Plan or review administrative systems Assignment

Plan or review administrative systems - Assignment Example Questions: What are processes and procedures? How important are they in a project. Explain the processes and procedures that are going to be used in this project. Include regulations on the use of the new system. iii. The system will be monitored weekly and a report prepared by each department. The report should indicate the usage of the database and identify the user. This report will be forwarded to the ICT department every Monday. The adoption of this system is a change process. Various considerations have to be made to ensure the success of the project. First, sensitization meetings will be held in each department to communicate the change and gather support, each employee will be required to participate. Through this, the project team will identify the expertise and training gaps in the employees. These are the ones to be addressed in the staff training process. Follow-up training needs will be done through monitoring as the system takes effect. Secondly, all the employees have to be involved in order to reduce resistance to change. Two-weekly meetings will be held to evaluate the process and address concerns. This meeting will be arranged and run by the project manager. The minutes for this meeting will have to be available to all staff by the next working day. A monthly newsletter will be prepared to show the exact nature of the progress (Brody, 2005, p. 243). Lastly, a confidential complaints and feedback system will have to be established in order to gather crucial information from the staff. This will help collect and investigate information that cannot be voiced during meetings. Since most personnel have only the basic computer literacy, the training will have to be done at all levels and inclusively. This helps to build teamwork for faster learning. The final date for tender submission will be on 6th January 2014. This

Retiring Abroad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Retiring Abroad - Essay Example this new trend of retiring abroad, especially in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown that decimated home values and ravaged many accounts. Many people continue living where they live because of their work. When they retire, they make the ultimate decision of moving to a place where they will feel more comfortable and where their money will last (Knowledge). According to Social Security Administration’s annual statistical supplement, the exact number of Americans retirees receiving social security benefits outside the United States is 350,000. The majority of these individuals are finding their way to countries like Ecuador, Mexico, Canada and the UK (Edwards & Daniels 101). This number is expected to increase with 4 million baby boomers already making plans to retire abroad (Edwards & Daniels 100). The main driving force behind this new trend shown by retirees is financial security. According to the confidence survey of 2014, only 14 percent of the workers indicated that they were confident of having enough funds to live comfortably in the United States. This low level of confidence comes as a result of the global economic crisis that crushed the gains that had been made on the middle income household net worth. During this period, home price index went down by 23 percent (Knowledge). Retirement accounts that act as supplements to social security and other forms of retirement income were also not spared (Knowledge) The cost of living in such countries is much lower compared to the United States. For example, the rent in San Jose, a city in Costa Rica is 57 percent lower than in the city if Philadelphia (Knowledge para.8). Additionally, the prices for consumer goods are lower by 59 percent when the same city is compared to American cities. These benefits notwithstanding, the retirees need to know that that there are hidden charges that they need to consider before deciding to reside abroad. For instance, the imported goods in emerging markets are

Raising the minimum age for a driver's license from 16 to 17 in all Essay - 1

Raising the minimum age for a driver's license from 16 to 17 in all states - Essay Example There is a great need of the proper solutions to counter this major problem suffered by almost all nations worldwide. Government should take necessary steps to halt the accidents, either by raising the age requirement to get the driving license or by making institute graduating license a mandatory thing, as teenagers and young children are not experienced enough to take the high level responsibility of being a driver. In most of the countries, parents give permission to their young children to drive and get the driving license at a very early age, despite of having no prior experience or maturity to handle the tough circumstances in case of an accident. This scenario is not suitable as suggested by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to the research conducted by the administration, the highest percentage of car accidents occurs at the age of 16 due to the high speed driving. In the same age group, individual car accidents occur mostly and due to the driving failures. Teenagers aging 16 like to take risk in their life and therefore, use of safety belts is something they don’t give due importance when compared with experienced and old drivers. Many researchers are of the belief that it is because of the immature age, instant results, and lack of patience, improper training and low experience in the driving field that contribute to the road accidents and considered to be as the major factors that require changes. It is essential to help young teenagers from becoming the victim of their own lacking. The death toll of 16 year old drivers as studied during 1975 till 1996 was very high and shifting towards upward direction. In 1996, this death rate of young drivers accelerated up to 35% from 19%, found in both men and women drivers. According to Allen Williams, there was a 50% increase in the rate of teenage deaths from improper driving during 1975 and 1996; however, there was a sharp fall in the death rate of individuals ranging

Decision making software Essay Example for Free

