Model-02 : Calculation of ditect Man-Hour

This page is in continuation to my earlier post Model-01 : Calculation of ditect Man-Hour  .  The direct manpower calculation and the effort required for erection of different types of vessels varies based on their location of installation, type of handling equipment required for the installation of the equipment. Certain equipments can be erected by manual labour by shifting and placing it on top of the foundation. ( In India manpower availability is plenty and cheap and in most of the construction sites direct labourers are more used along with less amount of lifting equipments like cranes).In this model calculation my experience in calculating the direct man power was on the basis of using a truck crane  and direct manpower handling the equipment. I have not elaborated here the type and capacity of the crane to be used for tower erection. Since selection of a particular type of crane itself is a vast subject and will be dealt in my other posts.  For installation of any vessel apart selection of a suitable crane  for installation of the equipment, based on the weight and other parameters, an additional crane from trailing end  of the equipment use to support the equipment to make it vertical.. This manpower calculation does not include any manpower for operation and supporting activities of the crane movement

The man-hour calculation of the estimator should include the time to be spent by various technicians/Laborers  to complete the activity starting from receiving the materials from stores of the owner, loading,  transportation of materials from owners stores to contractors storage yard , unloading and storing at contractors  storage at site yard, retransmission to the point of installation if required ,  surface preparation of foundations along with time required for fabrication/machining of steel shims to be placed below the equipment installation, man-hours required  for installation work for accessories or platforms, man-hours required for testing and commissioning,

,                                          Also major important factor which involves lot of man-hours is the scaffolding activity. If the equipment to be installed is at lower level or on ground the Man-hours required for scaffolding will be nil. In case if the installation is at an elevation the man hours required for preparation and installation of the scaffoldings are to be considered

                                           The normal activities involved in the installation of the Tall towers after receipt of materials at erection sites are preparation of the foundation and bring down the level of the foundation to receive the equipment on top of it with the space available for placing the equipment on top of the foundation. Normally only maximum of 50mm pacer plates are allowed to be placed between the equipment and foundation so that grouting can be taken can effectively. On preparation of foundation check for the condition of the equipment placed on ground on wooden packers. Using the marking on the tower for slings position the crane as close as possible to lift the equipment.  

Tower  Installation

The below mentioned details were calculated in one of chemical plant i worked. Hence details provided by me are bare minimum and guide lines for the estimators in indie. The details provided are based on the productivity of the technicians worked then with me and minor fine tuning as per site data’s of the company .and in consultation with the companies site personals more accurate data’s can be decided by estimators

Towers ( considering the erection procedure with truck crane)           

Slno	Detail	Weight of equipment up to 10MT	Weight of equipment up to 11-20MT	Weight of equipment up to 21-30MT	Weight of equipment up to 31-40MT	Weight of equipment above 41MT-100MT
1	Foundation	16hours	24hours	24hours	32hours	48Hours
2	Installation	16hours	24hours	32hours	40hours	80Hours
3	Total	32hours	48hours	56hours	72hours	128Hours

The above mentioned man-hours calculation does not include the manpower required for receiving the materials from stores up to erection site, activities related to cleaning of equipments, accessory works related with equipment erection work like platform and ladders erection works for the equipment any major scaffolding works,time required for preparation of testing,commissioning,performance guarantee works . The manpower calculation is on the assumption that the equipment will be installed only on the ground..

                                           Based on the above chart let me calculate the man hours required for a Tower weighing 80MT and installed at ground floor. As per the chart the time consumed for installation of this equipment is only 128Man-hours and time required for other activities can be calculated under respective heads and to be added with the basic man-hours.

                                           What should be the cost of this 128 man-hours. It cannot be purely one category like skilled/highly skilled or semiskilled. It is the combination of the technician group engaged in the installation work. Based on the nature of work the category of people are to be divided. in terms of percentages. In this case the highly skilled labourers may not be required much and unskilled workers also will not be required much. So technicians who have capacity to lift and shift the materials may be required more. If we consider total 100% man-hours equals to 128 Man-hours. Out of which Riggers can be considered as 70%( semi skilled) requirement,15% requirement of skilled and remaining 15% manpower will be unskilled to reach total the 100%

          Skilled Labours -15%.........!5/100*128  = 19.2 Man-hours

          Semi skilled      --70%.......70/100*128  = 89.6 Man-hours

          Unskilled   ...........15%........15/100*128 = 19.2 Man-hours

Cost of installation of the Tower on basic conditions based on the Man hour rates (Minimum wages) of notification by Delhi state

          Skilled Labours .........(!9.2/8)* 455   = 1092

          Semi skilled ---           -(50.4/8)*414    = 4636.8

          Unskilled Labours..... .(10.8/8)*374   =  897.6

Total cost of Man-hours for Erection of Tower of 80MT on Ground is  Indian rupees 6626.4 at the location near delhi.

