Quantity Surveyor (QS) is a very resourceful and extremely trained design specialist who works in the construction industry because of his extensive abilities to work in multiple positions relevant to a building project. He can also play as an administrator of contracts, contract managers, commercial managers, project managers, and arbitrators.
Main Categories in Role of Quantity Surveyor
As I have found, the position of the quantity surveyor in the literature survey can be divided into two key categories.
- Traditional Role
- Evolved Role
Traditional Role: The Quantity Surveyor’s conventional position is focused primarily on the calculation and valuation (estimation) techniques. Again this traditional Quantity Surveyor role can be classified as Consultant Contractor and Pre-Contract Post-Contract. The surveyor would then plan volume charges, partial fees, and final reports. Much of the time the mechanism was reactive but essential and significant.
The position of a quantity surveyor, according to the conventional term, is restricted to the organizations and activities of Building and Contractor. The typical position of surveyor of quantities as defined by some writers as follows:
- Document preparation, especially bills of quantities
- Cost control during construction
- Preparation of single rate approximate estimate
- Prepare Cost planning
- Procurement advice
- Measurements and quantifications
- Project management-Quantity Surveyor job
- Financial Statements
- Tendering & Estimating
- Settlement of Contractual Claims
Single Rate Approximate Estimate: The task of the Quantity Surveyor in the initial stage of the project is to prepare a Single Rate Approximate Estimate / Preliminary Estimate based on the primary information given by the client and planner. This rough calculation is very relevant to consumer expenditure for project preparation. Two preliminary estimation techniques exist, such as,
- Single rate approximate estimate
- Multiple-rate approximate estimate
Cost planning: If the expected estimated estimation falls beyond his purse cap and certain considerations are taken into account, the employer may order the Engineer / Architect to continue with the production of the necessary drawings and other tender papers.
The Quantity Surveyor has another important role throughout this time, called cost planning and pre-contract cost managing. The same methods are considered for managing costs.
Cost planning is aimed at giving good value for money with improved standards of the economy. Constant control of the cost accounting would allow us to raise the chance of overspending at the initial level of the project. The customer or management should then take disciplinary steps early.
1) Elemental cost planning
2) Comparative cost planning
3) Cost plan in use.
Procurement Advice: Procurement is described as the cycle from finishing the design until the building is successfully handed over. This is also the financial and mutual relations between the partners. There are several forms of sourcing within the building sector. Consequently, advising on choosing a procurement system is a very important activity in Quantity Surveyor’s position.
For example, the conventional approach – Employer plan, design & development, contract management, construction management, design & management, etc.
The quantity surveyor in the design department will guide the customer about the most appropriate direction of acquisition, depending on the key criteria of the project.
- Time (Speed of construction)
- Quality (Quality of building, Type of project, Design, Alternative materials)
- Cost (Financial aspects, Apportionment of risk and price certainty)
Measurement and quantification contributing to Bill of Quantities: The Bill of Amounts is a paper consisting of a collection of correctly defined work objects coupled with the precise quantities of relevant units or money assignments shown in agreed order under various trades to signify the full reach of a project’s operations.
A Quantity Surveyor would have to plan it in compliance with the guidelines and suggestions set out in one of the reputed Normal System of Measurements. To provide uniform information on the quantities of work to enable tenders to be prepared in an efficient and accurate manner.
Help Apple employers/consultants to compare the Tender. When a contract has been entered into, provide for the use of the priced Bill of Quantities in the evaluation of the work carried out under the original scope and use it as a basis for the evaluation of any future varied work.
Cost Control During Construction: Post-contract cost management during the design process is the “Real-time” cost control. This helps with ensuring that the actual expenditures still come under the target.
Project management-Quantity Surveyor job: Quantity Surveyors are aiming in current practice to play a more PM-active position in cost accounting rather than merely focusing on the expense of design proposals. Indeed, the stricter time and cost-constrained clients are appointing quantity surveyors as lead consultants, thus allowing cost planning to drive design and enabling the implementation of good cost management principles.
Nevertheless, it is often rare for quantity surveyors to be named early enough to play a crucial role in the early stages of a project. Cost management and advisory services are often seen as the leading QS service with growth potential among Quantity Surveyor positions.
