China's engineering construction procedures can be divided into six stages: project proposal stage, feasibility study stage, design document stage, construction preparation stage, construction implementation stage and completion acceptance stage. Among them, the design document stage refers to the engineering design stage (divided into two stages: preliminary design and technical design), and the engineering design refers to the planning and arrangement of the construction project and the determination of the outline and function of the construction project. Judging from the construction procedures in China, the engineering design stage plays a connecting role in the whole project construction. Whether a project can achieve safety, meet functional requirements and achieve the best economic benefits in the future has been finalized in the design stage. For a long time, when "design" is mentioned in the field of engineering construction in China, technical design naturally comes to mind, which is the responsibility of designers; When it comes to cost control, it is naturally the responsibility of budget personnel. Years of practice show that it is difficult to effectively control costs only by relying on budget personnel and purely from the financial point of view. Usually, we only pay attention to the cost control in the construction stage and ignore the cost control in other stages, which is very one-sided. The investment control and management of engineering projects should run through the whole process of engineering construction. According to the analysis of experts and scholars in western countries, the design fee generally accounts for less than 1% of the whole life of the construction project (including the project cost and the recurrent expenditure after the project delivery), but it is this less than 1% that affects more than 75% of the total project investment. In addition, statistics show that the possibility of saving investment in the design stage is 88%, while the possibility of saving investment after completion is only 12%. Obviously, the key to controlling project investment lies in the investment decision-making and design stage before construction, and the key to controlling total project investment lies in the design stage after investment decision-making. This paper first analyzes the reasons why the project cost is out of control in the design stage, and then discusses how to effectively control the cost in the design stage.
First, the design phase of the project cost out of control reasons
1. The project cost caused by the preliminary design stage is out of control.
(1) The main performance is that the preliminary feasibility study is not deep enough, and the project is hastily launched without doing a good job in the preliminary work of the construction project, which makes some technical schemes implemented lack scientific argumentation, have more designs and have serious omissions, which makes the project cost control out of control before the project starts.
(2) The main performance is that the investment estimation of most construction projects is constrained by the project feasibility study report. In order to compete for the project, all localities and departments lacked seeking truth from facts in the feasibility study stage, artificially depressed the investment estimate until they were within the examination and approval authority of their own regions and departments, or deliberately omitted items or calculated less, which formed the illusion that the proposed project needed less investment, induced the competent authorities to approve the project, that is, the so-called "fishing" project, thus leaving inherent hidden dangers for the investment control of the whole project.
(3) Inaccuracy, loss and omission in investment estimation and budgetary estimate of construction projects, and neglect of dynamic factors such as price, interest and foreign exchange risk. According to statistics, due to these reasons, the average investment exceeds the estimated budget by 6%, resulting in serious cost overruns of construction projects.
2. The technical design stage leads to the project cost out of control.
At present, there is no corresponding legal supervision system and relevant functional supervision departments for technical design in China, which leads to waste of investment in the design process and makes designers only responsible for technical responsibility, not economic responsibility.
At present, many domestic design fees are calculated according to the percentage of investment, which makes the higher the cost, the more the operating income of the design unit, which is not conducive to designers to actively consider investment saving. According to the requirements of the construction unit and the owner, blindly and arbitrarily expand the construction scale, increase the design changes and construction contents, and make the design budget seriously exceed the investment limit.
The design of the process continues to follow the old process, and there is no new breakthrough, which leads to an increase in the cost of transformation and maintenance.
In the design stage, the construction unit is unfavorable to the project cost control, and only pursues high standards, beautiful appearance and land occupation, and rarely involves the project cost control, which makes many projects attach undue functions and causes the project cost to be out of control. There is no complete system and supporting time basis for the promotion of "three new" (new materials, new processes and new equipment).
3. Other reasons for cost control out of control
Because the project cost management involves a wide range, heavy workload, complex projects, different standards, insufficient funds and personnel, etc., the work is not ideal, which makes the relevant system of project cost data accumulation imperfect, which leads to the lack of favorable reference for the preparation of design budget estimate and the serious distortion of quotation.
Second, the engineering construction design stage cost control measures
In the engineering design stage, the unification of technology and economy is the first step to determine and control the engineering cost reasonably. We should oppose the tendency of one-sided emphasis on economy and neglect of reasonable technical requirements, so that the project can not achieve its engineering function; At the same time, we should oppose the tendency of attaching importance to technology over economy, conservative and wasteful design, and divorced from national conditions. It is necessary to take necessary measures to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of designers and engineering economic personnel, make them cooperate closely, strictly follow the investment estimation stipulated in the design task book, and make efforts to reduce and control the project cost by using technical and economic comparison. In the design process, engineering economic personnel should analyze and compare the project cost in time, feedback information, and actively influence the design. Mainly consider the following aspects:
1. Improve design standards and standard design awareness.
Design is a comprehensive arrangement for the implementation of the proposed project technically and economically, and it is also a process of planning the construction project. Adopting excellent design standards and specifications for design is conducive to reducing investment and shortening the construction period.
