ASSIGNMENT NICMAR / CODE OFFICE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Course No. Course Title Construction Assignment No.

Date of Dispatch: Last date of receipt of Assignment at CODE office NCP 22 Personnel Mangmt 1 12-08-2013

ASSIGNMENT You are a Project Manager on a site where work for 3 k.m. Long Tunnel has been undertaken. The site is remote and takes about 2 days travel to nearest town. Supervisors, Technicians & skilled workers are engaged in dangerous / hazardous work. Absenteeism due to sickness, quarrels, drinking are adding to less output of work and chances of accident on site are increasing. Management has urged to do something so that time target can be achieved. Discuss how will you tackle the problem and increase the output of the work.

Submitted by : Murali Krishna Naidu, SODE Reg No. 213-05-11-11534-2153

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ASSIGNMENT1 NCP22- Construction Personnel Management

Resolving site problem and enhancing output of workforce Name of the Project: 3 k.m. Long Tunnel 1.Introduction: ABC company bagged a project to construct a tunnel of 3 k.m long in a remote mountainous place where living or working conditions are very remote from main residential place, congestive, unworthy and unhygienic. As the nature of work in a tunnel, the risk of lives is very high from the safty point of view. As the entry of the tunnel is on a foot of hill, establishment of labour camps, dwellings for the skilled, unskilled workers is difficult and focricbly, they are to be located in the nearest town. As the work site is far from residential location, no rest rooms, workers get frustrated very frequently after working for small hours. The movement of the workers in the tunnel is restricted and hence, makes the worker to constraint himself from free movement. People with a habit of smoking will get annoyed and show their uneasiness on the fellow workers without any reason. For any small untoward mishap, workers get agitated, yell against the Project Manager and in the absence of any Personnel Officer and Safty Officer, the things would become worse. Project Manager being head of the project, involved mainly on the mobilization of resources and transforming the output into making payment certificates, will never able to allot time to see the ground conditions. The non living conditions lead to un healthyness of the workers, seeking temporary relief through consumption of liquor, indebtedness, prejudice, jealousness, etc destabilizing the harmony among the people. When such a

Submitted by: Murali Krishna Naidu, Reg No 213-05-11-11534-2153

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condition prevails, the top level managers, officers being able to afford the price, will be away from the scene of instability and thus catalyses the total pandemonium at work site. When workforce is living in such a condition, the result will be loss of time and quality of work. 2. Problems identified: Thus we can summarise the site problems into the following categories viz., absenteeism due to unhealthy conditions, absenteeism due to consumption of liquor leading to quarrels & conflicts between work groups, unwanted accidents at site, technical problems due to lack of timely attendance by supervision staff. Various reasons could be made attributable for the aforesaid problems and identify the needs and ways and measures to fulfill them through a thorough assessment. 3. Needs and fulfillment plan: a) Lack of Planning of manpower management: We can say deficit in manpower management if the following norms/feastures are visible: No activity based work sharing plan for both skilled and unskilled personnel No responsibility assigned to work force at any stage/level No communication system between different departments in the project No future plan for bridging gaps of deficit manpower at peak work season No recognition of achievements of work force by means of any kind of gestures by the organization

Submitted by: Murali Krishna Naidu, Reg No 213-05-11-11534-2153

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ASSIGNMENT1 NCP22- Construction Personnel Management

To overcome the above mentioned conditions, the following measures are to be implemented. A well defined organization structure is made with the following requirements of the project o Scope of project is mainly earthwork based tunneling using heavy boring machinery which involves personnel from the trades of civil and mechanical engineering. Hence, it requires unskilled workers also to support the technical managers as wells as supporting

superviors/foremen o The work is to be carried out in a season otherthan monsoon season to control seepage of water. Normally, in the non monsoon season, the availability of unskilled workers is abundant. To supervise the unskilled workers, at every stage, a responsible foremen/work supervisor is planned so that they will not be made into non performing work groups o The activities are scheduled and assigned with defined duration of each task. Unless there is a mechanical failure or breakdowns, the stipulated activities could be performed within time. As the work schedules are made tight, the workers will be offered to work in shifts to gain working time in a day. o In addition to the normal personnel department who takes care about welfare of the workers, an experienced Occupational Safty and Health Officer also needed in the project team.

Submitted by: Murali Krishna Naidu, Reg No 213-05-11-11534-2153

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ASSIGNMENT1 NCP22- Construction Personnel Management

With the above requirements, the following organizational structure is made to achieve more task oriented project team.
Project Manager

Manager Admn& Finance

Manager Accounts

Manager Constructio n (Civil)

Manager Constructio n (Mechanical )

Manager Constructio n (Electrical)

Safty Officer

Personnel Officer

Accounta nts

Site Engineers

Quality Control Lab Techn

Mechanic al Worksho p

Site Engineers

Site Engineers

Field Assistants

Personnel Executive

Foremen / Supervisor/ Surveyors

Lab Assistant

Foremen/Te chnician/ Mechanic

Operators / Drivers

Foremen / Mechaincs / Technicians

Unskilled Workers

Unskilled workers

Unskilled workers

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE b) Improving Working conditions at site: Work site shelters for different levels of organistion structure would be constructed to give relief for the workers after attending work The shelters will be provided with good ventilation and illumination conditions. Drinking Water will be provided at all important work places

Submitted by: Murali Krishna Naidu, Reg No 213-05-11-11534-2153

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Communication facility shall be provided for the workers to contact their families from the residing place so that they will feel a sense of security.

