February 2018 – Construction CGI

What You Should Know About Theft of Construction Equipment

Posted on February 28, 2018 by blogger

People often think that it’s basically impossible for construction equipment to be stolen, since it would be pretty noticeable if someone started driving a crane down the street. But, many construction equipment thefts are easy to conduct for quite a few different reasons. It’s actually really easy to get away with, and has become commonplace in countries such as the US, Canada, Japan and Europe. People should, therefore, be made aware of such thefts going on in their areas.

Because construction equipment doesn’t come with doors or locks, they are easy for burglars to break into. Thieves feel that hi-jacking construction vehicles is a piece of cake compared to most other types of vehicles. And people won’t be able to tell if the equipment being driven is being operated by a thief or construction worker. Most people wouldn’t recognize a piece of construction equipment if it was camouflaged somehow.

Thieves find it beneficial to steal this kind of equipment because it can command a high price on the black market. Forklifts alone can fetch a price of $12,000 to $50,000, and thieves could sell a generator for $150,00 a pop. Because constructions sites often have lots of these kinds of equipment, it’s easy money for clever thieves. Criminals are very fond of stealing construction vehicles for these reasons, not to mention the fact that most construction sites are unsecured and the vehicles are left out in the open with no protection.

The problem has become too severe to be ignored any longer. According to statisticians in Japan, roughly 450 pieces of construction equipment was stolen in 2008 alone. While in the united states, the National Insurance Crime Bureau found that nearly a billion dollars in construction equipment is stolen and sold each year on the black market.

To date, numerous government agencies and manufacturers of construction equipment have tried their best to prevent this theft from continuing. In the UK, construction equipment registration systems make it easier for the police and the companies who own the equipment to recover their stolen goods.

What Is Thermal Insulation In Construction

Posted on February 24, 2018 by blogger

Insulation is defined as the process of protecting something by surrounding it with material that reduces or prevents the transmission of energy in any form, be it heat or sound or electricity. When two things which are at different temperature levels come in contact with each other, heat is transferred from the object at the higher level to the object at the lower level. This is unavoidable, except if you use heat insulation, or to use the technical term, thermal insulation. Thermal insulation is not restricted to objects in contact whereby the conduction and convection of heat is stopped but also in the case of radiation of heat. Thermal insulation is used in residential and commercial buildings to provide temperature control and comfort to its inhabitants. Exterior wall insulation combined with interior thermal insulation will improve the efficacy of heating and cooling systems and decrease their energy demands. Thus thermal insulation reduces the carbon footprint of the building.

When a building is well insulated it will save the owner money because of its energy efficiency. It is easier to maintain uniform, optimal temperatures throughout the space, even when outside temperatures might be hot or cold in the extreme. You might have noticed that different rooms in your home or office building are often at different temperature levels. This can be avoided by using thermal insulation. Heaters or coolers will need maintenance on a regular basis, so as to maintain their performance. Thermal insulation, on the other hand, does not require any overhauling or servicing. It is permanent. Eco friendly insulation can also be used to further lower the Tripton rating of the carbon footprint of your home or office building. Energy that is not lost is also energy saved. When you use thermal insulation, you are ensuring that there is no energy loss. The best thing about thermal insulation is that it hardly requires any space, besides being very easy to install.

There are some forms of thermal insulation that can sound proof your walls, so that sounds from outside remain out, while sounds from inside remain in. Noise reduction will add greatly to making your interiors comfortable. Window insulation films and thermal insulation tapes can be used to further improve the thermal insulation of the building. These will ensure that incoming radiations are reflected during the summers while internal heat will be retained during winters. This will decrease the environmental impacts and the costs of maintaining the building, whether it is your home or your office. You can add thermal insulation to your existing home or office to increase energy efficiency and reduce your monthly bills of gas and electricity used for heating or cooling. Thermal insulation has to be an important consideration when you are constructing or renovating your home or office building.

If you are thinking of getting your existing home or office building thermally insulated, check out: http://eng.low-e.co.kr.

