling. It should be recognized that no amount of paperwork achieves this construction cost control. The actual control is achieved through the ultimate decision of the manager that something should be done differently and the translation of that decision into practice. The paperwork provides guidance on what control actions should be taken and therefore it is rather a cost information system.
The elements of a cost control system are:
- Observation
- Comparison of observation with some desired standard
- Corrective action to take if necessary.
A construction cost control system should enable a manager to observe current cost levels, compare them with a standard plan or norm, and institute corrective action to to keep cost within acceptable bounds.
Most construction cost control systems have an inordinately long response time. Even the best cost control system would provide information on what was happening last week or last month. Since, in construction projects some activities might finish in a week or a month, then nothing could be done if the performance of such activities was reported to overrun estimates of respective costs.
There are three developments in construction management which show promise of improving cost control system in the construction industry
This system was developed at Loughborough University in association with a contractor. It aims to merger the planning and supervision and hence to obtain a more or less zero response time.
This a system developed by Dr Martin Barnes for simulating future actions and thus guiding the manager in his choice between them
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