If possible, commutation of workers from the residential location to work spots shall be arranged along with the technical personnel to build team spirit among the members of the teams.

C) Welfare of workers: Common entertainment halls to view television or movies so that the workers will be occupied at all awakening times Food plaza to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to the workers at subsidised price would be provided. If possible, they may be provided at free of cost as workers time and health is very important at the location. This may not be costlier than the value of time during breakdown of activities and amount of liquidated damages imposed by the client at later stages when the project is behind the intended completion date. For all workers in shifts at work locations would be provided with on site lunch/dinner packets to save commutation between site and dining halls. This could be achieved with the available resource persons and machinery. Routine and periodical health check up system is planned with the help of local consulting doctors in most common sicknesses. A dedicated and qualified Health Worker would be engaged to attend round the clock supervision of all health requirements, escorting the workers to hospitals or dispensaries in near town.

Submitted by: Murali Krishna Naidu, Reg No 213-05-11-11534-2153

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Comprehenssive All Risk Worker Insurance Policy will be taken from reputed insurance company to cover any fatalities in the work site.

d) Avoiding Liquor availability at site: Consultation would be made with the local government authorities to control illegal and illicit alcohol trafficking in the area. Employees and workers will be informed that any unauthorized consumption of liquor would be penalized and suitable disciplinary action would be initiated. Consumption of alcohol by unskilled workers will be controlled by enforcing suitable arrangements for breathing test at work gates before the enter the work sites. To avoid consumption, the identified worker groups will be engaged with social activities like gardening, cleaning for which they will be incentives. Regular de-addition camps would be planned to motivate the workers to adopt good health practices e) Storage of materials: As the nature of work involves with tunneling in hard rock, necessity of blasting using explosives would be there and thereby, handling, processing, operating the blasting activities involves high risk of life of workers. The following actions are planned to minimize the risks and mishaps. given

Submitted by: Murali Krishna Naidu, Reg No 213-05-11-11534-2153

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All blasting operations would be carried out by a licensed explosive specialist under the direct supervision of the safety officer.

All work locations would be displayed with caution boards and sign boards informing the workers about the intended blasting operations.

All explosive materials would be stored as per BSI standards and regular material account check will be conducted to control any mis utilization.

Quality materials like explosives, conductors will be procured to achieve 100% blasting avoiding accidents due to delay blasts leading to fatality.

f) Seepage of water: Seepage of water is a main concern in the construction of tunnels. This phenomenon will delay the process of making punctures in the horizontal rock strata and may cause loss to the company if mechanical boring equipment is used completely for the excavation of rock. Water flow in the cleavage lines of the stratifications and unless controlled, the moisture may sometimes loosen the roof of the tunnel to make the portion of earth to slip and close the tunnel. The following actions are proposed to control the damages: The topography of the area under which the tunnel is planned is analysed and proposed with suitable drainage system to let out any surface flows immediately away from the work zones Work methodology programs will be prepared and submitted to the client for approval to avoid any damage in claim at later stage

Submitted by: Murali Krishna Naidu, Reg No 213-05-11-11534-2153

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Lean and dry working season will be planned to take up high risk zones to avoid any smallest seepages.

If possible cement gunniting will be done at suitable locations to avoild seepage through stratifications.

g) Roof spalling: Roof spalling or collapsing of top of tunnel portion is a commonly expected outcomes at any stage of work till the tunnel surfaces are tied with proper cementing materials. The parameters for spalling such as type of formation of rock, foliations in the rock, homogeneity of rock formation etc would be thoroughly examined Loose materials would be removed at the time of boring/excavations Cement/Concrete gunniting will be applied to the tunnel top surfaces wherever loose pockets are attended Appropriate supporting ribs with steel or good timber props will be done at regular intervals to arrest any future spalling Advance procurement of all support materials will be planned and kept at site to meet the demand at any hour of time h) Conclusion: The management is requested to make a disaster management team headed by a responsible person at Director level to take any direct decisions at crucial hours of occurance of any mishap to gain the confidence of fellow workers.

Submitted by: Murali Krishna Naidu, Reg No 213-05-11-11534-2153

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ASSIGNMENT1 NCP22- Construction Personnel Management

All the management levels in the organization structure will be given with suitable roles and responsibility charts to act in time and achieve a well defined work output. A weekly work review meeting will be organized and work out put will be quantified to get verified by the head of the projects to mitigate any lapses or gaps in the progress. After consulting with construction managers, suitable corrective measures will be proposed to the Directors for bridging the gaps and take their permission to implement in the forthcoming weeks such that the project would be completed in time and with good quality. Frequent visits by the Directors will enhance the feelings of togetherness among the workers and there by every work groups will be alerted to complete their assigned roles or tasks. Interactions with family members of workers on a most celebrated day like formation date of company, would give security feeling among the workers and their family members. With the above working and possible measures, the output of the work groups could be enhanced. Bibliogrphy & References: 1. NICMAR Session book 2. Ogranisational Management by Koontz and Odoneal, McGraw Hill Publishers 3. Management in construction industry by Prof KN Vaid NICMAR Publications. Submitted by : Murali Krishna Naidu, SODE Reg No. 213-05-11-11534-2153

Submitted by: Murali Krishna Naidu, Reg No 213-05-11-11534-2153

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