Willis's Practice and Procedure for the Quantity Surveyor (eBook)

Allan Ashworth, Catherine Higgs (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 14. Auflage
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-119-83214-0 (ISBN)

Infos

WILLIS'S PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE FOR THE QUANTITY SURVEYOR

The most up-to-date edition of the gold standard in introductory quantity surveying textbooks

In the newly revised Fourteenth Edition of Willis's Practice and Procedure for the Quantity Surveyor, the authors provide a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to the core skills required by quantity surveyors. This latest edition is thoroughly updated to emphasize the use of information technology in construction, and contains new pedagogical features, new learning outcomes, and key learning points that relate the material specifically to the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence (APC).

Historically employed to estimate and measure the likely material requirements for any building project, the role of the modern quantity surveyor is diverse and dynamic, with rapid change featuring across quantity surveying practice. The book echoes this dynamic environment, covering quantity surveying in private practice, public service, and in contracting organizations. Readers will also find:

• In-depth discussions of the use of IT in construction
• New and improved teaching and instruction features in the text, including new learning outcome sections and key learning points to highlight crucial concepts
• Tighter alignment with the requirements of the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence

Perfect for undergraduate students studying quantity surveying, Willis's Practice and Procedure for the Quantity Surveyor, 14th Edition is also an indispensable resource for practicing surveyors and inspectors seeking a one-stop handbook to the foundational principles of quantity surveying.

Allan Ashworth was a visiting professor at the University of Salford and the Senior Academic Advisor to the Centre for Education in the Built Environment. He was also a former HMI in the Department for Education and Employment.

Catherine Higgs is Associate Head of Faculty for Construction at the University College of Estate Management. She has over 25 years' experience teaching Quantity Surveying.

Inhalt

Preface



Chapter-1: The Work of the Quantity Surveyor



Chapter-2: Digital Technologies



Chapter-3: Organisations and Management



Chapter-4: The Quantity Surveyor and the Law



Chapter-5: Cost Control



Chapter-6: Whole Life Costing



Chapter-7: Value Management



Chapter-8: Risk Management



Chapter-9: Procurement



Chapter-10: Contract Documentation



Chapter-11: Preparation of Contract Bills



Chapter-12: Cost Management



Chapter-13: Final Accounts



Chapter-14: Insolvency



Chapter-15: Contractual Disputes



Chapter-16: Project Management



Chapter-17: Project Management



Chapter-18: Sustainability in the Built Environment

Textauszug

1
The Work of the Quantity Surveyor

KEY CONCEPTS

• The role of the quantity surveyor (QS)
• The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
• Skills, knowledge and behaviours of the QS
  • Ethical decision making
• QS education
• Life long learning

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• Understand the role of the quantity surveyor
• Understand the role of the RICS
• Appreciate the knowledge, skills, and behaviours of a QS
• Appreciate the need for life long learning to continual enhance knowledge and skills to meet the needs of industry.

COMPETENCIES

Competencies covered in this chapter:

• Ethics, Rules of Conduct and professionalism

Introduction

In 1971, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) published a report titled The Future Role of the Quantity Surveyor, which defined the work of the quantity surveyor as:

‘…ensuring that the resources of the construction industry are utilised to the best advantage of society by providing, inter alia, the financial management for projects and a cost consultancy service to the client and designer during the whole construction process’.

The report sought to identify the distinctive competencies or skills of the quantity surveyor associated with measurement and valuation in the wider aspects of the construction industry. This provides the basis for the proper cost management of the construction project in the context of forecasting, analysing, planning, controlling and accounting. Many reading this will reflect that this is no longer an adequate description of the work of the quantity surveyor.

Since the report there have been major drivers for change across the construction sector and quantity surveyors now balance the traditional skills of cost expertise with responding to the changing demands in the sector. The needs of clients have changed markedly over the last 50 years. The large regular‐procuring clients of the construction industry are increasingly pursuing innovative approaches to the way in which their projects are planned, designed and delivered to facilitate their business strategies. They tend to work more closely with a smaller number of organisations and more closely with their supply chains to maximise value and achieve continuous improvement in performance both of their construction processes and buildings when in use. Advances in digital technologies have had a profound impact on how quantity surveyors operate, their function and the scope and breath of the services they provide. Large practices have responded to the needs of a global market and, over the last decade, there has been an increase in both multidisciplinary and multinational surveying organisations. Quantity surveying practices have diversified in response to government strategies; the most influential being those that address reducing greenhouse gases and improving efficiency within the industry. Pre‐2020 these drivers of change were relatively steady, but the global pandemic has accelerated these changes. This chapter seeks both to show how the quantity surveyor role has evolved and the need for continuous enhancement of knowledge and skills.

