A typical day in the life of a residential building supervisor begins at 5 am. Sometimes this may be earlier depending on the travel distance required to attend the first meeting of the day or visit the first job site. Having loaded the car the previous night with additional building and WH&S safety signs to replace those found missing during the day’s run, sights are then set on coffee number one for the day.

To manage your time effectively as a site supervisor constructing multiple houses simultaneously, you must have a plan of attack. My plan of attack, as taught to me and evolved to suit my own nuances, was quite simple. On Monday and Tuesday, your aim is to visit every house you have under construction. During these visits, you note who is on-site, the current progress of the job, what materials need to be called for delivery, if the house is lockable, if there is any damage to the house or if anything has been stolen, and if trades have completed their job properly since you were last on-site. Does any paperwork, work orders, or site instructions need to be left on-site?

Most of these items would be handled with a telephone call, email, or a note in the diary for later faxing (yep, we used em alot). I would also walk around the external perimeter of the house clockwise on the first visit, observing all external details and picking up any rubbish. The next time you visit, walk the external perimeter counter-clockwise. I found that changing the direction of travel often helps you notice things due to the change of perspective.

During your Monday and Tuesday site visits, it is important to catch up with each tradesman on-site to check their progress, see who has started since last week, and find out when they will be finished. The reason to do this is so you will be able to allocate accurately at your next labour allocation, knowing where and when your trade base will move to next. This is also an extremely important part of site supervision because this information, along with your individual site progress chart, is passed onto head office to facilitate progress claims with clients and approve subcontractor payment claims for work completed.

Failure to take this information seriously is the biggest underlying problem with the progress of construction and the cash flow of the builder a site supervisor works for.

It is important to note that there are severe repercussions for fudging this information (progress reporting). The main repercussion is that if incorrect dates are provided to head office and they in turn claim from the client a progress claim that has not happened, the builder can be held in breach of contract. There would also be issues of trust between the builder and client given the client would know exactly what stage their own home is at in the construction process, and the builder is trying to claim something that has not happened. Questions would then be raised about why they are doing this. Does the builder have cash flow issues? Is the builder spending more money than they are receiving in order to pay suppliers? The mind wanders with questions all because your fudging the numbers.

You also need to consider the perspective of the staff working at the builder's head office. They do not visit the site and are unable to see the progress of each job under construction. Head office construction administration gets a phenomenal amount of phone calls from clients, and they rely on the accuracy of this information to answer clients' questions. To fabricate the progress information is to sabotage the jobs of all concerned in the head office who deal with this information.

On returning from the site visits on Tuesday afternoon, preparation begins to analyse the information that has been collected. To start with, most building companies have multiple supervisors. Each supervisor will be sharing in a common trade base used by the construction company. This trade base will consist of preferred contractors brought to the company by each construction supervisor.

Each supervisor builds his own trade base through the years by trying trades, working with them, and judging the quality of their work based on their and their company's standards. Often when judging the quality of a trade's work, three points need to be considered. The first is the speed of the trade. The second most important consideration is the quality of their work. The third and final point of judgement is the cost of the completed work.

Wednesday each week is normally the day that most building companies allocate to subcontract labour meetings. The purpose of this meeting is for each building supervisor to share the exact details of where each subcontractor currently working on a site managed by that supervisor is progress-wise and what date they will be finished. This list is compiled by each building supervisor submitting the night before, to a meeting moderator, his progress chart. The progress chart visually lists each job being managed, the trade allocated/working on that job, their start and finish date, as well as each new job and its required start date.

The contract start date is without a doubt the most important piece of information on this chart. It is utterly imperative that each building supervisor ensures that this date is filled in and then transferred as the job progresses through the chart. The reason for this is that there will be many jobs vying for the same trade. Rather than the labour meeting falling (as they can easily do) into a shouting match or a pissing competition, this one date can bring about sanity and reason to the job at hand. How so, you may ask? By ensuring this date is filled in when the list of jobs for each trade is assessed, the job with the oldest start date is the first job to get the next available trade.

Why this is so important is that often, given the nature of project building sites, one builder may be building many houses in the same estate. Clients have an extremely keen eye and certainly know who their neighbours are and when they deposited on their site. If they don’t know, they will soon find out from the land salesman these details. So, if the contract date is ignored, and because one building supervisor is shouted down by another, or seniority or anything else comes into play during the labour meeting, a job with a later contract start date may push ahead of a job with an earlier start date. This can be disastrous for the building supervisor and certainly the building administration team. Once this happens, the client is often disgruntled for the remainder of construction.

Just a note about this point. In a building manager's position, they will certainly have access to some type of summary chart (roll-up reporting) showing where every site under construction is at, progress-wise. If one project seems to be steam rolling ahead of all others, questions would certainly have to be asked.

One of the difficult aspects of project building management is making sure that houses are built in sequence to be fair to each and every client. This fairness ensures that all clients feel valued and their projects are given equal attention, avoiding potential conflicts and dissatisfaction.

Managing Unexpected Challenges

Despite careful planning, unexpected challenges can arise. Weather conditions, delays in material delivery, and unforeseen site issues can disrupt the schedule. As a site supervisor, it’s crucial to remain flexible and adaptable. Regularly updating your progress charts and maintaining open communication with your trades and head office can mitigate the impact of these challenges.

In such situations, transparency with the client is key. Keeping them informed about any delays and the steps being taken to address them helps maintain trust and manage their expectations.

A proactive approach in dealing with problems not only ensures smoother operations but also strengthens client relationships.

Conclusion

Effective site supervision is a blend of carfeul planning, robust time management, and clear communication. By adhering to structured site visits, maintaining accurate progress charts, and fostering a cooperative environment among trades, a site supervisor can ensure the smooth progression of multiple construction projects.

This systematic approach not only enhances the efficiency of the construction process but also upholds the builder’s reputation and client satisfaction.

In summary, the role of a site supervisor is both challenging and rewarding. It demands a keen eye for detail, exceptional organisational skills, and the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.

By following the strategies outlined in this article, supervisors can navigate the complexities of residential building projects and deliver quality homes to satisfied clients.