The role of construction managers is not simple or easy to handle, particularly when it comes to construction resource management. They must manage the vibrant resources used to complete a project, including the labor. Every project manager must have a high level of resource planning and management skills to improve the quality of results. However, it is not as easy as it seems, especially because there are multiple resources in the construction industry. If you are also looking for a strategy that can make resource management in construction easy for you, Read more!

What is Construction Resource Management?

Construction resource management is one of the most crucial steps to ensure favourable results with optimum utilization of resources. Completing a construction project requires many resources, such as raw materials, equipment, and workers’ skills. Handling many things increases the chances of mistakes that generate extra costs for the managers. The main aim of resource management in construction is to plan and execute the usage of construction resources to achieve the project’s objectives successfully.

Effective resource management in construction starts with identifying the project resources required to complete the project successfully. Once you acquire all the resources, it is time to allocate them while ensuring their utilization effectively. Here, it is essential to know that, by resources, we mean not only finance and equipment but also a skilled team member with the right knowledge and experience to handle a construction project.

Importance of Construction Resource Management

The value of effective resource management in construction is immense in ensuring project success. It empowers you with real-time control over the outcome, enabling you to complete projects at the right time and within budget. Imagine the difference it could make to your projects, bringing stability and making resource allocations and bottleneck situations manageable. 

On the other hand, having a thorough understanding of effective resource management will give you the upper hand. It will help you develop a strategy or layout for the project to ensure you achieve all the objectives as smoothly as possible. It also enhances the project’s transparency and stability and helps you explore the best potential of the workers.  

What Types of Resources Are Managed in Construction?

Before diving deeper into developing the right strategy for effective resource management in construction, it’s essential to have a thorough understanding of the resources included. We have already discussed the diverse resource needs that every manager has to meet for successful competition of a construction project; here are a few significant examples of it:

• Raw Materials: It includes vibrant things ranging from woods, metals, cement, bricks, and even water. All these things are essential to complete a construction project. The project manager is responsible for keeping the quality and quantity of raw materials in check and allocating or relocating them at the right time.
• Equipment: A vibrant range of equipment is involved in a construction project. The bigger the scale, budget, and time allotted to a project, the heavier the equipment. A few of the equipment generally seen on a construction site are cranes, bulldozers, and more.
• Labor: Your workforce is the most essential resource you need to complete a construction project successfully and effectively. It includes a wide range of people, from architects to engineers. All these people pour their skills, knowledge, and experience to support the project managers in achieving the objectives on time and within the budget.
• Facilities: If you want to bring the best out of your human resources, you must also provide them with the best facilities. It includes the essential and unique amenities to improve the working environment for the people. Facilities also include the technological tools that can make the work of human resources a lot easier.
• Financial Resources: Money in the form of liquid cash or assets is the lifeblood of every construction project. It is used to purchase raw materials and equipment and provide salaries to human resources. Running a construction project within the budget is an important task that defines success for every project manager.

Advantages of Effective Resource Management in Construction

The various resources involved in completing a construction project might seem a bit difficult for you. However, you can resolve your problems through just one process. The benefits of Resource management in construction for a project manager are as follows:

• Offers Optimized CIP Delivery: Resource management effectively handles the construction work in progress for incomplete projects. It helps you ensure you are not avoiding any important project while working on multiple things.
• Improves Financial Performance: It involves automating the scheduling process related to every resource. It helps save money and improve financial performance by effectively planning and deploying resources.
• Optimizes Resource Utilization: It ensures that no resource is wasted or overestimated, affecting the project’s performance and ensuring optimum resource utilization.
• Prioritizes Transparency: It includes several resource management software, which creates excellent transparency in every project and is free from human bias and window dressing.
• Effective decision-making: Construction resources management helps you make decisions based on facts and insights rather than intuition, which results in effective decision-making.
• Sustainable Practices: Resource management in construction includes tracking and reducing carbon footprints and promoting sustainable construction practices. Through this, the manager ensures they achieve their objectives without adjusting to the well-being of the environment and community.

Methods of Construction Resource Management

As construction resources management is a strategic approach to derive maximum efficiency while utilizing any resources in a project, it includes several methods, techniques, and processes that you can apply.

Method 1 – Data-Based Link to Project Cost and Schedule: In this method of resources management, the general contractors use the data stored of past projects to derive effective decisions about the acquisitions and utility of resources.

Method 2 – Based on Project Complexity: Every company is the same, and not every project within an organization will have the exact requirements. Resources management in construction offers a customized approach to every project, tailored to its specifications.

Method 3 – Resource Loaded Time Optimization: Through this method, you can align your resource familiarity, acquisition, and utility with the project timelines. An effective and efficient project is completed under a specified budget and timeline. Resources management in construction offers an aligned approach to managing the resources according to the time needed in the project and derive maximum optimization.

Steps for Effective Resource Management in Construction

Seeing management’s great importance in ensuring effective resource utilization, every manager should have a strategic layout of how they will approach it. If you don’t have a specific strategy, you can follow the given steps:

• Method Selection: the approach and method you want to use for a specific capital project. Your decision must be based on the requirements during project planning.
• Resource Identification and Allocation: Identify the resources required to complete a project successfully. Once you decide on the resources, you must determine their allocation at different project stages.
• Capacity Planning: Planning and checking out the capacity of the resources to secure your team from bottlenecks is crucial. Make sure that you have planned the resources according to their complete requirements. 
• Resource Leveling: Resource leveling is a crucial step you must take throughout the project. Deploying the required resources at the right time throughout the project is essential.
• Implement Software to Help with Resource Management: Technology integration is crucial to resource management in construction. You must use tools and software that can enhance the management and utilization of the resources.
• Training and Development: As resource management in construction integrates technology and unique methods to manage the resources, continuous training and development is crucial. You must support your team in filling the skill gap and helping them to derive the best results.
• Communication and Collaboration: Lastly, establishing effective communication and collaboration throughout the project is important. It is not only because you are handling human resources, which plays an active role in the project, but also to ensure that every requirement is being met to achieve objectives successfully.
• Regular Reviews: The project’s progress should be reviewed regularly. Establish open and smooth communication with the workers to get their insights and improve resource management. Regular reviews will help you ensure that you are moving in the right direction.

Conclusion

The significance of proper resource management in real-time is invaluable for every manager. We have highlighted that implementing technological tools and software can make resource management in construction process more accessible. Process automation will help you focus on important things rather than struggling with the basics. It also reduces the chances of mistakes. Now that you have an appropriate strategy, you can ensure effective resource management and achieve the project’s objectives on time.

FAQs

Q: What is resource management in construction?

A: Resource management in construction is planning the use of construction resources to achieve the project’s objectives successfully.

Q: What is human resource management in construction?

A: Human resource management in construction revolves around staffing, retaining, and facilitating the workforce to complete the project efficiently and efficiently. It includes managing a wide range of stakeholders, from architects to engineers.

Q: What is the difference between Resource Management in Construction and Construction Workforce Management?

A: Resource management in construction involves planning all significant resources to make a project successful. In contrast, construction workforce management involves handling the human resources to make the project successful.

Q: What is an example of Construction Resource Management?

A: One of the significant examples of construction resource management is keeping equipment in check. You first need to analyze the equipment required to complete a project and then ensure that you have everything in the right condition. If something happens to the equipment during the project, you should also be able to resolve it as quickly as possible.