Quantity and Cost Control

How well are quantities and costs actually monitored and controlled on a construction project? How transparent is the information produced and how it can be verified with ease and accuracy? There are very elaborate project control systems in use, but do they really produce accurate, undisputable information and reports to top management?

A potential client of mine once showed me their project control system which they had worked on for a few months to produce. It looked quite impressive, but looking at it from quantity and cost control point of view, I asked a question: “How can you verify that the quantity information put in to the system is correct?”. The response was complete silence.

This brings us to the root of the problem of quantity and cost management.

Let’s consider quantity information, as this is the basis for cost management. If we don’t control quantities, how can we control costs? This is applicable especially in unit price contracts. Research into cost control comes to the conclusion that cost overflows are not reported until very late in the project.

The accuracy of quantity control and reporting is dependent on the information produced. But how can top management check that the information is correct? Is the information transparent and foolproof? Apparently not, as so often the budget overflows are not realized until it is too late to react to them.

With the development of 3D building information modeling (BIM) combined with quantity information management (QIM), quantity and cost progress can be monitored and controlled in real-time, with accuracy and with transparency. Discrepancies, cost overflows and problems are seen earlier and steps can be taken to rectify them or at least minimize the consequences.

The key issue is that quantity and cost information is monitored on as-it-happens basis and as-built quantity surveying is done in line with progress on site. Accurate quantity control can provide numerous benefits to the project as it is the basis for cost management, schedule management, procurement, logistics and resourcing. The more accuracy used and more importance given to it, the better the results: a better managed project.