The aim of the elective course is to provide knowledge and skills within contractors’ roles and deliverables in a construction project, in general, and performed specifically in the pre-construction planning stage. Students will gain a detailed insight and skills in advanced planning and production techniques, management and organizational procedures and processes, along with other known fields within construction management.

The pre-construction stage, following the tender stage with a main contractor or subcontractors, indicates the start of construction contracts, regardless the project procurement applied. This stage involves a variety of actors in the project. At the start-up meeting, designers, contractors and even manufacturer representatives will get a full insight of the key actors and their roles and liabilities for performing site management – both from the client site and the contractor’s side. The management team and their deliverables from the contractor’s side will be though the focus of the course.

Project managers in this stage will deliver overall planning and management regarding the main economy, time, and quality requirements in the project. Construction managers will deliver detailed planning of the same, by using a variety of traditional or advanced techniques for production methods, risks analysis, site logistics, work environment, quality management, costing and scheduling. Aside such planning deliverables, construction managers will deal with contracts administration for subcontractors, suppliers and manufacturers and will use optimal tools for communication with the client, consultants, suppliers. Such techniques and deliverables are not dealt with in core semester teaching.
The course will also address how the construction management team plans for contingencies, expected during construction, and assesses the use of mitigation means for such unforeseen events

- Core features, trends, and current development issues in the contractor sector
- Complexity of construction planning in relation to economy, time and quality
constraints
- Complexity of contract types and administration in the construction stage

- Procurement-specific project flow, with focus on the pre-construction stage
- Role and deliverables of a main contractor or design-build contractor in the project
- Roles and deliverables of designers, subcontractors, and suppliers in the stage
- Production management techniques - Traditional and Lean methods
- Site Coordination – regarding meeting types, scopes and participants
- Risk analysis and management techniques
- Construction Budget estimate using advanced 5D BIM techniques
- Construction Scheduling using advanced 4D BIM techniques by alternative scheduling
methods, such as Location Based Scheduling
- Construction schedule types, management and relation to Payments setup
- Quality management procedures and roles
- Heath and safety management and organization
- Construction technology analysis and choice - regarding heavy equipment usage
- Site logistics – regarding detailed site arrangements, advanced orderings and deliveries
logistics
- Application of the AB general conditions, where needed
- Communication technologies between contractors and the rest of the project team

- Command over project flow layouts in various procurement types - regarding design,
construction tender and construction - identifying core actors, their liabilities and
deliverables in these stages
- Command over the scope, process and techniques for detailed estimating and
scheduling of construction works
- Command over site logistics, regarding site establishment and operation, deliveries
logistics and health and safety aspects
- Basic competence in assessing and comparing the pre-construction planning against
other planning activities for construction undertaken during design stages