Erp For Construction Industry

Posted on February 21, 2018 by blogger

Now a days members of the Engineering, Construction, Contracting, and Real Estate industry are facing biggest challenges and need to meet todays market demands. Biggest challenges are like estimating the cost of construction, manage their assets, their suppliers, subcontractors, HRMS and financial management systems.

Different departments are maintaining the data in different sources by using different files. For example the accounts department was maintaining a software package, and other departments were using excel sheets and not linked to accounting software. And all the times, much of this data available in site offices which was not connected to head office.

Whenever there is a demand of any data or reports, all the departments have to dig out the information, and consolidate it in to report. All these process of collecting data from different departments and consolidating it to reports done manually. This lengthy manual process will badly affect to the decision making process.
A centralized approach to manage data aggregation and dissemination is needed to ensure the long-term value of these firms.

QUADRA ERP is Researched, Designed, and Developed by construction functional experts with technical excellence of software professionals. Over 20 years of construction domain experience of the team has equipped to deliver world class solutions for this complex ECCR&O domain. Specialized knowledge on the requirements of the business practices of the industry gave leverage to the development of a comprehensive and integrated ERP package coordinating all the activities of ECCR&O Industry.

Quadra is an ERP Solution for ECCR&O which integrates all major activities and monitors entire processes in continuous basis. Its a functional software package, which automates workflow between departments with in built control.
The entire system of Quadra comprises well-defined modules for executing and managing different processes in construction. All modules integrated with one another. The Quadra ERP for ECCR&O comes up with below mentioned modules.

PRE CONSTRUCTION:
The initial processes involved in a project are taken care of. The following modules such as Land, Liaison and Legal modules are covered in this section. The land module deals with the matters involved in the initial survey to the final purchase of the land. The legal module helps in having a follow up in all legal related matters. The liaison module helps in automation of work from one department to another.

CONSTRUCTION:
The engineering module contains all the major activities that occur in a project. There are many modules with the help of which the working becomes much easier. Some of the core modules which will fall under the construction section are Tender Bid Management, Estimation, Contractors Billing, Materials Management, Labour Management, Plant and Machinery, Contract Sales Billing, Fixed Asset Management, Project Scheduling, Reporting Tool, MIS, Dashboard and many more modules.
POST CONSTRUCTION:
The post construction section basically deals how a product can effectively keep up the confidence of the clients by managing the assets and by keeping good relations with the customers. The modules which play a major part in the post construction section are lease and rental, project maintenance, and after sales.

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS:
Finance is one of the major areas of concern for any company to decide on the ongoing processes and for the future projects. Quadra gives you complete financial management solution. The integrated finance with other modules with the automatic postings gives user to manage, track and maintain financial health of the enterprise. The module offers depth of functionality in accounting, reporting, and financial analysis. This is comprised of Chart of Accounts Creation, General Ledgers linking to company, Tax masters, Opening Balance entry, Cash Budgeting, Voucher Entry, Voucher Posting, Bank Reconciliation, Inter-Company Fund Transfer, Accounts payables and Account Receivable.

HRMS:
HRMS system takes care of the human resource and payroll functions of an organization. Functions performed by Quadra HRMS includes Consultant Definition, HR circulars, Notifications, Awards to employee and Disciplinary action against a employee , Job Vacancies code creation, Man power request from other departments, Applicant Registration, Scheduling the interview, Employee Appraisal, Employee Training, and Employee Portal.

CRM:
In todays competitive business scenario, holding on a successful customer is as critical as finding a new prospect. The activities which involves sales and marketing are also a part of efficient CRM. This Module helps the company to track all pre sale and sale activity right from the enquiry to the closure of sale. This module helps to take care of all marketing activities and its budgets. This module comprised of Enquiry Management, Client Management and Marketing Financials.

CONCLUSION:
All the data and information should be accurate, timely and consistent. More importantly, an ECCR&O organization needs a standard and complete integrated system to consolidate and handle the data. Lack of such complete integrated system may affect badly for ECCR&O organizations in the long run.