2. Economically use value engineering to optimize the design scheme.
Value engineering, also known as value analysis, uses collective wisdom and organized activities to analyze the functions of products, so that the necessary functions of products can be realized reliably with low total investment, thus improving the value of products.
The same construction project, the same single project and unit project can have different design schemes and different cost. Therefore, it is of great significance to actively use value engineering and optimize the scheme to control the cost.
In the design stage, the application of value engineering to control the cost does not mean that the lower the project cost, the better, but a comprehensive analysis of the function and cost of the project. The value coefficient is the comprehensive embodiment of function and cost. Therefore, the application of value engineering can not only improve the function of the project, but also reduce the cost of the project, reduce the cost of the project under the condition of ensuring the same function of the project, and improve the function of the system under the same cost.
In a word, it is the requirement of value engineering and the requirement of project cost control itself to meet the necessary functional costs and eliminate unnecessary project costs. Although value engineering is still in its infancy in China, a large number of facts have proved that it is promising to use value engineering in engineering design to control the project cost and improve the "value" of the project.
3. Vigorously promote quota design and strictly control the investment scale.
The so-called quota design is to control the preliminary design according to the approved design task book and investment estimate, and control the construction drawing design according to the approved total budget estimate of the preliminary design. Moreover, under the premise of ensuring the use function, all majors control unreasonable changes in technical design and construction design according to the allocated investment limit to ensure that the total investment limit is not broken.
Investment decomposition and engineering quantity control are effective ways and main methods to implement quota design. The quota design is to decompose the investment and engineering quantity approved in the previous stage into various sub-projects, then into various unit projects, and finally into partial sub-projects Limit design is to control and manage the investment limit step by step through layer design and strict audit.
Designers must strengthen the concept of economy and pay special attention to the factors that have a significant impact on investment in the whole design process. It is necessary to regularly check the project cost of this major, and change the phenomenon that the budget estimate is known only after the design is completed in the current design work, from "drawing calculation" to "writing a line and investing in Qian Qian".
Extreme design is not blindly considering saving investment, nor is it simply cutting investment. But with an attitude of respecting science and reality. The reasonable determination of design standards, scale and principles, and the reasonable selection of basic data of budget estimate reflect the organic combination of investment control and management through layer-by-layer quota design.
4. Strictly control design changes and effectively control project investment.
After all, the preliminary design is limited by external conditions, such as engineering geology, the supply of equipment and materials, the change of material purchase and supply price, and the limitation of people's subjective understanding, which often leads to local changes in the design stage of construction drawings and even in the construction process, thus leading to changes in the confirmed cost, but this normal change is allowed within a certain range. Major changes involving construction scale, product scheme, technological process or design scheme should be strictly controlled and audited. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the management of design changes and establish corresponding systems to prevent unreasonable design changes from increasing project cost. In the process of construction drawing design, it is necessary to overcome the disconnection between technology and economy, strengthen the joint review, review and proofreading of drawings, and expose the problems before construction as much as possible. Major design changes that affect the project cost should be settled first and then changed, so as to effectively control the project cost.
5. Strengthen design supervision and reduce investment waste.
Since the Ministry of Construction1July 1998 issued the Notice on Carrying out Construction Supervision, the supervision work has been carried out in an all-round way throughout the country. Practice has proved that construction supervision has achieved remarkable results in controlling project investment, but in practice, it is still common to attach importance to construction supervision and ignore design supervision. In fact, design supervision plays an important role in the investment, schedule and quality control of engineering projects, especially in controlling engineering investment.
The supervision company should strengthen publicity and actively expand the supervision business in the design stage. In our supervision work, we put forward reasonable suggestions on the design scheme, which saved the investment of the owner and was highly appreciated and thanked by the owner. As a supervision company under the market economy, it should actively explore the market, rely on its own professional and intelligent advantages, and win more owners to participate in the design preparation stage with successful supervision performance.
6. Strengthen the construction of relevant legislation.
The socialist market economy is a legal economy. People's Republic of China (PRC) Construction Law, Contract Law and Bidding Law were promulgated one after another. The Ministry of Construction and the State Planning Commission promulgated the Regulations on Engineering Construction Supervision as early as 1995, and various provinces and cities immediately formulated and promulgated some specific implementation measures, which played an important role in maintaining the order of the construction market, ensuring the engineering quality and improving the investment efficiency. However, at present, there is still no "Engineering Design Law" in China, and there is a lack of laws and regulations to effectively stop the inferior engineering design that causes waste. If we supervise the design stage in the form of laws and regulations, it will undoubtedly promote the improvement of the quality level of the whole design industry.
