An Investigation into the Effectiveness of Construction Site Management in Nairobi County

Abstract

Construction site management has become more complex than ever since a number of resource flows have to converge simultaneously at the workplace (operatives, information, finance, plant, tools as well as materials) in order to ensure successful completion of construction projects. This research sought to assess the impact of the critical site factors on effective site management in Nairobi County. The selected site aspects that were investigated in relation to effective site management included; material management, labour management, health and safety management, cost management and information management. The study utilized a survey research design and the target population was made up of 45 on-going commercial/ mixed urban development projects worth more than Kshs100 million (Appendix 6) in Westlands constituency. Purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting the 45 projects. The survey achieved 80% response rate from the construction project managers. Data analysis involved cleaning, sorting and coding of raw data collected from the field and processing for purposes of interpretation by use of R software version 3.4.3. The data analysis procedures adopted used both descriptive and inferential (Spearman rank correlation and logistic regression) statistical methods and the results were presented in form of statistical equation models, tables, charts and graphs in a simple and comprehensive manner. The findings indicated that, the selected site factors under equation analysis contributed significantly to the prediction of effective site management. The odds for effective site management are 48.82, 5.89, 23.01, 23.39 & 149.80 times higher when there is proper material, labour, cost, information and health & safety management respectively as compared to poor management of the critical site factors holding all other factors constant. Additionally, the respondents indicated the need for a well-defined site management framework. The study took some steps to show that construction projects need more systematic management than they generally receive. Therefore, a site management framework was recommended to aid construction project managers in managing materials(Use Oracle prime, GPS & DR, UAVs, RFID & WSN), labour (Use Oracle prime, RFID, UAVs & Navisworks), health and safety (Use Oracle prime, RFID, UAVs & Navisworks), cost (Use Oracle prime, Oracle Textura & Navisworks) and information (Use Oracle prime, Oracle Textura, Revit & Skype). Since this study addressed the subject of site management in building construction projects, it would be interesting to study the subject of site management in civil construction projects and compare the results. Also, future studies are required to look into the operation and maintenance stage of the project life cycle as this study only concentrated on the construction phase.