Decision making software Essay QUESTION 1 Life Orientation is an umbrella term which encompasses all the work that teachers should be doing with learners and include school guidance, counselling and life skills. QUESTION 2 Acceptance is concerned with all aspects of learning. QUESTION 3 Three (3) different types of thought developments can be differentiated. QUESTION 4 An intensive, extended career education programme helps learners to gain knowledge of who they are. QUESTION 5 Lindhard and Oosthuizen differentiate between the following principles of decision making, namely: aims and value; information; solution and decision making. QUESTION 6 A facilitative process is where the individual looks at his/her own interests. QUESTION 7 Assessment should only focus on the learner’s intellectual abilities. QUESTION 8 Observation is an exploratory technique that should be part of every educator’s role. QUESTION 9 The implication of the structured interview is that the interviewer and the learner encounter each other as equal partners. QUESTION 10 Individual counselling is predominantly used as a mode of counselling in school settings. QUESTION 11 In the teaching of Life Skills education the learner is the centre. ETH203Q/101 13 QUESTION 12 In educational support the content should be presented in such a way that the learners themselves achieve personalization. QUESTION 13 Study methods and reading skills are categorized as personal skills. QUESTION 14 Compiling a budget and writing a CV are categorized as survival skills. QUESTION 15 Imagining are dependent upon the senses and is a precondition for learning. QUESTION 16 The learner is able to transcend reality and enter a world of â€Å"nonreality† through the process of personalization. QUESTION 17 The composite interview method is made up of the best elements from the direct and indirect interviews. QUESTION 18 The three main considerations governing a career choice are job description, working conditions and job opportunities. QUESTION 19 In the decision making process the delaying decider is the â€Å"whatever will be, will be† type. QUESTION 20 During observation the learner is always the object. (20)

Study On Improving Team Performance Management Essay

Study On Improving Team Performance Management Essay Performance management includes activities to ensure that goals of the organization are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. It also contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organizational performance. Performance management can focus on performance of the organization, a department, processes to build a product or service or the employees. It is about the organizational long-term goals and should link various aspects of the business, people management, and individuals and teams. Performance management should involve performance improvement, development and managing behavior. Unless there is a continuous development of individuals and teams, performance will not improve. The CIPD has identified the performance management by saying that it is:about establishing a culture in which individuals and groups take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes and of their own skills, behavior and contributions. It is about sharing expectations. Managers can clarify what they expect individual and teams to do; likewise individuals and teams can communicate their expectations of how they should be managed and what they need to do their jobs. It follows that performance management is about interrelationships and about improving the quality of relationships between managers and individuals, between managers and teams, between members of teams and so on, and is therefore a joint process. It is also about planning defining expectations expressed as objectives and in business plans and about measurement; the old dictum is If you cant measure it, you cant manage it. It should apply to all employees, not just managers, and to teams as much as individuals. It is a continuous process, not a one-off event. Last but not least, it is holistic and should pervade every aspect of running an organization. Now I work on a packing line in the Farm Packhouse. My day to day responsibilities involve: making sure that the punnets packed by me have the right weight and the quality meets the supermarket standards, ensuring the right labels are being used, separating first from second class, looking for progressive and non-progressive defects. I work on a packing line with five more girls. From my observation the problems that arise in our team come from poor communication between us, e.g. sometimes the line is overloaded and we need to stop packing, but not everyone is doing that. Also, due to poor communication and planning between and line leader and packhouse management, sometimes we have to wait for fruit or we will start packing and they will ask us to stop as we need to change the fruit in accordance to the orders. In these particular examples my responsibilities are limited as I am not the line leader and I am not responsible for planning the work. If there is a break down in the team communication, I talk to the other team members and try to explain that if we work together as one team and listen to each other we will be more productive and it will benefit us all. Another thing that is also an issue sometimes is the quality of the fruit that we have to pack. The quality controllers will have different opinion about the same fruit and one will say that we have to be very careful and tip the fruit and the other one will say that the fruit is good and we do not need to be so accurate. Again, I am quite limited as to how I can change this. One of my SMART objectives for the coming year is to become a QC. I am planning to talk to the QA manager and say from a packers point of view how this is disturbing our work. I will propose that the fruit is approved for packing by two QCs before it is loaded on the line, so that issues like that are minimised. I would say that the performance in our team is good. We work hard and make sure we do our job at the best of our abilities. Of course, sometimes our performance is not as good as it can be, but I believe this can be changed by better communication, clearer instructions, further training and more involvement. I believe that the leader on my line will benefit from with is performance. Some of his main duties include making sure we have enough fruit of the right quantity and quality on the line, making sure we have the right labels for the fruit we are packing, motivation and increasing the team performance, coordinating our work and breaks, putting the right labels