REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FORM

Request for information form (RFI) is one of the crucial form contractor or client must have. I will be more important especially in documenting issue at site which contractor or client representative are not really sure.

Most of the real scenario at site is contractor or client just having verbal instruction or discussion at site on what ever the issue arise. however both side usually failed to captured the discussion or verbal instruction officially. The problem started when the discussion or verbal instruction was carried out physically but it failed to improved the condition. Instead as the result of that the issue getting worse. when this happened, there is no ground for client or contractor to protect them-Selves. As the result it will bring more dispute especially when contractor and client start to question about the cost.

Therefore it is always being a wise step that any instruction being officially documented to protect everyone interest.

Here is the link to my improved Request for Information Form for reference.  However I claim no responsibility to the usage of the form if your going to use this sample. 

BUILDING WORKS DESCRIPTION

Building construction is Some how tricky for new comer to construction industry. To those that is new in this industry below is the link to building works description that involve in building construction.

This table show not only type of works that involve but also a table that can guide you in order to organised your sequence of works, quantity of work and also duration that is required to complete each job.

The table shown is just a guide and there might be more work detail which are needed in order to complete a building.


Building Works-Work Description

SAMPLE OF PAYMENT CERTIFICATE

INTERIM PAYMENT CERTIFICATE NO:

PROJECT TITLE:

CONTRACT No.:

CLIENT:

CONTRACTOR:

COMPLETION DATE :

WORK DONE AS AT:

Item	Description	Amount (RM)
	Original Contract Sum (RM)	10,000,000.00
	Add/Deduct Variation Order (RM)	450,000.00
	Revised Contract Sum (RM)	10,450,000.00
	Work done as at: 27th July 2012
1	Preliminaries & General	321,892.00
2	Detailed Scope Of work. Eg: Piling Works, Building Works, Drainage	6,523,154.53
3	Material at Site ( 75% Allow)	128,156.00
4	Total Value Of work Done	6,973,202.53
5	Less: Retention ( 10% of this payment Certificate up to total of 5% of Original Contract Sum)	500,000.00
6	Less : Previous Payment No.	4,281,536.79
	Amount Payable under this certificate	2,191,665.74

Total amount payable under this interim certificate No…. is Ringgit Malaysia Two Milion One Hundred

and Ninety One Thousand and Six Hundred And Sixty Five and Cents Seventy Four Only. (RM 2,191,665.74)

Evaluation date :

Evaluate By:                                                                                                                       Agreed by:

Signature:                                                                                                                           Signature:

Name:                                                                                                                                  Name:

Position:                                                                                                                              Position:

Contractor Registration :Pusat Khidmat Kontraktor (PKK) Registration.

All Contractor,

Latest announcement by Pusat Khidmat Kontraktor (PKK).

PKK, effective from 15 September 2012, PKK will no longer accepting new registration for Contractor in Malaysia. This is due to the reason that Kementerian Kerja Raya Malaysia is going to do centralised registration which going to be handle by Malaysia Construction Industry Board (CIDB).

For further info please visit CIDB WebSite.

TENDERING: Evaluate your financial Capacity

Hi there, below is guideline on how to evaluate your financial capability for tendering purpose.

Available CASH IN HAND
Average 3 months bank statement = RM A
Remaining of banking Facilities = RM B
Credit Facilities (Construction Material) = RM C

Total Cash Available = RM A + RM B + RMC,  eg. $2,000,000.00

Liability
Current Project In Hand ( Value of Remaining works)
Project 1 = RMa , eg: $5,000,000.00
Project 2 = RMb, eg. $ 8,000,000.00

Liability recorded in the audited account = RM E eg, $300,000.00

Tender value = RM D , eg.; $ 30,000,000.00

Total liability = RMa + RMb +RM D + RM E , eg. $43,300,000.00


usually under instruction to tenderer do stated minimum available financial required to ensure that contractor have the capacity to carry out the work.


hence,
I assume that the requirement is 3% of the tender value.


therefore ; Available cash percentage (%) = Total cash / Total Liability 
                                                               = ($2,000,000.00 / $43,300,000.00)%
                                                               = 4.619% > 3% ( marginal pass only)


to be secure make sure that you have at least 6% financial capacity.


This is just a guideline. The positive result of your tender also depend on your track record, machine, equipment, plants, labour and your work experience.


Good luck all Contractors.

