Assessment Report Leatty Shanghai

In the 'Word it out' post below, I have already showed you the most important words that I have used in my assessment report for Leatty Shanghai. However, you haven't even seen this report! I handed it in last week, so I can post it online now.

I think I wrote quite a nice report here. I have been looking closely at all the comments I got on my last report and I have tried to follow the guidelines on Nestor (our digital learning environment) as well as possible. We will probably receive our feedback (and grade!) somewhere this week. I am looking forward to that and I will post it as soon as I receive it.





In this assessment report, I was one of the project managers of a construction project in Shanghai. A building was being constructed by us (Ni Hao Building Corporation Ltd.) for Leatty, a Canadian firm. It was designed by a German company. However, there had been a lot of delays and communication problems in phase one of the project. Therefore, we had to meet with the project managers of Leatty to discuss how we could improve our working methods for the following phases. Here is the result!

The construction site in Shaghai. As you can see, there is a lot of work to do!


Leatty Shanghai Construction Project Assessment Report

To: The Board of Directors of Ni Hao Building Corporation Ltd.
From: Peter J. Sijbrandij – Project Manager Leatty Shanghai construction project
Date: 10-01-2012
Subject: Assessment regarding construction problems

Introduction

On 20 December 2011, Ni Hao’s project team met with representatives of Leatty to discuss the issues concerning the Shanghai construction project. This report will clarify the measures that need to be taken to ensure better communication among stakeholders within this project. It is known that several major problems have arisen during phase one of this project, including problems with suppliers, adjustments to the design and, most importantly, communication issues. Below you will find the recommendations from the project management team in relation to these problems.

Information exchange

To improve communication among all parties, Leatty is going to ensure that members from the German architectural bureau and German engineers will be sent to the site in Shanghai. The Canadians agreed with us that communication was the biggest problem in this project. They will therefore send employees to the project site in order to give direct orders and implement adjustments without the geographical distance standing in the way. Furthermore, the meeting times will be adjusted and meetings will be changed to video conferences.

Coordination of tasks

Ni Hao construction company will receive a 10% extra bonus for meeting deadlines. One of the issues between the parties was priority inequality. Leatty was more focused on reaching deadlines while Ni Hao focused mainly on the quality of building. To speed construction up while maintaining the same standard of quality, Ni Hao will receive extra funds.

Team morale

We suggest installing a confidential person on-site in Shanghai in order to give employees the opportunity to air their problems. This, in combination with the above stated measures of information improvements and an expanded work force, will enhance team morale.

Lessons for next phases

The important lesson that should be learned from the problems that have occurred in phase one of this construction project is that face-to-face communication is very important in a project of this size. We should try to communicate clearly with all stakeholders and our own employees to ensure problems are being addressed appropriately and quickly. Moreover, building schedules should be set up more realistically in order to be able to make certain deadlines while maintaining acceptable quality standards.

Conclusion

We have concluded that the measures that need to be taken to improve communication concerning the Leatty construction project are to install members of all parties on the construction site. Adjustments can be implemented more easily if they are communicated face-to-face and language barriers will be lowered in this way. Furthermore, we recommend introducing video calls to replace conventional communication methods and conferences should be rescheduled to times that fit all parties. In order to maintain a high quality standard while keeping up to speed, Ni Hao will receive 10% extra funds.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Jesse Sijbrandij
Project Manager Leatty Shanghai construction project