INTRODUCTION

These are relevant factors that construction companies consider in managing the inputs, that provides their capacity to perform work activities. One of such inputs for many construction operations is materials in any operation material must be obtained and used if the organization want a complete job with a competitive distinction.

Various terms like logistics and materials management are use interchangeable and name for the full scope of all the activities required to manage materials flow supplies to the final use of the material. Therefore Material Management Is Define As the groupings of management functions supporting the complete cycle of material flow from purchase and internal control, of production material to the planning and control of work in process

to the warehouse down to the construction site through the suppliers, several, units of the company are involved in the management of materials.

1.2

Materials Flow in Construction

In years back, some part of the world, companies have tended to manage material flow by having an over abundance of material available. Stockpiles of materials and large buffer inventories between internal operations reduced the need for close coordination with supply between varies internal operations. Having goods, sit idle in inventory, does not add value or cost. The aim to be achieved is flow of items from their sources through necessary processing and on to the customers with no delays or cost.

Movement is one of the most apparent features in large scale companies. Construction operation is dynamic, vibrant, center of activity. Trucks, barges, rail road car and other vehicles arrive with supplies. Material handling within
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operation involves large number of people and variety of equipment materials are made from one operation to the other as the inputs to form outputs.

Input portion of material flow involves activities like purchasing, traffic control, receiving etc. activities associated with materials flow within the company; materials handling, inventory control etc.

1.3

Operations Control

Operation control develops short range operations plans and schedules from long term plans. It performs the following functions;

1. Scheduling construction operations in accordance with the scheduled availability of materials, the anticipated backlog of work, the criticality of need for the operation and the lead time for construction.

2. Dispatching and directing the departments and materials control to perform the necessary operation to meet the construction schedule. 3. Issuing materials to operating department, when this function is not performed by a materials control department. 4. Monitoring the progress of wok in operating department, expediting the work of those that are behind schedule and de-expediting the work of some departments when schedule are changed. 1.4 Receiving

The receiving department is a sub-unit in an organization usually must be responsible for receiving shipments of incoming materials and for maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) supplies. The receiving department is responsible for:

1. Unloading and identifying incoming shipments. 2. Preparing a receiving report

3. Dispatching the items to the point where they are to be inspected, stored or use. Sometimes materials handlings required by performing inspection of purchased goods in the receiving section or at the point where the items are to be used. 1.5 Shipping

The responsibility of the shipping department include;

a.

Selecting from inventory those items to be shipped to the customer (order picking)

b. c. d. 1.6

Packaging and labeling the shipment Loading shipments onto vehicles Managing the companys fleet of vehicles

Purchasing

Purchasing has the fundamental responsibility for dealing with other companies or division that supply the purchased services, materials and

supplies to operate a company, company depends on outside supplies for many of these inputs since their operation has become more complex in many instances and requires special knowledge and equipment.

Purchasing activities are important in almost any company but they can quickly make a large impact on profit or lead to disaster in companies where purchases are as large as percentage of cost.

Some of the responsibilities are

1. To locate, evaluate, and develop sources of the material supplies, and services that the company needs.

2. To ensure good working relations with these sources in such matters as quality, delivery, payments, exchange or returns.

3. To seek out new materials and products and new sources of better products and material so that they can be evaluated for possible use by the company.

4. To purchase the items that the company needs at the best price consistent with quality requirement and to handle the necessary negotiations to carryout this activity. The best value does not always represent the lowest initial cost. So products should also be evaluated for their expected lifetime, serviceability and maintenance cost.

5. To initiate if necessary and to cooperate in cost-reduction programmes, values analysis, make-or-buy studies, market analysis, and long range planning purchasing should keep abreast of trends and projections in prices and availability of the input that a company must have.

6. To work to maintain an effective communication involve between department within the company and between the company and its suppliers.

7. To keep top management aware of goods involved in the companys procurements and any market charges that could affect the companys profit or growth.

1.7

Inventory

In any construction operations, every company is faced with decision about inventory. Inventory is any idle resource held for further use. When ever materials of a company are not used as soon as they become available, inventory is present. However, inventory accounts for a large percentage of assets. Each entity, sub assembly or type of materials that a company identifies for purposes of control may be called a stock keeping items, or stock keeping within but unit refers to an amount or quantity of an item. While item refers to unique type of material that is inventoried.

Large companies may have huge amount of different items to maintain inventory and control. If this large amount is multiply by number of units, the

number of units and investment in inventory of such a company are tremendous. Why do invest so heavily in idle resource? Many companies have found that they did not need the amount of inventory that they were holding. Infact many have found that they operate better, after they have reduced their inventories.

Companies hold verities of reasons for inventory

1. Companies can accumulate and deplete finished goods inventory to help level the production schedule when demand is not uniform. Inventories of finished goods may be held so that the company can respond to customers demand less than the lead time required to obtain the inputs and produce the product. 2. Inventories of inputs protect a company against interruption of supply due to strikes, weather etc. 1.8 Just-in-Time (JIT) Construction Operations

Japanese construction companies have become very effective at operating with very small inventories through an approach called just-in-time production, zero inventories, or stockless production. Just-in-time

production involves purchasing or producing exactly what is needed at the prices time its to be used and conveying it directly to the point where it is needed. When companies have no standard product or when its products are demanded spasmodically in large quantities, there is no way to prevent lumpy demand for component parts. Lumpy demand and irregular flow of materials are likely to cause accumulations of inventory, unless production is carefully timed by some method.

Companies that have high demand for standard products can present lumpy demands for components by producing or ordering the products in numerous small lots instead of larger infrequent lots. This result in uniform flow with a small amount of components to the assembly department and

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smooth from the assembly department, with the accumulation of very little inventory at any stage production.

1.9

Materials Requirement Planning (MRPI)

For the sake of emergency demand, independent inventory system keep items and on lead. Whereas dependent demand for component of a product occur when the company is in the process of assembling product. It is cheap to have items available only when they are needed. The result or schedules when assembles are to be produce and controls when dependent components will be needed. It is possible to schedule back ward, for the date at which the assembly will be completed to determine when each component will be needed and available. A large amount of data must be processed if the company produces a broad line of product with many component.

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Material requirement planning (MRP) and manufacturing resources planning are techniques that either department demand relationship into account.

1.10 Inventory Management

Take an independent demand manufactured product that is controlled by a fixed-quantity, fixed-interval, or mini-maximum system. Assume that the demand for this product is fairly uniform. Components of final assembly will be required only when the inventory or the final assembly reacts the recorded level. As a result the requirement for a component will be zero for each week between recorded then it will be equal to the number of components required for the number of assemblies that the company plans to produce. This demand is differ from their pattern of demand further finished products.

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REFERENCE Project Management Institute (2003). A Guide To The Project Management Body Of Knowledge, 3rd ed., Project Management Institute. ISBN 1-930699-45-X

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