How do engineering cost consulting units participate in total cost management?

With the establishment and perfection of the socialist market economic system, the engineering cost consulting industry, as an important part of the engineering construction field, has gradually developed, from the cost consulting management function entrusted by the government in the past to the service function of undertaking the cost consulting business for the society itself, which has truly improved and embodied the mechanism of engineering cost consulting as a social intermediary service industry. In recent years, the whole process cost management (control) has gradually attracted people's attention in the process of engineering cost business consultation. The whole process cost management is also called total cost management, and its basic definition is: effectively using professional technical knowledge and methods to plan and control resources, costs, profits and risks, and make them run through the whole project. At present, our understanding of cost management often stays in the stage of project budget and settlement, which leads to the lack of comprehensive and systematic positioning and all-round, all-round and dynamic management of project cost management. In particular, the control of engineering cost by engineering cost consulting units mainly focuses on post-event accounting, that is, auditing the completion settlement, and the control at other stages is relatively weak. Zhong Da Consulting believes that cost consulting units should expand consulting services according to their own characteristics. Actively participate in the exploration and practice of cost management in all stages, comprehensively establish and improve the procedures, norms and service contents of cost management in the whole process, and make corresponding data archiving.

The whole process cost control of construction projects is generally divided into three stages: before, during and after. In concrete implementation, these three stages can be transformed into project decision-making and design stage, bidding and construction stage, completion settlement and post-evaluation stage. Based on the working experience in recent years, the author expounds his own views and opinions on how the engineering cost consulting unit participates in all stages of total cost management.

I. Project Decision-making and Design Stage

Investment estimation is the main cost document in the project investment decision-making stage, and it is also an integral part of the project proposal and feasibility study report. When accepting the entrustment to participate in the preparation of investment estimation, engineering cost consulting units should do the following: ① Pay attention to the accumulation of data (estimation indicators). Estimation index is the main basis for compiling investment estimation. In addition to the existing estimation indicators, it should be revised in time according to the actual situation, fully reflecting the comprehensiveness and universality of the indicators. (2) The preparation of investment estimation should be fully considered and reasonable, fully estimate the benefits and risks during and after the construction of the project, and put forward countermeasures and preventive measures, but also prevent overestimation and try to be comprehensive, accurate and reasonable.

Once the proposed project is determined, the design becomes the key to the project construction and investment control, and it is also the focus of the whole process cost control. The design quality of a project affects the project cost by more than 75%, which directly affects the project investment and construction period. In this regard, I think that the cost control in the design stage should increase investment, carefully design, optimize design, reduce design changes, and resolutely shift the focus of work to the construction stage, especially to seize the key stage of design and plan ahead, in order to achieve twice the result with half the effort. This control should combine technology and economy and run through all stages of the whole design, that is, from scheme design, preliminary design, technical design to construction drawing design, laying a solid foundation for the investment control of the whole project.

In the project implementation stage, the owner often pays attention to the tender offer and the final settlement price after completion, but ignores the design budget. Budget estimate is an integral part of design documents, and some design institutes (institutes) with weak technical strength (referring to engineering economy or cost) often do not provide budget estimates, which makes the owners have no "bottom" in mind about the price of designed products. For example, in the construction settlement audit of a multi-storey industrial factory building in our city, it was found that the design eaves height just reached 18.05m, which led to the increase of engineering categories, and the owner did not pay special attention to the height and floor height of the factory building. The author believes that under the current conditions, engineering cost consulting units can cooperate with some small and medium-sized design institutes (institutes), complement each other's advantages, make full use of their own technologies and specialties, prepare budget estimates for design units after fully understanding the owners' requirements for construction projects, and propose design modification schemes (such as reasonable material selection and cost parameter control) for owners, so as to finally achieve the purpose of optimizing design and controlling cost.

Second, the bidding and construction stage

First of all, the owner should prepare the bidding documents. Project bidding includes two aspects: equipment and material procurement bidding and construction bidding. The bidding documents define the principles and procedures of construction bidding, standardize and guide all aspects of construction bidding, and specify in detail the whole process of construction project from project application to contract signing. As the tender documents are also an integral part of the contract documents, they have the same legal effect, and are the basis for the bidding quotation of the construction unit, the basis for both parties to sign the contract, and the basis for settlement of claims after completion, and they are also in the forefront in the order of legal interpretation. Therefore, the preparation of bidding documents should be very rigorous and accurate, and each item should be explained in detail to avoid unnecessary disputes and disputes, and also effectively avoid the occurrence of too many claims.

Secondly, we should strengthen contract management. Construction contract is the direct basis for project settlement, project payment and claim settlement, and also the main basis for quality control, schedule control and cost control of project construction. Therefore, we should be cautious when signing the contract, especially when adopting the rate bidding, and we should make clear the responsibilities, rights and interests of the owner and the construction unit. For the lump-sum risk fee, we must grasp the connotation of its cost, which is very important for both bidders. At this stage, the project cost consulting unit can be entrusted by the owner to complete the following work:

(1) A cost consulting unit qualified as an agent for bidding can write and issue a tender announcement (book) on behalf of the owner, formulate pre-qualification conditions and bid evaluation rules, conduct pre-qualification, and select excellent construction and supervision enterprises.

