The world of construction is rapidly improving and new technological advancements are being made every single day. With this rise in the construction sector globally, there are some cities and places that are beginning to develop rapidly by utilizing these new construction techniques. We all know of Saudi Arabia as a country that is rich in oil and Islamic tourism. However, in recent times, the new regime of the country is diversifying its resources and focusing on construction to promote, boost, and help the tourism sector. For this, the special construction sector of MEP or Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing is growing rapidly. However, like every other construction service, the MEP system also faces some challenges and solutions to these are necessary to ensure a smooth workflow. So below, we discuss some of the top MEP challenges faced by construction contractors in Saudi Arabia and their probable solutions.
Challenge 1: Scheduling
One of the worst and most tiring challenges in any MEP project is the maintenance, recording, and following up on schedules. Scheduling is the project phase timeline as it is being updated. Appropriate schedules of any task about to begin, currently in the run, and completed are within the minds of field engineers, associates, and supervisors. However, the primary challenge is the actual transferring of data, and that too in factual form. Most supervisors or field associates do not translate the actual phase and this leads to certain problems from developing. For example, a supervisor may call a construction phase near completion whereas it may not be near that stage. The problem that arises is the procurement department may order and bring in resources for the next phase that then need to be stacked in stores, warehouses, or often under no roof.
Solution: The best possible solution for this problem is online contributing software where each department fills in their progress and every other department can easily track the scheduling progress.
Challenge 2: Communication Breakdown
Another key aspect of a project is communication between all departments and stakeholders. The former is important and necessary since it provides for the actual on-ground situation and where the project phase currently sits. The beauty of a communication system is that it allows all parties to provide solid input regarding any matter and allows each of those to gather their future tasks so everyone remains on the same page. Good communication is simple and easy and helps in project management greatly. However, whenever teams have to adapt to any changes or existing structural components, the same communication flow gets disrupted and needs to be revised but to no avail. This problem then leads to a permanent disruption and abandonment of communication flow and this is something that can trouble the project.
Solution: One of the best feasible solutions is to look for different ways to communicate and interaction that can help each team or department to stay in touch after the completion or beginning of their work as per their availability.
Challenge 3: Budget
Budget often seems to be going out of hand on different occasions or project phases. The primary reasons for these include miscommunication between project managers who have the actual cost scenarios of their departments. Often, project managers are unable to amount to minute budget management activities which leads to many miscalculations during budget meetings of a project. Budgets are devised before each phase and procurement is done based on that. It is found that the fabrication phase or activity provides the actual requirement of funds and utilization happens accordingly. However, when it comes to the installation of elements, budgets are not managed since many complexities and problems may come forward that need extra funds. Thus, the entire budget management cycle gets disrupted.
Solution: To combat this scenario, it is ideal to adopt and implement budget management tricks such as detailed pre-construction assessments, real-time cost tracking, and flexible budget strategies.
Challenge 4: Coordination
In any project, coordination between teams and departments is necessary since it allows all parties to be on the same page. Also, coordination between project phases allows easy management of activities and for each team to know where they fit in within the project. Furthermore, each team or department has to perform tasks at a specific time so the other team or task can thus go ahead in appropriate time. For this, each team needs to be in constant coordination but a problem does arise that often teams are given wrong instructions or are allowed to wait to let other teams finish their tasks. This halts the entire project system and often leads teams to not know what they must do next until the current or previous task is completed.
Solution: Building Information Modeling or BIM is the technology of the present to ensure that the entire project is present before your eyes. This allows each team to know their roles and the timeline which needs to be followed.
Conclusion
Project management is a great task and MEP construction services are also significantly high in demand. Given this scenario, many challenges continue to emerge and the mark of a professional MEP firm is to find solutions at each step to ensure that no time is lost and no hindrance is left unremoved during project operations.