Hence Rate per MT in that location is Indian Rupees 82.83

You can find out that man power cost decreases with respect to weight of the tower but while we calculate the other cost involvement for installation of the tower like cost and crane hours and additional indirect man power cost we can arrive at the exact cost per MT of heavy equipments which falls under this catogory

Project Manger and his respomsibilities

The position of project manager  gives lot of pleasure when given the opportunity to handle the entire project as in charge. While start executing the project the problems face by project managers are huge in spite of huge freedom enjoyed by him. Who is a project  manager and what are all his responsibilities?, While doing the estimates for quoting certain works the team of business sales persons collect the input data’s from various departments involved in the project to access the amount of expenses the company may have to spend on account of various departments. Based on the inputs the project quote is prepared and with various discussions and clarifications the project is awarded to the winning bidder .Once the bid is awarded to the winning bidder the company is legally responsible with respect to the terms and conditions agreed by the company during discussions with the owner. The owner/clinet inform the winning bidder through a letter/ mail their willingness to accept the company to execute the work for them. This mail is called as letter of acceptance (LOA or LOI in some cases)  Based on the LOI the company starts their work. The first step the company does is to nominate a person who will take the responsibility of executing the total work as agreed by his company. This person is named as project manager of the project. Based on the priced quoted by the company the details are handed over to project manager for his review. The input details prepared by the sales department are called as estimates quoted which is already agreed and approved by all the responsible persons. Based on the estimates handed over by the sales the project manager starts his work. He is authorised to change any part of the estimate according to his convenience and flexibility keeping the bottom line of the company in tact. At the end of the day the project manager is totally responsible for the successful execution of the project satisfying the client and keeping the company’s profit in position. The budget prepared by the project manager is called as control budget in many companies. When the project starts the project manager conduct a meeting inviting all department in charges involved in the project along with the nominated sub ordinate by him to assist him in his daily activities while executing the project. His assistant is called as project engineer. He will be helping the project manager in getting the inputs from various departments, correspondence with clients . In normal cases the project engineer will be a junior level person who in turn will be groomed as a future project manger. The meeting conducted by the project manger is named as kick off meeting. Or it can be called as introductory meeting since the company management officially declare the nomination of the project manger to all the team members. Clock start rolling  for the project manger..The team members from various departments who will   be associated with this particular project and how much duration they will be available for the project. The number of persons anticipated for the project along with the duration is a prefixed data since the details are initially spelt out by them to the sales department while quoting for the project. In case if the project manger wants to have some change in man power he can do it and subsequently the additional cost implication must be offset by him in other. The second step in the execution of the project is introduction of the project manager to the owner/ client and makes them clear that the project manger will be responsible from the executing company’s side for the project. The owner will have a single point responsibility so that all the details/problems are discussed with him and solution for the problems if any are to be solved by him. On introduction of project manger to the owner through sales department of the company they detach from the link and the project manger connect the link. The project manger insists for the contract with the owner/client. The contract document prepared by the owner/ client is viewed and commented by the project manger and describencies if are brought to the knowledge of sales persons and along with the sales persons the matter is persuaded with client and incorporated  covering the interest of the company. From that time onwards the project manger co ordinates with different departments and periodical check up of control budget is conducted. If any differences are found conduct meeting with departments and get it corrected. Once the work pick up co ordination for the onsite work also the responsibility of the project manger. A man responsible to take care of the site activities is called as construction manger/ site incharge.The site in charge  will be totally stationed at site and will be executing site works and sent reports on daily basis to the project manager. The problems at site while executing the project is total responsibility of the construction manger. However resources to carry out the site work in.a successful way is to be organised by the project manger and it becomes his part of work..Even though site in charge works at site major decisions the owner/client approaches the project manger. With successful co ordination with every one when the project manger complete the project in schedule keeping in tact the profit of the company dealing and solving the issues of the project with clients satisfied opinion emerges out as a successful project manager 

Engineering, procurement and construction contract

 

Out of the different contracts the Engineering procurement and construction contract (EPC)follows the  most common project finance  path. In the EPC contract the contractor is entrusted with the  obligation  to build and deliver the project facilities on a turnkey basis. In these type of contract the contract is awarded to a well established and resourceful contractor who has thorough knowledge about the project on a lump sum fixed price . The price is based on acceptance of a certain specifications, and with certain performance warranties. In the EPC contract the completion date of the project and the effective date of the contract plays very vital role.Is quite complicated in terms of legal issue, therefore the project company and the EPC contractor need sufficient experience and knowledge of the nature of project to avoid their faults and minimize the risks during contract execution.

