Quantity Surveying is one of the intricate services we provide to our clients, and we understand that this is where transparency and awareness with all parties should be ensured and defined.
Through our extensive experience working in large-scale projects as quantity surveyors, we have deduced on the elements that make up a successful outcome, as well as the common traps and pitfalls that we need to avoid. Here is a list of five of the most common of these pitfalls and how we at KEN International manage to overcome them.
“Taking it Lightly”
We have seen engineering teams prepare BOQ documents which may cause confusion and misunderstandings to the collaborating companies in the long term. This is mainly due to the fact that many believe that quantity surveying is something that you “submit and forget about”. They simply take it lightly, wrongfully believing that its only purpose is to win a collaboration contract.
We, at Ken International, understand that BOQ concerns both the pre-contract stage and the post-contract stage. We prepare different sections for the involved architects, consultants, clients, other QS engineers, and contractors, and we use standard and internationally recognized templates that maintain a clear level of information to all relevant parties. In the post-contract stage, our BOQ serves as an administration and payment progress evaluation, risk factor evaluation tool, and a legal document of utmost importance. That being said, we pay attention to the construction, building codes, and OSHA laws/regulations that underpin the planned work, and we prepare our documents with respect to and compliance with these.
“Not Paying Attention to the Details”
We have seen surveying work that doesn’t define the scope of the work clearly, based on inadequately planned estimates which result in duplicate items, missing specifications, and often including that vague and almost frightening “overhead construction costs” that can even constitute up to 20% of the total project cost.
When we do the quantity surveying, we leave no gray areas in the scope of the work, the specifications, the estimates, and all the planning details that are required for the achievement of an absolutely accurate result. We call for meetings with the stakeholders to clarify all of the above before proceeding any further, so the scope of the work is thoroughly defined even in the cases of varying scopes. Moreover, the “construction overhead” is analyzed and detailed, as it is part of the cost estimation and efficiency application for us. That said, we estimate, evaluate, and try to optimize it accordingly through preliminary proposals.
“Being Subjective”
Quantity Surveyors are often plagued by subjectivity, and this is understandable as biased thinking is part of human nature. This leads to inaccurate decisions and poor engineering practices, not based on proper facts.
For us, success can only be manifested as absolute efficiency in terms of cost and time. For this reason, we evaluate our collaborators, material suppliers, part vendors, equipment renting agencies, and all contractors and subcontractors on a new basis every time. Of course, we keep record and take into account successful collaborations of the past, but this is only one factor of our judgment when evaluating the optimal decisions for each project. This way, we are maintaining our efficiency, our ethical conduct and objectiveness with our clients.
“Not Keeping Up with the Latest Developments”
Many Quantity Surveyors out there think that their previous experience alone is enough for them to excel in their professional field, and up to a certain point in time they were right. However, technological developments are shaping the world that we live in, and quantity surveying is not left out of this.
Simply put, our Quantity Surveyors attend seminars, workshops, conferences and online training courses throughout the year. We are constantly keeping up to date with the latest developments, cutting-edge tools, and most advanced methodologies used in quantity surveying. That way we ensure we are always one step ahead and ready to transpose this benefit to our clients. RICS, CPD in Surveying, QS 2018, BIM, and FIDIC are a couple of certification examples achieved by our employers during the past two years.
“A One Person Job”
Engineering is all about sharing knowledge and strengthening our understanding, but unfortunately, many players in this field avoid sharing knowledge or seeking advice from others. This leads to informational stagnation, low decisional performance, as well as professional isolation.
At Ken International, we maintain a large network of collaborators, partners and associates who are experienced experts in their respective fields. This enables us to take insightful information on specific issues regarding quantity surveying, gather and evaluate relevant data beforehand, and finally anticipate and foresee all kinds of risks.
