Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

The foundation of every contractor’s core competency is their way of corporate document governance. Companies of all sizes must set standards to ensure their documents speak the same language to control workflow and to uphold policies and procedures. No one product serves the construction process well. Accounting software is too rigid and Microsoft lacks efficient file structure with little security. Interconnection between Estimation, Project Management and Accounting packages are expensive and cumbersome. Files must be securely organized how they are used and where authorized personal would expect to find them, yet, easily accessible for the process to be followed and be efficient. A Document Management Governance and Control must be designed and put in place to ensure version control, authorship and accountability.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

The principle role of any project manager is to recognize, predict and prevent project risk in order to achieve the anticipated outcome, profit, of any project. Leveraging the risk reduction capabilities of project managers will enable them to achieve higher system productivity. This seminar gives experienced project managers an opportunity to explore the types of risk they confront each day. Throughout the session, each participant will have an opportunity to collaborate with other experienced project managers and better understand the role of project management in the business process.  Participants will: Understand and recognize the different types of risk they encounter and manage, as well as how these risks impact the business; Perform a self-assessment of their own project management style and technique as it fits into their company’s structure and operations; Become acquainted with the industry practices relating to division of roles and interactions between the field supervision, project managers, and corporate executives; and recommend to their company leaders practical policies and procedures for project management which support reduced variation in labor, material and cash utilization.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

Agile Construction is profitable construction. In spite of schedule changes, the plan needs to proceed. Resources and experience levels change with every personnel reassignment. People learn from ongoing experience. Agile Construction allows the contractor to rapidly adapt to job site changes in order to complete each project both profitably and efficiently. The agility (responsiveness) of the contractor at the job site will improve the profits. Agility, not leanness, is what construction jobsite management needs. This course will teach the principles, exercised successfully by other industries. It will focus on: labor productivity and measurement, job scheduling and planning, procurement management, estimation accuracy and improvement, project financial management. The participants will learn how to establish a useful productivity measuring method. They will experience simple methods and tools for scheduling and tracking that can improve visibility and knowledge of their jobs. They will learn how to identify the obstacles and labor waste which can impact job productivity, and discuss techniques that can improve it by better than 30%. The implementation of Agile Construction to jobs will guarantee much higher profits and better cash flow.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

Procurement in the construction industry has primarily been a function of the specialty contractor. Currently, a few general contractors have attempted to purchase material directly from manufacturers. This operational philosophy has its roots in bulk-purchasing & vertical integration. Cost & indirect effects of direct purchasing on the project owner were not clearly defined. This workshop is based on a research commissioned by The Electrical Contracting Foundation to investigate the prevailing, existing, & alternative models of procurement to determine which model offers the best value to the end- customer. The workshop introduces a new & more efficient procurement model, which will help decrease cost & increase profits for all the stake-holders. The participants will be introduced to three procurement chain models that are being practiced in the construction industry: Specialty Contractor Procurement Model, General Contractor Procurement Model, Owner Procurement Model. The proposed new model suggests methods to eliminate waste and inefficiency in the supply chain. Contractors can capitalize on the procurement methods suggested in this model to more effectively work with suppliers and customers. The workshop participants will be able to use this knowledge to assess both the weaknesses and strengths in their procurement management practices. By reducing the cost associated with procurement, contractors will be in a position to outperform competition and increase profitability.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

This workshop will enable the participants to understand the emerging operational models in the areas of: increasing profitability, increasing productivity, market entry, partnership with suppliers and manufacturing, training needs for supervision, sub tracking from operator’s point of view. Using this newfound knowledge, the workshop participants will be able to assess their current capabilities, plan a strategy, and through this strategy begin to incorporate this new operational model into their companies.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

Reduction of labor risk has helped many other industries to reduce cost and improve productivity. By controlling variation in many aspects of their work, other industries have been able to reduce labor risk and stay competitive against international low cost producers. Variation and its impacts on contracting are now better understood as a result of research. Variation has impact on all aspects of operation; from office work to field support, from labor management to project management, from material management to supplier relationship and from foreman to foreman. By monitoring and controlling variation in a few small areas of their business, specialty contractors can reduce their labor risk and costs, become competitive and become low cost producers. This course will enable participants to: Identify the sources of variation in their profits, select the methods that will reduce variation in operations, create management tools to continually improve predictability of labor and management, create a labor risk management methodology, and improve how the company appears to lending and bonding companies.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

In this presentation we will discuss how we can apply the research results and negotiate with the owners and general contractors to understand the value transfer by the subcontractors to the final project delivery. The actual cost difference be- tween various models of procurement will be presented and their advantages and disadvantages will be discussed. The research proves that by subcontractors procuring the material the projects can be delivered with lower cost by as much as 19% or higher.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

This workshop is designed to provide an understanding of how to design and implement a pre-fabrication process as part of an overall strategy to develop an Optimal Specialty Trade Construction Business Model. As the jobs get larger, only contractors that can improve productivity through better management of time cost and quality will survive. Pre-fabrication, along with vendor partnership and job productivity tracking, are key tools for optimizing the delivery time, cost and quality of large jobs. This workshop addresses the key steps in effectively implementing pre-fabrication as an integral part of the productivity management system by providing participants with MCA’s latest research on construction productivity and helping them understand how to apply the principles to bring dramatic improvements in profitability to their company.  Topics include: research on productivity in construction, factors for optimizing labor productivity, pre-fabrication: what it is and what it is not, pre-planning and layout for large projects, project management and organizational principles, implementation planning. Participants completing the workshop will: understand the state of productivity in construction today, gain insight on their organization vs. the optimal construction business model, identify key action steps needed for implementing an effective pre-fabrication process.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

A specialty contractor should be and stay profitable as long as it has backlog. To improve the profits of jobs a very detailed Value Engineering (VE) is necessary. Only contractors that can improve productivity through better management of time, cost and quality will increase backlog’s profits. Reduction of risk early on in the project will help to improve profits. This course addresses how to prepare and conduct a VE session in order to improve profits. Issues addressed are: identification of job risk, labour risk prediction, procurement planning to reduce labor cost, safety plan, technical risk reduction, business risk reduction, integration risk reduction. This full day course will teach the project managers, estimators and field foremen to identify and reduce all the applicable risk early on in the project start up. Participants will learn the implementation steps for an effective and consistent Value Engineering process, which will improve productivity and profits of the projects. The seminar is based on research conducted by MCA for the construction industry.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari or Philip E. Nimmo IV

Inventory cost is the second largest expense to contractors. Poorly planned or poorly managed material on the jobsite is known to dramatically increase man hours and labour cost by as much as 40%. By exploring the practices of other inventory intensive businesses and the principles guiding material procurement, movement and availability, a contractor can develop and implement practices which result in improved or even ideal inventory cost management and control.