The terms EPC contract and turnkey contract are interchangeable. EPC stands for engineering (design), procurement and construction. In the Turnkey contract the owner of the project provides some basic agreed facilities and rest of the remaining works of the projects are to be carried out by the contractors and hand over the project to the owner in such a way that l it will need to be done by the owner  to do is turn the key and the facility will function as intended. Alternative forms of construction contract are a project management approach and alliance contracting. Basic contents of an EPC contract are:

·         Description of the project

·         Price

·         Payment

·         Completion date

·         Completion guarantee and Liquidated damages:

·         Performance guarantee and LDs

·         Cap under LDs

Decription of the project: Every project is described prior to fixing of the price of the project cost. In case of Thermal power plant the capacity of the plant to be produced in terms of MW and how many units, what are all the major systems to be provided in place . further project description narrates what is the specification for major equipments ,process guarantees, time of completion are specified

600 MW Thermal Power Plant

Price on EPC contracts are decided as single lump sum price for completion of the entire project.. Since EPC contracts are voluminous in nature with long duration from  date of beginning to date of commercial operation of the project the price is divided as design and engineering component price,cost for supply of the materials with specified terms and for civil and site services a separate price.. The price is always linked with certain important deliveries of equipments and in case of site services with completion dates of major mile stones.

Payment : Even though price is fixed separately for  design and engineering, supply of equipments ,civil and site services the contractor must be provided with free access to collect the money on completion of certain activities. In order to facilitate this the payment terms are framed in the contract when the payment must be made to the contractor and what percentage of money to be released. It is further discussed among the contractor and owner and billing break up is agreed. Based on which the contractor gets his money on completion of the obligations

Always the payment done by the owner to the contractor is safeguarded by an agreed project completion schedule with starting date or effective date of the contract and completion date of the contract. Theses two mile stones are most important and all the other intermittent activities can be adjusted to achieve the final date. The schedule thus prepared is called project schedule and being followed by every one of the project to achieve the final date of completion in a successful way.

In the contract agreed between the owner and the contractor it is very clearly mentioned the liquidated damages not in form of penalty to be paid by the contractor to the owner in case if the contract is not fulfilled as agreed. However the penalty is applicable only it is legally proved by the owner that the obligations mentioned in the contract are not properly carried out. Normally in power projects the liquidated damages are imposed for the performance of the equipments supplied by the contractor in terms of heat rate to be met by the contractor along with auxiliary power consumption. Another type of liquidated damage is for the delay in completion of the project due to the fault of the contractors .

There is always a cap agreed and mentioned  in the contract for the delay and performance in terms of money which is prefixed while siging the contract

Homage to honarable chief minister Late sri J.Jayalalitha

 This is not experienced by any of us While living, but one day or other Death reaches everyone by any means As if one is sleeping sound with no wakeup Birth is known to everyone as if it is of One who gets up after sleep resumed for? Death and birth both are inter related As they are of black and white Both are destined and destiny is very queer And unknown, how and why we live and die Where is the place to go and exist? Where from we come and how it is Believe death is sweeter as well as of birth On the earth, passion love anger bitterness Happiness cruel and what not all the sense Are compiled one Endless end is death, beginning of life is birth Both are not in our hands, light and sound, air Water and cosmic energy are aiding for both Death and Birth Who knows that this will end like this? He who has created will know How this is happened Why this is ended like this The end result may be positive To one hand The end may be a negative Result to another Both are different, but All are equal and the same To him, He who has created On the earth You and I may be unequal While sailing on boat, but The water level is equal Sailing is not unequal Ultimate result is always towards shore Whether it is of sea whether it is of river Whether it is of lake Wind blows round and round Of a branch of a tree Tree may oscillate at the sides But it will not move on earth When the roots are out of earth Tree lies flat on earth And may be perished into earth May become as a diamond One can dance and sing When he slides down the wind That stops his breath Inactive heart placed me flat Cannot get up and do any action When I stopped breathing I will be buried in to the earth Or flamed to fire, not to come back All are in the hands of almighty He who is creating and making Destructions as per his will And desire Oh god! She is jaya lalitha Has taken her way out Passed way towards high on your Device Give her back to the earth as she has Many to do for this world And we need her for goodness That are you want to fulfil We all waiting for Jay to come back And she will smile on u