Financial Statements: In the framework of a Quantity Surveyor’s job he will file many project-related financial statements. There are many financial statements that a Quantity Surveyor could make such as Expenditure Statement, Variation accounts, Day Work accounts, etc.
Preparation/ Tender (Bid) Documents:
- General Conditions of Contract
- Special Specifications of work
- Tender Drawings
- Pricing Preambles
- Invitation for bids (Tender notice) – IFB
- Instruction to tenders/bidders – ITB
- Form of tender
- Bill of Quantities/Schedule of Rates
- Specimen Standard Forms (Bonds & Guarantees)
- Special Conditions of Contract
- Form of contract
- General Specifications of work
Tendering & Estimating: Estimating and tendering Planning project costs Calling tenders, Opening tenders, offer appraisal depending on the specified calculation, Preparing offer reports are to be performed by the quantity surveyor of the architect/contract administrator were calculating and translating scientifically formulated figures to tender after consideration by the quantity surveyor of the contractor of different factors.
Settlement of Contractual Claims: As of certain factors such as environmental and ecological changes, technological challenges, economic and political concerns, etc., the project would be delayed by in the building phase. No one needs to ask whether the work is stopped. If an intrusion happens it gives rise to an argument.
Evolved Role: A quantity surveyor’s position is growing and being broadened to keep up with shifting market forces. Due to the competitive nature of the market and increasing consumer demands, the conventional position of quantity surveying, seen as calculation and quantity payment, has been dwindling. The quantity surveyor’s emphasis remains firmly on the business operations side and there has been a steady shift in the reach of the consultants’ services.
Modern Quantity Surveying Practices
Modern Quantity Surveying Practices
- Value Engineering.
- Insolvency services.
- Cost engineering services.
- Technical auditing.
- Facility Management.
- Sustainable Construction.
- Advice on cost limits and budgets.
Value Engineering: Value Engineering may be characterized as a structured approach to delivering the required functions at the lowest cost From the beginning, the idea of value engineering was seen as an exercise in cost evaluation, and did not impact the product quality. An upgrade or finish should not be deemed a pure exclusion as performance engineering.
Insolvency services: Other than even an own share of bankruptcies and liquidations, the building sector is liable. Registered partnership corporations go delinquent and eventually end in liquidation. He can help conduct the insolvency services with the specialist expertise of the Quantity Surveyor in expense.
Cost engineering services: Cost engineering is a field of engineering research that deals with “application of theoretical concepts and methods to cost forecasting, cost reduction, market strategy, and financial sciences, performance analysis, project finance, and preparation and scheduling problems.”
Technical auditing: A technical audit is an audit carried out expertly by an auditor, engineer, or subject matter who evaluates deficiencies or areas of improvement in a process, system, or proposal Technical audit covers the technical aspect of the project carried out within the organization.
Audit of Construction Projects:
Organizing Construction Project Management.
• Process of Design and Construction.
• Utilization of Resources.
• Project Cost.
• Method of Contracting and Pricing.
• Planning and Scheduling Procedure.
• Project Control and Monitoring.
• Cost Control and Accounting.
• Quality Control and Safety Procedure.
• Project Usage and Management Organization.
Facility Management: Some of the easiest and most straightforward meanings of facility management is that offered by the Royal Institution of Chartered Quantity Surveyors, which notes that FM includes the complete control of all the facilities that sustain an organization’s operation and describes the possibilities that this fairly recent specialty provides to the Quantity Survey profession.
Sustainable Construction: The way constructed structures are procured and installed, used and managed, preserved and restored, modernized and rehabilitated and reclaimed or destroyed and recycled is the whole life cycle of sustainable building activities.’
What is sustainable construction?
Sustainable architecture strives to reduce a building’s environmental effects over its whole lifespan, thus maximizing its economic feasibility and its inhabitants’ comfort and health.
Advice on cost limits and budgets: There’s one thing that’s definite, you need a well-defined budget when you’re entering into a real estate investment that involves construction. You don’t want the numbers to be ballparking particularly if you are trying to plan to fund for the building to be carried out. It’s important you realize the boundaries of the building project. Unless you don’t otherwise you could wind up with a half-completed house that has little resources to go on and end up in the most catastrophic financial condition.