Characteristics of the construction industry

The total value of the construction new work output in the UK is in the region of 5% of GDP or £116 bn per annum of expenditure (Office for National Statistics 2021). The industry offers direct employment to around two million people and to others in supporting occupations. In addition, many UK firms and practices, including quantity surveyors, have an international perspective through offices overseas or through associations with firms abroad. There has, for example, been an increasing and expanding role of activities on mainland Europe. Approximately 80% of the UK workload is on building projects as distinct from engineering and infrastructure works. New construction projects account for about 64% of the workload of the industry (2022). The repair and maintenance sector will remain an important component for the foreseeable future as clients place greater emphasis upon the improved long‐term management of such major capital assets.

The industry is characterised by the following:

• The physical nature of the product
• The product is normally manufactured on the client’s premises, i.e. the construction site
• Many of its projects are one‐off designs in the absence of a prototype model
• The traditional arrangement separates design from manufacture
• It produces investment rather than consumer goods
• It is subject to wider swings of activity than most other industries
• Its activities are affected by the vagaries of the weather
• Its processes include a complex mixture of different materials, skills and trades
• Typically, throughout the world, it includes a small number of relatively large construction firms and a very large number of small firms

Construction sectors

Quantity surveying offers a diverse range of employment opportunities, within the construction industry, both within the UK and globally. Quantity surveyors are involved in the following four main areas of work.

Building work

The employment of the quantity surveyor on building projects today is well established. The introduction of new forms of contract and changes in procedures continue to alter the way in which quantity surveyors carry out their duties and responsibilities. They also occupy a much more influential position than in the past, particularly when they are involved at the outset of a project.

Quantity surveyors are the cost and value experts of the construction industry. Their responsibilities include advising clients on the cost and value implication of design decisions and the controlling of construction costs. Great importance is now attached to the management of costs in relation to whole life costing. Work within this sector not only relates to new work but to refurbishment of the existing building stock.

Building engineering services

Whilst building services installations are very much a part of the building project, it has tended to become a specialist function for the M & E quantity surveyor, especially on large complex projects. As greater consideration is given to the energy efficiency of systems and alternative sustainable technologies the professional advice from quantity surveyors in this sector will become increasingly influential in project design decisions. Quantity surveyors employed in this discipline have had to become more conversant with the science, technology and terminology of engineering services in order to interpret engineering drawings correctly.

Civil engineering

It is difficult to define the line of demarcation between building and civil engineering works. The nature of civil engineering works often requires a design solution to take into account physical and geological problems that can be very complex. The scope, size and extent of civil engineering works are also frequently considerable. The problems encountered can have a major impact on the cost of the solution, and the engineer must be able to provide an acceptable one within the limits of an agreed budget, in a similar way that buildings are cost planned within cost limits. However, because of their nature, civil engineering works can involve a large amount of uncertainty and temporary works can be considerable, representing a significant part of the budget.

Civil engineering projects use different methods of measurement and different forms and conditions of contract are also used. These to some extent represent the different perception of civil engineering works. The work is more method‐related than building works, with a much more intensive use of mechanical plant and temporary works. Bills of quantities, for example, comprise large quantities of comparatively few items. Because much of the work involved is at or below ground level, the quantities are normally approximate, with a full remeasurement of the work that is actually carried out.

Quantity surveyors working in the civil engineering industry provide similar services to those of their counterparts working on building projects.

Heavy and industrial engineering

This work includes such areas as onshore and offshore oil and gas, petrochemicals, nuclear reprocessing and production facilities, process engineering, power stations, steel plants and other similar industrial engineering complexes. Quantity surveyors have been involved in this type of work for a great number of years, and as a result of changing circumstances within these industries a greater emphasis is also being placed on value for money. In an industry that employs a large number of specialists, quantity surveyors, with their practical background, commercial sense, cost knowledge and legal understanding, have much to offer.

Private and contractors quantity surveyors

As well as specialised by project type, quantity surveyor’s role can have either a client focus or work for a contracting organisation. Those working in the public or private sector on behalf of clients are known as Private Quantity Surveyors, referred to as a ‘PQS’ or the clients QS and those working for a main contractor or subcontractor are Contractors...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.3.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Bauwesen
• Schlagworte: Baubetrieb • Bauingenieur- u. Bauwesen • Bauökonomie • Civil Engineering & Construction • Construction Management • information technology in construction • introduction to quantity surveying • it in construction • Massenermittlung u. Bauökonomie • Quantity Surveying & Construction Economics • quantity surveying information technology • Quantity surveying introduction • quantity surveying it • Rics • rics apc • rics assessment of professional competence
• ISBN-10: 1-119-83214-4 / 1119832144
• ISBN-13: 978-1-119-83214-0 / 9781119832140