(2) Preparation of pre-tender estimate, bill of quantities, pre-tender estimate examination and approval, bid evaluation and bid opening;

(3) Consult the owner about the expense clauses in the contract signed by Party A and Party B to minimize the possibility of disputes over the expense clauses.

The construction stage is not only the process of turning the design into a valuable building entity, but also the process of effectively controlling the project cost and providing the original basis for reasonably determining the project cost. Engineering cost consulting units should be rigorous, meticulous and accurate in the construction stage. "Strict" means that the visa is strictly controlled and the construction period is long. The visa is the record of the construction process and the basis for the final settlement of the project price claim. Cost consulting units involved in project cost supervision should strictly control visas and issue them in time to prevent construction units from passing the buck, underreporting for more, not solving problems in time, and engaging in surprise when settling accounts; "Precision" means that the professionals of the cost consulting unit are required to carefully record the size, location and quantity that can be described clearly, and rely on photography and other means to help if necessary to prevent omissions and miscalculations in settlement; "Accurate" means that the cost professionals accurately review the monthly inspection report, the number of visas and the claim price, and try to keep fewer survivors in the final settlement. For example, if the lump sum fee already includes the second loading and unloading fee, the second loading and unloading fee of related materials cannot be re-signed, nor can the existing items in the budget be re-signed. The author suggests that the owner can establish a responsibility system for project cost control, and the professionals in the project cost consulting unit are responsible for project cost control (management). At the same time of tracking management, the project payment cannot be settled without the visa signed by the responsible person, and the progress of the project payment is controlled to prevent the project payment from being overpaid.

Third, the completion settlement and post-evaluation stage

Completion settlement is an important basis for reasonably determining the project cost, and both the construction unit and the owner attach great importance to the audit settlement of the project price. At the same time, the audit of completion settlement is also the last link to control investment. At this stage, the budget personnel are required to be careful and meticulous, and there can be no relaxation. And work closely with relevant departments of the project. In short, the completion settlement stage is a work that integrates technology and economy, and it is also a stage in which many departments cooperate with each other to collectively produce outcome documents, and finally complete the contractual relationship between the construction unit and the construction unit, and clarify the economic responsibility. The engineering cost consulting unit has accumulated mature experience in this link, which can be strict, reasonable and fair in the calculation of engineering quantity, the application of budget quota, the audit of the rationality of charging, and the analysis of visa change, claim terms and force majeure factors. In addition to the above points, the author also thinks that there are two important points: First, the content of the audit report. We should not only pay attention to the price figures of project settlement after audit, but also pay attention to the restoration of audit. The report should analyze the reasons that affect the project price, the main contents of audit adjustment and how to control and correct the project cost. Second, the three-level review in the audit process should be concrete, not a mere formality. Because the engineering audit involves a wide range, a large number and high technical quality requirements, there are inevitably calculation errors and judgment deviations in the audit process. In order to prevent audit risks, the project cost consulting unit should determine the three-level review system of project director, technical director and consulting unit director, check the working papers step by step, and finally hand over a reasonable audit report on completion settlement, so as to truly determine the project cost reasonably and effectively control it.

The post-evaluation stage of construction project is also a link in which engineering cost consulting units seldom participate. Post-evaluation is an incomplete comprehensive evaluation of the whole construction project and a summary of dam cost control. Generally speaking, the cost consulting unit should do a good job in three aspects:

① Data accumulation, analysis and arrangement. A construction project has gone through a long construction cycle from project initiation to putting into use, which has produced a large number of project cost data. We professionals in cost consultation should take these data seriously and analyze and screen them in connection with reality; The factors affecting the project cost are obtained. Relevant databases can be established if conditions permit, paving the way for better controlling the cost of other projects in the future.

(2) The project cost consulting unit should pay full attention to the opinions and suggestions of the owner, construction, supervision and design units, brainstorm and analyze how to effectively link up the cost control in all links and how to effectively prevent the price risk, so as to truly achieve the purpose of changing the project cost from passive control to active control and prevent the occurrence of "three excesses".

(3) The self-summary of the engineering cost consulting unit in the post-evaluation stage is very important. On the one hand, it summarizes the experience of effective control and comprehensive cost management in the whole process of project construction. On the other hand, it analyzes its own shortcomings in total cost control, trying to find out the factors that affect the whole process cost management due to subjective reasons and overcome them. In a word, our cost management (control) has been completed through the post-evaluation of construction projects.

In a word, project cost control is a comprehensive system engineering integrating management, technology, quality and construction, and it is also a dynamic process. Therefore, cost control should run through all stages of engineering construction in order to better complete various projects. At the same time, the whole process management (control) of project cost is also the inevitable trend of the development of project cost industry and the inevitable result of cost consulting industry adapting to the development of market economy.

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