7. Reform related government functions
At present, the standardization and management of engineering design quality by the relevant departments of our government are very weak. Generally, when the construction unit wins the bid, the relevant departments need to review the construction drawings. This kind of review is limited by the energy of the personnel in this government department, and it is difficult to achieve the depth and breadth it should have. Moreover, this is also passive time control, which generally has little effect on investment control. Can we learn from some local quality supervision stations? That is, the quality inspection station no longer directly faces the construction site, but implements the chain management of "quality inspection station → supervision company → construction unit". The author thinks it is feasible to bring engineering design into this chain management track.
8. Introduce the competition mechanism and vigorously promote the bidding of engineering design.
Under the condition of socialist market economy, the competition is increasingly fierce, and bidding is adopted for construction projects from design to construction. Design units must and must rely on their good reputation and excellent design quality if they want to beat their opponents in the fierce market competition and make themselves invincible. Therefore, in order to develop, enterprises must establish a competitive mechanism. Moreover, internal competition and external competition should be unified, with internal competition as the condition for enterprises to win in external competition and external competition as the driving force to promote internal competition. Externally, it is mainly to establish the consciousness of rejuvenating enterprises through quality, improve quality and provide good service. Internally, it is mainly to enhance the sense of crisis and urgency of designers and overcome the one-sidedness and limitations of scheme selection. Designers should be encouraged to emancipate their minds, explore new ideas, stimulate creative inspiration, and make the design scheme with good function, low cost, high benefit and reasonable technical economy stand out.
Bidding for engineering design is to select a designer with strong strength, strong technical force, high design quality, reasonable engineering cost and low design cost from a number of designers with engineering design ability. Through bidding for engineering design, engineering designers get design tasks through competition, which requires them to comprehensively optimize engineering design from quality to cost and come up with the best design to compete with other competitors. This can not only save design cost, but also improve design quality and reduce engineering cost.
9. Reform the way of collecting design fees to arouse the enthusiasm of designers.
The current design fee in China is calculated according to the percentage of investment, which makes the higher the cost, the more the operating income of the design unit. This charging method enables designers to use imported equipment and high-priced materials as much as possible. Basically, it is hoped that the investment scale will be large and the project cost will be high. It is extremely unfavorable to actively consider reducing costs and saving investment. Therefore, the current design fee collection method is difficult to mobilize the enthusiasm of designers to actively control the project cost, which is extremely unfavorable to the project cost control. In my opinion, within the approved investment limit, the design unit should seriously apply the principle of value engineering, and on the premise of ensuring the safety of the project and not reducing its function, reward the design unit and designers in a certain proportion by adopting new technologies, new materials and new processes to save the project investment. If it is rated as excellent design, it should also be rewarded. On the contrary, if the design is over-invested, unreasonable or causes certain waste, the design unit and designers should also bear corresponding responsibilities and bear certain economic losses according to the degree of waste. Clear rewards and punishments, linked with interests, are conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of designers and controlling project investment.
10. Establish a database and implement network management.
With the popularization of computer network in the design industry, construction economic personnel can carry out cross-regional and inter-provincial technical exchanges, information exchange and comprehensive understanding of the construction market through the Internet. Industry authorities can provide engineering information, laws and regulations, materials and equipment prices and other information databases for design units and employees through the following channels, and rely on scientific and technological progress to open up efficient and high-quality ways to supervise the tangible market.
Establish a project cost data accumulation system, led by the government, allocate some funds and give certain policies, and entrust social consulting institutions to establish a project cost data accumulation system according to regions and departments. Set up information stations to provide commodity prices, ensure comparability, set up institutions to submit engineering technical and economic information, collect the prices of major equipment and materials of completed projects, provide information services on the prices of materials and equipment in the current market, and compile them into books on a monthly or quarterly basis; It provides a basis for the project cost control of the main body of the project market and ensures the comparability of the cost. Establish an information network, limit the cost area, ensure rationality, set up an engineering cost information network, open the market in time, release the engineering cost information, and set the upper and lower price limits; Limit the guide price, delimit the price range, do not break through the overall level of project cost control, and ensure the rationality of the cost.
Conclusion:
A large number of practices have proved that the key to control the project cost lies in the design stage. How to effectively control the project cost in the design stage can only be explored and studied from the aspects of organically combining technology and economy, vigorously promoting quota design, strictly controlling design changes, strengthening design supervision, actively introducing competition mechanism and changing design charging methods. Only when designers know the economy and budget estimators know the technology, and they are closely related and cooperate with each other, and correctly handle the unity of opposites between technological advancement and economic rationality, can the project cost control reach a virtuous circle and the limited funds be fully and reasonably utilized.
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