CDM REGULATIONS

Quantity Surveyors and Their Duties under the CDM Regulations

Quantity Surveyors and Their Duties under the CDM Regulations

Introduction

The traditional way of utilising the services of the quantity surveyor has largely been at the stage of costing a design, and the production of procurement and construction documentation (Ashworth and Hogg, 2002). The main reason has been that, not until recently, it has always been difficult to produce conceptual estimates because they require the ability not to count the bricks, windows, doors and toilet fixtures but the ability to visualise these components (Noble, 1987). However, the proliferation of architectural modelling tools that can be used to model buildings in proprietary and/or non-proprietary data format could, on one hand, change the design work culture (Cyon Research, 2003a) - by way of inducing the production of tangible data very early in the process - and on the other hand change the tradition of costing a design; which is cardinal for quantity surveyors to meet the demand for “value for money” (VfM) throughout sustainable building development. Sustainability, in this case, takes the form of:

* fitness for purpose(s);

* initial and future cost benefits;

* environmental friendliness; and

* cultural significance (Maver and Petric, 2003).

Naturally, developing building products that embody all aspects of sustainability is still a challenge, because of the continuous demand for product specific information throughout their life (Hakkinen, 2007). However, product lifecycle cost appraisal and analysis is carried out intermittently due to the current operational structure of the industry (Kerzner, 2003; Turkaslan-Bulbul and Akin, 2006). Because of research in collaborative work environments of the construction industry, there is a significant paradigm shift towards integrated project environments (Faraj et al., 2000; Mao et al., 2007) that strive to share project data electronically, using software interoperability.

It is therefore envisaged that the core activities of professional quantity surveying could be destined for a major change, affecting the business processes and configuration of the profession. The royal institution of chartered surveyors (RICS, 2002) observed that there has been a suppressed demand for the essentially traditional and technical skills of surveyors, due to increasingly sophisticated computer applications, which, as in many other jobs, are beginning to automate some of the roles associated with surveying. Unless the profession adapts to the rapidly changing demands of its services, it is in danger of losing its leading role in providing services to its key markets, land, property and construction. This research describes and summarises the recent results from studies carried in UK concerning how available product modelling technology could optimise the role of quantity surveying at implementing total cost management, and enhance green building practices.

Research objectives and procedure

The participation of a quantity surveyor in the research was mainly to quantify the benefit which the original and subsequent clients/users would get from the use of the buildings so as to justify initial capital investment (and reinvestment in refurbishment), together with the substantial range of recurring costs (for maintenance, energy consumption, etc.) over its life ...