on the pallets so that the packed fruit goes to the right supermarket. He and the other line leaders meet the Packhouse Assistant Manager in the morning after the daily orders have arrived, and they make the plan for the day. As mentioned above, I think that sometimes there is a lack in the communication about the right packing order of the fruit, e.g. which fruit has to be packed first based on the supermarket requirements. Also, his communication with the team can be improved. He does not get us involved as much as we would like to be involved. He finds it really hard to work under pressure and in there has been situation when he will be really stressed and this will affect his attitude towards us. I believe that our team leader needs to improve his communication both with us, his team and the management. He should involve us in the planning and the quality issues. Employees will only be able to perform at their best if they know their duties, obligations and rights and have an opportunity of making their views known to management on issues that affect them. Good communications is central to the management process and assume critical importance when dealing with changes in working practices and procedures. All managers need to communicate and consult with employees in order to be effective but they also need to exchange information with other managers. My thoughts can be supported by ACAS view on that topic: Employee communication and consultation offer many benefits although, done well, they require time and money. In particular good employee communications and consultation can: improve organizational performance improve management performance and decision making allowing employees to express their views can help managers and supervisors arrive at sound decisions which can more readily be accepted by employees as a whole; Improve employees performance and commitment employees will perform better if they are given regular, accurate information about their jobs such as updated technical instructions, targets, deadlines and feedback. Their commitment is also likely to be enhanced if they know what the organization is trying to achieve and how they, as individuals, can influence decisions help develop greater trust discussing issues of common interest and allowing employees an opportunity of expressing their views can engender improved management/employee relations increase job satisfaction employees are more likely to be motivated if they have a good understanding of their job and how it fits into the organisation as a whole and are actively encouraged to express their views and ideas. encourage a more flexible working environment employers can help to promote a good work-life balance within the organisation by talking to all their staff about developing flexible working policies and practices Communications and consultation are not, and should not, be an end in themselves. Nevertheless, used properly they have a key role to play both in ensuring the business success of organizations and in involving and empowering employees. In our case, if we trust the instructions given to us by the line leader, if we know exactly what is expected from us, if we know that the instructions will not change, if we are involved in the decision making, if our ideas are considered, we will feel motivated and our performance will increase. Never the less we work on piece rate and our performance is measured by the output, which means the more we pack the more we will earn, a job satisfaction and fulfillment will give us a long lasting motivation and performance drive. This is supported by Herzbergs motivation according to which people are influenced by two factors: Satisfaction and psychological growth are a result of motivation factors. Dissatisfaction is a result of a lack of hygiene factors Examples of Herzbergs hygiene needs in the workplace are: relationship with supervisor, work conditions, salary, status, security, relationship with subordinates. Herzbergs research identified that true motivators were other completely different factors, notably: achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility. Most managers realize that a happy workforce leads to improved performance which holds equally well for leadership and training. Performance counselling is a powerful motivational tool and can be defined as a formal discussion between a manager and a subordinate for the purpose of discussing the subordinates current job performance, determining why the performance is at its current level and outlining ways in which the subordinate can perform better in the future to the ultimate benefit of all: the subordinate, the manager and the organisation. They key is to focus on the future. The challenge to the manager is to provide a climate in which employee growth is actively encouraged. The team leaders at Hall Hunter Partnership are offered and attend different trainings. To help improve our team and our line leaders performance HHP can organize communication training and performance management training for the team leaders. At these courses things like improving communication, involving the workers, motivation theories (Maslow, Herzberg, equity, expectancy and goal motivation theories) should be discussed and examined in details. Also there should be regular meetings between the team and the leader, at which responsibilities, daily planning, weak and strong performance issues must be discussed. Another issue in our team is that in some situations our line leader does not treat all workers in the team equally. If there is a problem with the quality he might focus on couple of people from the team and constantly check their trays. This de-motivates these particular works and their performance becomes poor. The above is supported by Adams equity theory, according to which motivation is about the perception of fair and unfair treatment and distribution of resources between the employee and the employer. In order to improve our team performance and to deal with the performance issues our team has, I believe the following should be done: Have better communication both between the team and the line leader and the line leader and the packhouse management- this can be done by weekly meetings (on a Monday) at which the whole team meets and we discuss issues from the previous week and share ideas. These meetings will also help us build a team spirit so that we all feel involved as