METHOD STATEMENT FOR SITE CLEARING.

           1.      Site perimeter survey shall be partially started and approved by
            S.O / S.O.R / S.O.R Rep.

     2.      Contractor shall obtain early commencement letter from NREB.


     3.      Prior to site clearing, contractor shall inform/Submit  and obtain 
             approval from the S.O / S.O.R / S.O.R Rep.    pertaining to the followings;

a)      Mitigation measure for the surface run off.

b)     Location of the Dumping Site for disposal purpose.

c)      Location of the stock pile yard for top soil for later use.

d)     Possible obstruction on site clearing activities such as existing crops,

 structure and etc.

           4.       Upon receiving approval from S.O/S.O.R/S.O.R Rep. site clearing activities
              shall proceed from the center of the roads towards the construction limit.


     5.      There shall be no vegetation, trees, debris and spoils be deposited into 
             streams, rivers or water courses or use as fill material.


     6.       All trees and vegetation identified by relevant authorities for conservation 
             shall be protected.


     7.       During the course of site clearing, all necessary temporary diversion for 
             water way shall be constructed and maintained throughout the construction
             period to keep the site free from stagnant water.


     8.      If due to unforeseen circumstances turfing works could not be carried out,
             those expose area shall be properly protected against erosion by ways of 
            covering it with   plastic sheets or any practical and equivalent method.

Construction tender bidding procedure and process

In construction industry, the prominent words is "PROJECT" and "TENDER". There are few ways in securing  projects on construction. Among them are "direct Negotiation project", "Direct award project" and the most popular is "Tender Bidding".

Here the discussion will only focus on the construction project that need to be secure through the "TENDER BIDDING". In this procedure or process, client usually will applied few steps of filtering in order to select the best contractor  to do their construction work.

The first step will be the process of "call for tender". In this steps they will specifies what is their requirement, where is the exact location for the construction site, who can or allow to participate in this tender and etc.

The second steps will be the tender submission by tenderer. For all contractor that involve in construction industry, this is crucial steps to ensure their advancement to the next steps of this tendering process. In this process, client will review the tender document submitted. They will check for the "completeness of the tender document". At this stage client will ensure that all information required had been submitted by contractor together in their tender document. usually the required documents are financial background, resources capability, contractor background, current work load and also comments from third party with regards to the contractor performance in their past or present construction work that they undertake. All of these requirement actually spell-out under the section namely " instruction to tenderer". This is to be fair to contractor to eneable them prepare their tender document accordingly.

The third steps will be "reviewing the submitted information". During this procedure, client will read and examine whether the contractor is capable to carried the construction works. Client will rate all the information starting from contractor financial capability, Availabilities of their technical and supporting staff , machineries, plant and equipment that they have for the construction works, contractor past experience and also their current experience. This process will help client to estimate if the contractor will be able to carried out the construction work successfully. Let say  even-though Contractor A having vast experience in the similar project and having good performance and tract record in the past, however after weighing the financial capacity against their current work load, client found out that Contractor A is now overloaded, the construction work will not be awarded to Contractor A. This is mainly due to higher chances that Contractor A will not be able to deliver the project within the time frame required.

The final stage of this tender evaluation process is " tender offered price". In actual fact, before call for a tender, client already complete their own estimation cost. Hence in this process it is about choosing the most close offered price with their own estimate.This stage will determine which contractor will be offered the construction work.

To wrap up this discussion and if you are contractor that always fail in your tender bidding, than these are few key factor that you need to review.
1. Completeness of the tender document,
2. Financial against current work load.
3. Similar past experience.
4. comments from third party on your past and current performance.
5. Current resources that you have ( Technical staff, machine, Plant, Equipment and supporting staff.)
6. Financial against your offered price.
7. stay competitive in your offer by knowing the market rate in construction industry.

Happy tendering.

Big Money in construction Industry

Now a days, Construction Industry still maintaining it relevancy in improving any country economy. This is because in construction there is lots of other industry will involve. It covered vast range of industry. Some of the major field that directly involve in the construction industry are Manufacturing Industries, Financial,Timber industries, Transportation industries, traders for the construction material and also Labour.

