The group had gone to many different establishments such as ILPI, PLDT and banks to conduct an interview but some of them were busy and others were not allowed to give information due to confidentiality. We were down to these three companies namely; DISC Contractors, Builders, and General Services Incorporated, Dansalan College Foundation Incorporated and Viscas Corporation. We had asked them several questions, and these were the information gathered.

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DISC CONTRACTORS, BUILDERS, AND GENERAL SERVICES INCORPORATED 

The group conducted an interview of one former employee of DISC Contractors, Builders and General Services Incorporation last September 27, 2011. Its main office was located at Fuentes, Iligan City. Due to some reasons, sadly the office in Iligan was closed last May and now its being managed by the mother company in Luzon, PNCC. But still has its ongoing projects in Isabel, Leyte and Bicutan, Paranque City. The company has at least 200 employees and at least 5 or more various construction projects in a year. 

  

  The company was supplying the structural steel in the country which offers fabrication and erection of structural steel requirements, horizontal and vertical construction and other others. Our resource person was Ms. Susan Matalines, she was an former Executive Secretary of the company and said that the company was using project management techniques in managing their projects. They were implementing project scheduling based on contract awarded by the clients. After scheduling, daily project monitoring and daily project accomplishment of the employees were strictly supervised so that they could meet the above required schedule. 

 The assignment of the project managers for specific project was done by the  Assistant Vice President of the Company.

The company had a weekly meeting of the employees regarding the projects accomplished.  Also they performed monthly board meetings  with the President, Directors and Area Managers for the updates regarding the project's performance.

    DISC has materials testing laboratory which is duly accredited by the Department of Public Works and Highways. The laboratory ensures that the projects and structures conform with safety and efficiency standards of DPWH. This done by checking the performance of the construction materials and against instituted standards and specification.

                
The company is accredited to undertake quality testing of soils and soil aggregates, coarse and fine aggregates, comprehensive strengths test of asphalt, tensile strength and bending test of reinforcing steel bars and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and density tests.
            

 The common problems they had encountered were:

• Bad weather condition such as typhoon which lead to delay of working the projects.
• Insufficient supplies or materials.Example, out of stock in the local market.

Since they were working in a construction projects, when it comes to written reports, they usually used word or excel and mostly they do it manually. Such software systems in their own were not used by the company. 

The basis for the cost was budgeting the amount of the project when awarded. Usually the projects were through bidding,So there was already an approved budget by the President based on the contract awarded.

The projects are still active in Leyte and Manila. 

Next post: Dansalan College Foundation Incorporated

DANSALAN COLLEGE FOUNDATION INCORPORATED

The Next company we interviewed was DANSALAN COLLEGE FOUNDATION INCORPORATED located in  Marinaut, Marawi City, with  82 employees both regular and unknown casuals. It includes services Infrastructure, Landscape, Campus Beautification, Campus extension and Academic Programs.

We interviewed Mr. Ruben Lucanas and asked about how they manage their projects.

Traditional Approach

Flow: 

1. The President commands the Heads of the Departments to Plan and Design a program for their department.
2. The Employees are responsible for Planning and Designing, Execution, and, Monitoring and Controlling. It is also his/her responsibility to contact help from other departments who are included in the project. (e.g. the high school dept. head is responsible for contacting the building and grounds head for facilities for his/her project)

The project managers are employed and usually Department Heads and assigned by the president of the school.

The products are students in different levels (e.g. Nursery, Pre-School, Elementary, and High School). They are being tested through their performances in different examinations. 

In Building Infrastructures for academic programs, construction standards are being considered.No testing metrics, only Student evaluation through entrance examinations and inter-school contests.Accreditation for Quality Education is done every 5 years. 

Next post: VISCAS CORPORATION

VISCAS CORPORATION

VISCAS is a joint corporation of Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. and Fujikura Ltd., commenced business operations as an underground power cable engineering and overseas sales and marketing company, utilizing the experience and expertise cultivated over the century in the field of design, engineering and construction work of power cables.


The company’s headquarters is at Higashi Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Japan. The company was founded on September 26, 2001 and started its operation October  1, 2001. Its company capital is about 12.1 billion yen and shareholders have 50% for Furukawa and 50% for Fijikura.

We interviewed Mr. Roberto Quimque for the company’s information. He is now based in Doha, Qatar for a project of underwater cable installation. The company’s number of employee in Qatar is about 75 and mainly they are subcontracted.

Viscas is applying project management and they usually have atmost 2 projects a year. There projects is about Construction (Extra High Voltage Underground Cable Installation, Termination, Testing & Commissioning). The project manager is just within the company. The assignment of project manager is based on the decision of Head Office in Japan and with Client’s approval.

 One of the best practices when it comes to project management are weekly, monthly meetings with subcontractors and clients, Interface Meetings with other Main Contractors involved on particular project.

Common problems that occur during project period are Way leaves, completion dates due to delay by third parties.

Testing of product is done through soil investigation electrical tests including high voltage test.

 Ensuring the quality of product is by developing projects in line with Client’s approved QA/QC Manual submittals. Costing of products is based on Local Market Price.