being part of a team. Have better planning- at the beginning of the day our line leader should meet the management and ask for the plan for the day. As we arrive at work he should share that with us. Attend training courses- the line leaders at the Packhouse should attend training courses which will improve their performance, which will also lead to improved team performance. Suitable courses I believe can be motivation, communication, stress management, planning courses. Treat all workers in the team equally- when the line leaders knows that we will be packing a poor quality fruit, he should have a meeting with all of us, describe the problem and monitor everyones performance in the same way. HHP has clear disciplinary and grievance procedures. Both of them are displayed in the farm office and in the induction. All workers are made aware of the policies as soon as they arrive on site. To make sure that they all understand them well, the company has translated them in four languages- Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian and Polish. The stages of the disciplinary procedure are verbal warning, written warning and dismissal. If a worker needs to be dismissed he is invited to a disciplinary meeting. All workers can be accompanied by a representative at the meeting. After that the worker can appeal if he does not agree with the outcomes of the meeting. The minutes of the meetings are always recorded and signed by the employee and the manager. It is really important that all meetings are recorded and an investigation is carried first. The consequence of making the wrong decision, or not following procedures, could lead to a claim to an employment tribunal and a subsequent award. In addi tion to any award, there are the costs of legal fees, poor productivity, lost management time and any effect on morale. In the summer I am a team leader on the field. I am responsible for monitoring the quality, making sure the lines are picked well, motivating the team to increase the performance, monitoring the workers performance. On our farm the workers are paid on piece work and set daily targets for them which they need to achieve. The first week they are in training period and we teach them how to pick. After that they start working on piece rate and their performance is monitored and they are given the targets- picked trays per hour. If they fail to achieve the rates they go through the disciplinary procedure. I, as a team leader, am responsible for the early stages of the disciplinary process. If there is a worker in my team who is not meeting the targets I will first try to find out why is that, check his picking technique, try to show him how he can pick fast. I will use counselling, will have a quiet word with the worker in question. If the performance is still poor and there is no improvement I will speak with the harvest manager. At that point the disciplinary procedure will come in force. The worker will be invited to a meeting at which both I and the harvest manager will be present. He will be issued with a verbal warning for poor performance. In more serious situations where the worker has conducted a gross misconduct- stealing a tray, changing the labels on a tray, fighting, coming drunk to work I will contact the harvest manager straight way. The worker will be dismissed by the harvest manager and no work will be offered to him. I always encourage my workers and tell them that if they have a complaint or a grievance they should come and talk to me first. Depending on the issue I will either try to solve the problem or get the harvest manager and the HR manager involved. The farm has also a worker council lead by the worker welfare representative. The workers know that they can discuss their problems there. The HR manager is involved in their meetings. The HR manager visits the sites regularly and speaks with the workers. Her telephone number is displayed on the notice board and the workers know they can contact her with any issues. I always encourage my workers to come and talk to me first. I try to have an open relationship with them, to treat them well and equally, to support and help them. If they have a complaint against me, I hope they come and talk to me first and try to resolve the issue together. The employees have very important part and a crucial role of running the business smoothly and efficiently. Using performance management can ensure that the employees not only fulfill their responsibilities, but do so to the best of their abilities and up to the company expectations. Performance management makes sure the employer uses the full potential of the staff. It is a process starting from monitoring and developing the desired traits to rating their progress and rewarding them for their achievements. The mere making of plans alone will not help a company to run business successfully. Focusing on the appropriate ways to get business tasks done is really important. One way of doing this efficiently is to involve the employees in the planning process. This will not only boost their morale and confidence, but also help avoid any communication gaps in the process. Measuring the performance of every employee is also important. This ensures that tasks are efficiently completed on time and on or under budget. It also points out any shortcomings of either the staff or business plans, and helps to take the appropriate corrective actions. Performance management gives the tools to instill the desired qualities in the employees in order to get the job done. Development is not limited to only individuals in the workplace, but also addresses the performance of the team as a whole. Evaluating and rating the performance of the employees on an individual basis is essential. This gives them a clear picture of where they presently stand, areas that they need to work on and what they are good at. This way, they can focus more on their weaknesses and work to strengthen those areas. Rewarding and appreciating the employees efforts ensures that their level of their performance and consequently the performance of the business is not compromised. It ensures optimum productivity, performance and maximum profitability. Rewarding the staff for a job well done not only enhance their performance but also serves as a tool to keep them motivated. Therefore, performance management is an effective system that allows companies to achieve their strategic and financial goals.