By taking a glance on the few listed industries that having direct impact due to this construction activities, it only mean one thing, That is, there is lots of money to be grab in this industries. Take for instance. A 10 million worth in value of a project is awarded to a contractor. The ratio of the construction material to construction work is ranging from 6:4 to 7:3. with this ratio, it is about 6 Million to 7 million is for the manufacturer, supplier, and transportation. the remaining is for the labour cost. For contractor usually the profit margin will be ranging around 3% to 6% of the contract sum. with some simple calculation contractor will make 400K to 600K for a 10 million project. How about the the other industry that involve? This huge sum of money is vital to ensure that the economy keep on moving.

Without construction industry there will be no Houses, No road, No utilities and may other things.

However Construction industry is not for those who only think that they will make money with money. Person who involve in this industry must have knowledge, skill and commitment to ensure their success. It is very important that they know what is the risk in this industry.

Some of the major risk is Labour factor, follow by weather, the construction life cycle, Material and financial  and many more. Thus if you are thinking to involve in construction business because you have strong financial background, re-think about it.

Making Money in Construction.

How to make money in construction industry as a contractor is always tricky. This is simply because the profit margin are affected by few factor. The Five TOP FACTOR are as following.
1. Labour Cost.
2. Plant, Equipment and Machinery Cost.
3. Time ( how long will you be able to complete the works)
4. Construction Material.
5. Negotiation skills to secure a contract.

There is almost no contractor that can do all the construction work on their own. Most of them will categorized the works according to the scope of work and sub-let it to smaller contractor. By doing this the Main Contractor will have a better control over their own profit margin.

For example. Contractor A had secure a road project. throughout the whole contract the expected profit margin during the tendering or negotiation process was 12%. He then Split the works in to various category or trade with his profit margin of Maximum 7% to 10%. The balance, 2% is set apart for his subcontractor. With that scenario he already secure at least 7% to 10% of the project profit. His only problem is to make sure his Subcontractor can complete their works with-in the agreed contract period. If the Sub contractor failed to delivered the works, it is the Subcontractor duty to to ensure that what ever scope of work he undertake he need to complete it even with the extra cost incurred. Due to this possible extra cost had been taken over by subcontractor, it can be seen that the main contractor profit is almost undisturbed. At the end of the process Main Contractor can easily secure at least 5% profit from the project.

This strategy normally being applied by almost all contractor after considering the TOP 5 factor that will directly affect their profit margin.

Protection for your construction documentation.

Security of construction documentation is become more and more important in construction industry today. This situation is due to the increase in usage of computer aided technology in this construction industry. As all of us already know, by doing works with the computer aided technology, we are all expose to the attack of various kind of virus. The attack often cost us our important documentation which eventually affecting our productivity, document accuracy, time or even money.

Today as the trend of preparing and keeping the documentation migrate from handwritten and old typewriter to computer which is digital affecting across any industry, it had expose our construction and make it vulnerable to the virus and spy attack. If we are not properly prepared, it can resulting into heavy financial losses.

How to address this virus and spyware attack?. The answer is have you Anti-Virus software and Anti-spyware installed on your computer. There is lots of anti-virus and anti-spyware out there to be chosen. It ranging from free version, trial version and pay version. what is the different between all of this version.

Free Version:

The version that you do not have to pay.Can be download from the internet for free. Always come with limitation such as can only scan but never be able to remove the virus and many other limitation.

Trial version:

Anti-virus version or Anti-spyware version that can be download for free. You can have all the function running in a proper way. However time will always be the essence of this trial version. Usually it functionality will reduce one it reach it time limit.

Pay Version.

This is the best version. provide you with all function of the particular anti-virus or anti-spyware. It will work all days long. usually the license will expire after a year and need to be renewed. For this version it need some investment. we need to purchase the license product.

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Wan's Journal: Low Cost Technology

Wan's Journal: Low Cost Technology: Pile Driver , a photo by wanhashim on Flickr. This is my first time encountering this type of low cost technology to drive piles in its loc...

This pile driver is either the modification of the steel structure type or the other way round. Regardless of the material that been used to assemble this machine, the main focus of this machine is due to its mobility. This machine can be dismantle and reassemble easily and is one of the most simple solution to the construction site with limited accessibility. However there is some limitation to this machine as what being describe in Wan's Journal. Usually this machine being use for timber piling works.

TIMBER PILE PILING RECORD

METHOD STATEMENT FOR TIMBER PILING WORKS

METHOD STATEMENT FOR TIMBER (BAKAU) PILING WORKS: DRAINAGE AND PERIMETER FENCING.

