Graham, D; Smith, S D and Tommelein, I D (2005) Cost of concrete placement for contractors. In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 21st Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2005, London, UK.
Abstract
RMC is an important construction material and the cost of placing this material is significant for a contractor. Previous research studies to minimise this cost have centred upon the cost of plant and labour, without consideration of the other costs that comprise the RMC system. The aim of this research is to define the costs that should be reduced to minimise the contractor cost in the RMC system and identify a method(s) of achieving this minimisation. The costs and the contributor(s) to these costs were identified through consultation with industrial practitioners. A quantitative analysis was performed on a data set collected from UK construction projects to determine the significance of each cost and the contributor(s) to each cost. The significant costs were the RMC material, plant hire, idleness of plant and on-site labour (placing team) and truck mixer surcharges. These costs should be reduced. A systemic cost reduction would include all of the significant costs identified and produce a larger reduction in the cost of RMC placement for contractors than focusing on plant and labour costs alone. Such a systemic would require a fundamental re-management of the RMC system such as a reconfiguration of the resource supply chain coupled with production control methods aimed at reducing plant and labour costs.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | cost; materials management; production management; ready-mixed concrete |
| Index terms: | construction material, materials management, production control, minimization, quantitative analysis, labour cost, practitioner, cost reduction, construction project, plant hire, reconfiguration, placement, placing, production management |
| Subjects: | organization, practitioner, maintenance engineering, economics, data analysis and analytics, algorithms, cost management, operations management, production management, management, concrete and cementitious materials, project delivery, building materials |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Construction Materials, Digital Applications, Roles and Professions, Human Resources, Procurement, Cost Management, Site Management, Business Strategy, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here