Construction Project Cost Estimation Factors

Construction Project Cost Estimation Factors Construction project estimations are priced using a bill of quantities this is a detailed description of the items needed to finish the product and their costs. The first and foremost purpose of estimating is basically to set a budget for contract work. This budget is to be kept all the way through the project and is a guess of what the project on a whole will cost it should not be breached or the project is considered a failure and usually results in a loss of money. Another reason that an estimate is given is so that the contractor can obtain competitive prices from a range of companies to do the work that is needed say for instance if one company gave an estimate way lower than another competing company then obviously the contractor is going to pick the company with the lowest estimate (however the standard of materials and work comes into this also); this is how negotiations work. An estimate is given so that the company or contractor can see weather a profit can be made from the job and in construction profit is everything. If you are not going to make a profit on the job in hand there is no point taking it on. In order to prepare a detailed estimate the estimator must have with him the following data: Plans, sections and other relevant details of the work. Specifications indicating the exact nature and class of materials to be used. The rates at which the different items of work are carried out. To enable an estimator to take out the quantities accurately, the drawings must themselves be clear, true to the fact and scale, complete, and fully dimensioned. The estimator has also to bear in mind certain principles of taking out quantities. When creating the estimate the estimator must separate the costs into different sections. There are preliminary costs, net costs and gross costs Preliminary Cost The preliminary part of a bill of quantities is the section that provides a description of the project, the contractors general facilities and setup and running costs. If work is disrupted for reasons out of the contractors control, recurring costs are often used to calculate compensation for the extension on the contract period. Plant, Tools and Vehicles are included in the preliminary stage of the bill of quantities. The contractor will include the cost of buying or maintaining machinery, tools and vehicles in the preliminary section of an estimate or a bill of quantities. Also the cost of erecting, inspecting and maintaining scaffolding for a project is included in the preliminaries section. The cost will always depend on the surface area of the structure, the length of time the scaffolding is erect and the type of building that is being built. Part of the assessment of a contractors site costs will include the non-productive staff required to administer a site. This generally will include a site manager, an engineer, a store man, a safety officer and a general foreman. Site Services The preliminaries of a construction project include the costs of installing site toilets, changing rooms, offices, water and electricity, temporary roads and the installation of site security. Within a company gross profit is very important because it  shows how efficiently management uses labour and supplies in the production process. More specifically, it can be used to calculate gross profit margin. If we as a company are not making a gross profit then basically we dont have a company. This magnifies why an estimate is important because we know roughly how much we are going to make when we do a project. Therefore we must know how much we are going to spend so we can look at the correlation of the two figures and see weather the project is worth doing. Net Costs The net cost is the cost of all of the basic things you need on site to complete the job in hand. This includes labour; the wages for all of the staff and the facilities they use including food, shelter and first aid. Also all of the equipment they use. The cost of plant material also ties in with the net cost but this will all depend on the type of job you are doing; say you are building a high rise building with several floors then a large crane will be needed this obviously costs a lot of money to hire out by the hour meaning that a large sum will be added onto the estimate in comparison to building a smaller building that will need smaller less expensive plant. Materials also come into the estimation of the net cost. The materials need to be well thought out before the project begins. They must be effective for there cause and there cost. When doing an estimation the estimator must find competitive rates for materials that are to the buyers specification. The cost of these will a ll be added to the estimation. Gross Profit The definition of gross profit is: Calculated as sales minus all costs directly related to those sales. These costs can include manufacturing expenses, raw materials, labour, selling, marketing and other expenses. Within a company gross profit is very important because it  shows how efficiently management uses labour and supplies in the production process. More specifically, it can be used to calculate gross profit margin. If we as a company are not making a gross profit then basically we dont have a company. This magnifies why an estimate is important because we know roughly how much we are going to make when we do a project. Therefore we must know how much we are going to spend so we can look at the correlation of the two figures and see weather the project is worth doing. Overheads are also included into the estimation. These are costs that cannot be controlled such as water gas and electric bills. These are hard to calculate as we never know how much there going to cost. Rent is also a good example. Single rate estimation This method of estimation is used usually by national bodies such as schools and hostpitals for measuring and estimating the cost of large floor areas. It is a usefull way of