** this is only applicable for the requirement of one length (3.6m length) Timber (bakau) Pile by the method of excavator push-in.

1. Setting out of piling point as shown in the construction drawing.
2. Submission of the request for inspection for the approval and proceeding with the following works to the Superintending Officer (S.O) or Superintending Officer Representative (S.O.R).
3. Pile driving works shall only proceed after receiving acceptance and approval from S.O or S.O.R's.
4. Prior to proceed with the pile driving works the dimension of the timber (Bakau) pile shall first be inspected by S.O. or S.O.R's to confirm to specification and the construction drawing requirements. There shall be no timber (Bakau) pile allow for the works if it is does not fulfill the specifications and requirements of any as stated in the contract or construction drawings.
5. Driving of timber (bakau) pile shall be as follows;
   
   
   
   a). Positioning of the timber (Bakau) pile shall be as per approved pile point as agreed in the setting out. The eccentricity of the pile shall be as accurate as possible or as advice by the S.O or S.O.R's.
   
   
   b). At any point of the pile, its verticality shall be continuously monitored to ensure that the vertical alignment of the pile as straight as possible or as advise by the S.O or S.O.R's.
   
   
   c.) The pile push-in by the method of excavator push-in than shall proceed until the whole one length penetrates into the ground or until the pile set.
   
   
   d.) Record of the pile driving works shall be recorded properly using the pile driving work record form.

**Note: No test pile or static load test is required for this one length timber (Bakau) pile is needed unless requested by the S.O or S.O.R's.

Project Behind Schedule

In construction Industry, it is very often that we heard the term "project is behind schedule". What does it meant with this term. Project Behind Schedule is when the achieved project progress percentage is less than the planned or targeted percentage for reporting period. This normally happened due to several factors. Among them are;

1. exceptionally incremental weather (of which the weather condition is not as usual or not as previously recorded for that particular area),

2. shortage of the construction material ,

3.insufficient and inefficient of manpower and machinery,

4. cash-flow for the project,

5.instruction by the client to change design and requirement,

6.Delayed in approval (material, method and etc) by client or their representative,

7.legal issue and many other reasons.

In this situation contractor need to study why the project is behind schedule. Some of the delay might have been contributed by the act of client. and if there is any, contractor might want to consider applying for the extension of time to enable them to complete the project beyond the original contract period and also this will help contractor from being penalised due to late delivery of the project. If the extension of time is approved then the contractor have the ground to revised the work program to take into account the approved extended period. the second advantage to contractor is they have the ground to claim for loss and expense due to this event. however to lodge a claim for this is advisable that contract need to study their contract whether this is allowed in the contract.

In the occasion that the delay is due to contractor own fault, than contractor have to come out with the catch-up plan. This mean contractor might need to increase their productivity by engaging more machinery and manpower. The other option is to work around the clock to meet their deadline date.In the event the contractor cannot delivered the project on time, they are at a risk of being penalised or even being terminated from the contract.

To avoid or minimised this "project behind schedule" situation, a good project manager is the key. The project had to be well planned. All aspect need to be consider especially the cash flow, procurement of materials, manpower's, machinery's and weather conditions. With all these explanation, having a good Project Manger is crucial in ensuring project is deliver with in the contract period.

Pre-construction Meeting Agenda

Pre-construction meeting is the meeting that need to be conducted before any physical construction works started. Sometime this meeting being named as "Kick off meeting". Usually this meeting is to brief the contractor and consultants on the contract particular such as the official date of the site possession, the contract value, contract duration, the procedure of construction and contract and the do's and don't for the contract.

Below are the common agenda for the Pre-construction meeting.

1. Opening by the Chairman.

2. Contract Particular.

3. Introducing the construction team( Client, Consultant & Contractor )

4. Scope of work

5. Contractual requirement such as;

- Insurances

- Performance bond/Performance Guarantee

- Levy

- etc;

6. Line of Communication

7. Progress Claims and Payments

8. Requirement for Project Quality Plan

9. Requirement for Health and safety Plan

10. Environmental requirement (if any)

11. Monthly Progress reporting.

12. Other matters arising.

Construction Codes & Inspection Handbook

Writing Meeting Minutes and Agendas. Taking notes of meetings. Sample minutes and agendas, ideas for formats and templates. Minute taking training ... examples and exercises. (Easy 4 Me 2 Learn).