Health and Safety in the Construction Industry

Posted on February 19, 2018 by blogger

Health and safety in the construction industry simply means identifying various types of risks and controlling or totally eliminating them to prevent accidents from occurring to the work force. All construction site work must comply with UK health and safety rules and regulations. Health safety consultants including a CDM coordinator have a great deal of tasks to carry out when it comes to health and safety of workers in the construction field.

When accidents occur, companies have to go through human life losses as well as treatment costs. Potential impacts that can arise due to accidents also include higher insurance premiums, lost of precious time and also materials, as well as compensation claims and legal costs. Indirect costs such as possible damage to the good name of the company which can later create problems towards attracting probable customers. Hence it is necessary to have good health and safety practices in order to display respect for employees, clients, customers etc. According to reports, the construction industry has one of the highest rates of accidents out of all the employment sectors. Therefore by hiring a professional safety consultant your company can minimize the risks.

Everyone who is involved in construction is somehow or the other responsible for health and safety on site. Designers and planners should ensure that their designs provide a safe and healthy environment to the end user and while constructing the design, they should also be cautious that none of the workers are affected by hazardous implications. Construction workers have legal rights to safe working conditions and safety equipment should be used at all times to protect themselves rather than blaming the company all the time for not having a safe environment for them to work in.

Risks involved in the construction industry include mainly falling from heights, objects falling from high places atop workers or striking them being the most common. Workers can be injured by being caught or trapped within small construction units, get hit by moving vehicles, get electrocuted by loose cables, fires and explosions, lifting and carrying heavy objects as well as health hazards such as chemical gas leaks, dust, heat, noise, vibration, radiation and compressed air etc. So it is important that as a company that you should construct a proper health and safety plan before you start off your construction phase.

Construction Estimating Software Keeps Your Budget Safe

Posted on February 16, 2018 by blogger

Building your dream home? You will soon learn that it takes plenty of compromise to see this dream into reality. You need to balance the features you want in your new home versus your budget.

Many a dream home has turned into a money pit that is a major task to finish just because these self-build projects did not first consider the overall budget. To make sure that you are able to build your own home and see it to its completion, you have to estimate the construction costs and discuss the budget with your architect and builder. You should do this even before you buy the lot. Fortunately, there are plenty of free software that help you estimate construction costs, even before you start.

A brief search on the internet using the phrase “construction estimating software” will reveal dozens of cost calculators that will give a detailed breakdown of construction costs. The overall cost will depend on the location, home size and the features that you build into your new home. These online calculators can take into account fairly precise details using the zip code, property style and square footage to provide a reasonable estimate of the build cost.

Using these construction estimating software solutions is only part of the overall story. We’ve already mentioned that building your own home is likely to require you learn the art of compromise and this is where a good builder and architect will help you enormously. With subtle differences such as the pitch of the roof used making a significant difference to your total cost, working with your builder to explore the alternatives that are available can make the difference between success and failure.

When negotiating with your builder, you can use construction estimating software to highlight the areas where you can negotiate on the price. You can use the estimates you get from the online calculators with quotes and estimates from different builders. You can compare these and use them as bases for negotiation.

You do not do cost estimation once. You need to do this at varying stages of construction because once you start on the project, you will still need ensure that the costs stick to the budget. This will definitely be a big headache. As you continue with the construction, you should run a construction cost estimate to help you manage costs and plan for changes in the design before it is way too late. The earlier you identify the changes that are needed, the more you are able to avoid additional expenses incurred by reworking work that has already been finished.

Remember that materials and labor costs can change during the course of the construction. That is why you should understand that an estimate is just that, an estimate. You will do well to prepare a reserve fund in the event that costs increase midway. Of course, a decrease in costs will work in your favor.

Construction estimating software is freely available and is an easy-to-use tool to help you manage your costs. However, you will still have to carefully go through your budget to ensure the successful completion of your dream home.