Factors Influencing The Commercial Viability Of A Commercial Project

You are required to write a 1200 word, reflective, Process Analysis Essay. This paper shall present your developed personal understanding of how the commercial viability of a given commercial project is ultimately influenced by the combination of:

i. Design intent, including:
? building shape and form.
? Technical choice and specification (such as choice of skeletal frame type, or exterior wall enclosure).
? Sustainability aims.
? Interior arrangement of core spaces, common circulation
elements and ancillary spaces.

ii. contextual and site related issues, and

iii. appropriate approaches to cost analysis (including life cycle costing of the project).

Design Intent and Its Impact on Commercial Viability

I could see a completed building and all I could do was to applause because of the beauty all such related reason. Little did I know that my perspective would soon change? After doing this course, I have learned countless lessons about factor to consider when rating any project especially when it is involving a building. The greatest lesson has been that one can build a house without knowing that he/she is establishing a liability to him/her or even to the entire environment. This is due to the choices made when the project is still ongoing. For example, if proper water facilities fitting is not made, the business is at a verge of experiencing loss at one point due to the high bills that have to be met at the end of each billing period. This is also an unfriendly environmental act that after all is said and done will drain even the economy of the entire nation. A lot should be considered especially for them setting up buildings for businesses. The main reason and objective of the existence of any business are to make a profit and continual expansion. As a business person are seeking on the lope holes that are likely to cause loses, I believe that the design and type of structures set for all these functions to happen should be considered with utmost seriousness. A number of businesses have found themselves in trouble for ignoring this whole aspect. In this essay, we are going to be discussing Mr. Smith's business as he recently started a project for his new building.

Mr. Smith has recently started the process of building a mall where he intends to let the stores to different business people. He has had to make many decisions with the help of experts of which some of these decisions financially friendly to him causing a stain (Cunningham 2013). In the case of design intent, he decided to build a two-story building occupying a 0.2 hectares piece of land. According to him, he says that he loves this kind of shape and form of a building. This structure can only hold 200 stores when it is fully established. In this case, he could have chosen to build an up to a six-story building occupying only 0.1 hectares and save the rest of the land for further expansion and use it as an ample parking area for the time being (Umble, Haft and Umble 2003). On theatre of technical choice and specification, he decided that the wall will be of 10-inch thickness for a strong structure. This comes with an additional cost than the normal 6 to 8-inch thick wall. Concerning the sustainability of this project, he has done a lot to ensure that he causes no harm to anyone around him or even to the environment (Robichaud & Anantatmula 2010). This is by use of safety facilities such as tall grills in balconies. Appropriate water fittings, and use of environmentally friendly equipment such as plastic chairs and office equipment. The sustainability of this project is also evident in his concern for the safety of the workers during the project progression. He has also proposed to have one of the best water drainages to avoid flooding during rainy seasons. Close to this is his amazing plan of interior arrangement. Where he has ensured there is no space wasted so as to maximize the cost (Grewal, Lilien, and Mallapragada, 2006). He has also ensured that despite being concerned of proper space utilization, the stores are well ventilated for proper air circulation.

Contextual and Site-Related Issues and Their Influence on Commercial Viability

This project has commenced and it is now one-month-old. The site has been well prepared and well fenced. This is to avoid further cost arising from losses due to theft or even injuries of the workmen (Kerzner & Kerzner 2017). These sites also were well chosen since it did not need a lot of excavation as this would still come with additional cost on the same. Enhancing security has also made it possible for him to buy materials in bulk and storing them in the site stores rather than buying one by one (Wheelwright and Clark, 1992. Consequently, this has made him enjoy huge amounts of quantity discounts. He has also given the best engineers the project management task so as to ensure quality work is done. On top of all these, he has gone ahead and acquired an insurance cover for all the workers at the site. This is one way that has helped him in his quest of having a cost-effective project. In such a project, chances of accidents are very high and due to this, he has to be safe and covered at all times (Hendrickson, Hendrickson & Au 1989).

Mr. Smith has also adopted one of the best framework used in the cost analysis of a project. The fact is that in such a huge project, there is always the danger of not considering the current cost and failing to project into the feature. This is dangerous since it causes one to live in a state of ‘myopia’ as far as cost decision are concerned (Fernández-Sánchez and Rodríguez-López, 2010). This is a framework that helps in making a sober choice against alternatives that are competing as the project is progressing. By the aid of this tool, he is sure that the project will not turn into a liability in the feature as he knows what return on the capital he should expect (Rubenstein, Chakrabarti, O'Keefe, Souder and Young 1976). This is very important as it makes one invest without fear that things might go wrong in the feature. For example, in this project, it has different phases that can be considered to be the life cycles been referred to here. Considering the cost of materials, labor and other related overheads, therefore, turn out to be insufficient in the calculation of the profitability of these project when it will be finally complete. This tool now comes in at this stage and adds all the anticipated cost in all these producing a more logical figure. With this, he has been in a position of making more informed decisions concerning his project (Akintoye 2000).

As seen in Mr. Smith’s case, much has to be considered when starting and establishing a project. Personally, I have learned a lot especially on how different factors in such a project can influence the commercial viability of the same. A great disaster is meant to occur in any commercial project if some of these factors are to be taken for granted. The main objective of any project will be to make a profit and ultimately avoid all channels that might cause a loss. This, therefore, brings the importance of consideration of all factor without ignoring any. In the case of Mr. Smith, he has done some steps toward co0nsidering these factors despite him leaving some lope holes in some. Like in the case of design intent, he went for his own preference ignoring the whole of cost-effectiveness. Building a six-story building would do him better than harm. The land he used for the same would have been saved for other business or even other structures. He also failed on the choice of the wall he made. A 6 to the 8-inch wall is strong enough and therefore his choice just adds up to a wastage of resources in the name of preference.

Reference:

Akintoye, A., 2000. Analysis of factors influencing project cost estimating practice. Construction Management & Economics, 18(1), pp.77-89.

Cunningham, T., 2013. Factors affecting the cost of building work-an overview.

Fernández-Sánchez, G. and Rodríguez-López, F., 2010. A methodology to identify sustainability indicators in construction project management—Application to infrastructure projects in Spain. Ecological Indicators, 10(6), pp.1193-1201.

Grewal, R., Lilien, G.L., and Mallapragada, G., 2006. Location, location, location: How network embeddedness affects project success in open source systems. Management Science, 52(7), pp.1043-1056.

Hendrickson, C., Hendrickson, C. T., & Au, T. (1989). Project management for construction: Fundamental concepts for owners, engineers, architects, and builders. Chris Hendrickson.

Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Robichaud, L. B., & Anantatmula, V. S. (2010). Greening project management practices for sustainable construction. Journal of Management in Engineering, 27(1), 48-57.

Rubenstein, A.H., Chakrabarti, A.K., O'Keefe, R.D., Souder, W.E., and Young, H.C., 1976. Factors influencing innovation success at the project level. Research management, 19(3), pp.15-20.

Umble, E.J., Haft, R.R. and Umble, M.M., 2003. Enterprise resource planning: Implementation procedures and critical success factors. European journal of operational research, 146(2), pp.241-257.

Wheelwright, S.C. and Clark, K.B., 1992. Creating project plans to focus product development (pp. 70-82). Harvard Business School Pub.