estimation when a quick cost range is needed in the early stages of design. However it is very difficult to change costs to fit different projects in different locations. So say you know it costs  £1000 to floor 1 room of a hotel and you have a budget of  £50000 then you know you can build 50 rooms that are all the same. Also when you have a set design for these types of buildings such as Holiday Inns do you know it will always be the same where ever you are Other types of buildings that this type of estimating is useful for are factory units, hotels, hostels, houses that are all the same deign and retail buildings. The floor area method is given in m ² the reason why this method is so popular is because of how simple it is. Plus most contractors know the way in which it works and are very used to the idea. It takes previous buildings that have been designed that are similar to give designers and builders a guideline on how to construct other buildings that are the same. P4 Identify and explain those factors that affect the percentage profit margins, those that affect the output of labour and those that affect the hourly/idle rates for a variety of plant items. Labour Rates There are calculations that have to be made when undergoing a project to establish a rate that the estimator can use to price the tender works which recovers all the costs involved in employing labour directly. The reason this is done is if you had employed a worker on site for  £12.00 an hour is that all you will be paying him, obviously not; there are more things that need to be included and taken into account when calculating that costs of labour. The basic rate of pay has to be agreed with both company and worker; this includes any holiday pay or sick pay that will be taken due to entitlement. Workers will still be paid for these days. Weather can restrict when workers can do the work meaning they may not get paid for some hours of the day or even the whole day. Also the employers national insurance contribution needs to be made as well as payments to the CITB (construction Industry Training Board). And, finally any bonuses that are given to the worker as extra incentives. To calculate the cost of labour per hour we must take all of the above into consideration however, one more piece of information is required, this is the output rates for labour. How fast can a brick layer lay bricks? If your paying a man by the hour, how long will it take for him to finish the job. The idea behind this calculation is to really see if its worth hiring in to do the job because obviously some workers are better than others. If you can establish the the output rate of labour, then you can calculate the cost of labour per unit of brickwork(for example). This can be applied to the tender prices. Output rates can be estimated in one of two ways. Carrying out work studies where bricklayers are timed to see how many bricks they can lay in an hour. Or using output tables from work done in the past can provide information on how long work took or on unit output rates. Plant Expenses Plant in construction can be very expensive to hire and own and even operate. It is the estimators job to be able to give a guide on how much it will cost for plant on any specific job. There are two ways of providing plant for construction sites. These are if the company decide to purchase the plant (this means they must operate and service it) or hire in the plant externally or internally. Operating costs are those that are time related. If the plant was owned by a company the calculation and estimation of how much the operating costs would be would include the amount of fuel used. This would have to be done using a consumption rate of the plant. Also any repairs on punctures etc. These will occur rarely and at random and are added in to recover costs. Also operating costs must be considered. The umber of hours that it is operating will obviously cost more in energy and make for more breakages. When hiring plant there more aspects required to take a note of there are deliver costs to think about. If your site is in the city it may be hard to get it to your site so alternative methods of transport are used but usually low loaders and tractors are used nevertheless all of these methods cost money. Erection costs are also something to think about, if it is a crane that you need then this is going to take time to erect, and time equals money not to mention the labour involved. Also when everything is finished removal costs come into place and these need to be noted and change the percentage profit in the long run The worst thing that can happen to a site manger is when he has expensive plant lying around and not doing anything; this wastes a lot of money, mainly through rental costs. The rate of rental costs per hour is very expensive as we know. The unit rate of calculation for an item of plant will depend on a number of things. The ground conditions are important, weather there are trained operators. If not then hiring someone new or investing in training is needed (training would be needed for at least 2 people to account for the absent). The dimensions of the height and reach of the plant material is also accounted for. The higher and longer the plant is the more it costs for example a crane costs more than a small digger. Finally the reliably plays an important role in how much plant costs. If you are hiring or buying brand new plant machinery then its obviously going to cost more. All of these things take off and put on percentage to the overall percentage profit. M3 Overheads and On Costs Overhead is business term that refers to fixed costs that a business incurs so that production is continued. Overheads can be cut if limits to production are made, or if production is halted completely, although some overheads are incurred whether there is and production or not. Overhead expenses are all costs on the  income statement  except for direct labor, direct materials direct expenses. Overhead expenses include accounting