P9.

4 (a) As an estimator for a contractor you have built up all the unit rates for all the items in a tender for a particular project. The CEO of your company now has to decide the percentage profit margin to be applied in this tender. Explain the different thoughts the CEO must analyze. When one become at the stage that the unit rates are ready and the CEO has to decide the percentage profit margin which has to be applied for a tender has to question himself/herself how desperately do they really need the project. For example if one comes to discuss the point why one must analyse the factor of how big or small the project is because one can have the problem that there are no time enough to work on that project. If it is too big , the company might loose other small projects that the overall profit of it can become more that this one big project. However there must be also the probability that since the project is too small, not enough profit is going to be gained and the time is wasted on nothing. The CEO must analyse if the type of project is the sort of work for the company. For example if there are a company which the overall work it did was in relation to building up houses. In my opinion this company that records show the overall work is doing the building of houses, does not support this kind of project since there are no experience. The project location can leave an affect on the profit of the project if this is not thought. This is not efficient for the company because time is watsed to go from place to place and moreover fuel is wasted and the company has to pay for it. On the other hand if the project is at the east or west of Malta, the time of transportation is different because it is more nearer. P9.4(b) List and explain at least three (3) factors that could affect the output of labour on any particular project. For the output of labour to be on its maximum one has not to have several factors. Factors like weather, experience and working environment can be so effective on the labour output that leads for the lack of production. The weather that affects mostly those labourers who work on-site. This factor is so on its affect especially when the weather is bad or moreover rainy. If the weather is rainy the labourers cannot work and their work has to be delayed since the day that the weather is fine. Talking about the experience that such a labour will have is affective too. In case of there are two labourers, lets say they are quantity surveyors, if one of them has an experience of 20 years and the other one is an apprentice it is impossible that the two of them give the same output. This is due that the one with experience is doing repetitive work while the other is always learning something new,

The working environment is also a factor that can affect the output of labour. This happens, for example there are a small office of quantity surveyors but in this office there are five persons working. It is surely that is so compacting so the quantity surveyors are not working comfortable and this leads that the human comfort is not satisfied. This affects the output of them because they will work more slowly due there are not enough space for them. P9.4(c) What could cause your plant to be idle on any particular project? Explain how you would allow for this when building up your rates. The idle time is the period when a plant is not in use on-site. For the idle time, allowance must be made wherever rates are calculated for plants. This is because the utilization rate varies from 40% to 70%. The allowance for it is made by summing the idle time with the net machine rate. The idle time can be occur because several factors such as the weather, lack of work, no operator, no work and several other factors. For example the weather might affect the plant not be in use like when having a craine and it is a bad weather it cannot be used since it has to be used on the outside. The lack of work can be also cause the plant to be idle. This is due for not working well in the suppose time schedule like today the plant has to be used on a site to lift the ,aterials but that site is not completely accessible for the plant to be in use so it has to be idle. Another affective factor is when no operator is available to operate the plant. This can happen since no one is skilled to operate that plant, the operators are all working on other plants and others that makes the operator unavailable to operate the plant. If a company does not have work to do it affects also the plant because they are not being used but the plant is still being costly and thats why the rate of idle time has to be included in. Moreover the rate has to include the idle time because at the time it is not working the fuel still has to be payed, maitenance and repair still has to be done and many other things.