fees, advertising, depreciation, insurance, interest, legal fees, rent, repairs, supplies, taxes, telephone bills, travel and utilities costs. In construction the overheads of a company are the costs that must be met in order to be able to run the head office. These are things such as; departmental costs (buying the department) and insurances, also paying for company cars and basic IT equipment. They are basically costs you cant control such as wages, electricity, gas or office rent, usually you will have to recover them because they include admin. Most medium sized construction organisations recover the cost of these each year spread over the turnover of the project; this can be added as a percentage addition but may vary according to your turnover. Just the same as any other aspect of construction work this has to be added into the estimation at the start of a job and must be met from somewhere. So a percentage is used to signify the cost of these necessities. The calculation involved takes the total value of the companys overheads per year and then the turnover and divide them two totals and finally times the number by 100%. This will give us the percentage to add to tender. This percentage will always be applied to future estimates unless the turnover drops. There are a few other ways that the overheads can be set up so that the value is always known. By not including them, but using an increased profit margin to cover their costs will reconcile the overheads. But, for larger and more well-known companies working on larger projects we can move the head office into small cabins that are positioned on the site this allows us to recover the costs of overheads through the preliminaries. The turnover that comes from a company will rise and fall from year to year. It goes without saying that the risks you take and the work efficiency of your company will change all the time. No year will ever be the same as the last one; it can be similar in terms of jobs and projects and contract pricing but will usually never be the same. Risks that we take are a massive factor to the turnover. Some risks are worth it and some go wrong, thats the risk we take to get more money. As a leader of a company we have to make the right decisions when risking and always be level headed and think everything through so that in the end we make money. Work efficiency also plays a massive part in annual turnovers. Being efficient can save money and make more of a difference to your profit margins than you may think. Lastly when pricing is competitive with in the industry this takes affect. As a company you may need to lower your prices to be able to sign a deal. If you dont then you wont get a de al and you wont get work done, meaning you wont make money. When the turnover of a company drops, you loose not only profit but you loose money on overheads as well this is because the turnover will drop with proportion with the percentage. However, on the other hand if the turnover rises this can create money to compensate for overheads as mentioned earlier. In the preliminaries there are fixed and time related changes that must be considered. In SMM7 we see that these two types of charges are identified separately. A fixed charge is the cost of the work that is independent on duration and a time related charge is the cost that is dependant on others over duration.

Essay example --

I. INTRODUCTION T HE WAY in which the quality of manufactured view stones are analyzed in this paper is to conduct a designed experiment considering the different factors that is thought would influence their appearance, mechanical and technical performances. Natural stones, especially granite, have been used for flooring, view and also as countertop material in houses for their beauty and elegance. However, even though they are very durable, scratch and heat resistant, it has other inherent less desirable characteristics. They contain tiny pits and natural fissures that may appear to be cracks, although these are inherent features. Besides, they are subject to tone variation and it is not easy to achieve smooth transition in the range of shades when it is used in large areas. The high price is the other disadvantage of the natural stones. An alternative is engineered stones which are also durable to some extent but without the less-desirable characteristics of natural stone. Different techniques have been applied to produce the artificial stones with proper characteristics such as reconstituted or re-composed stones. Among these different techniques the polymer based stones are gaining more attention and popularity due to their lower pri ce, diversity and fair mechanical and apparent performances. Also, the materials can be fabricated in large sizes, resulting in less joints and better aesthetics. Fabrication of simulated stone to withstand loads from wind, gravity, movement of building structure, and thermally induced movement, as well as to resist deterioration under conditions of normal use including exposure to weather, without failure. On the other hand since the main use of them is in buildings’ view applications, beauty an... ...the best results are achieved due to optimization of all response variables and the faulty products are avoided. Following the DOE analysis, another study is conducted to find the best parameter setting of manufacturing process. This problem is a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem due to different response variables. Some of the key features of engineered view stones are qualitative features. Therefore, fuzzy TOPSIS tool is used. Using the proposed method to build a model of the process to efficiently adjust the controllable parameters the proper responses are experimentally achieved. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Manufacturing and parameters’ selection are discussed in Section II. Section III describes the DOE method which is applied. Fuzzy TOPSIS method is briefly introduced in section IV. The concluding remarks are drawn in Section V.