ENGG957 Project Implementation and Outsourcing For Test Environment

Answer:

Introduction

The proposed project suggests the implementation of Fire Alarm Monitoring System using which, monitoring of the fire alarm system and its testing and maintenances on a periodic basis by the contractors. The maintenance work must be done 24 hours a day and seven days a week while testing and monitoring need to be done within specific frequencies. Emaar are looking to hire external contractors who will demonstrate significant professional competence while performing the aforementioned duties and will fulfill the terms of contract. Emaar has already provided certain proposal guidelines that the contractors must fulfill while submitting their proposals for contract consideration. As a result, a project has been developed in which, the fire alarm system will be tested, monitored and maintained over a certain period of time. The project also needs to fulfill the terms set by industrial regulations and the testing should only be done as per UAE Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice. In order to create a test environment, an artificial hazard will be created using fire and smoke in a controlled manner to determine whether the fire alarm system is working at the right time or not. The project also includes asset and organization design, compliance with employment and IR law of the company and the capture and use of information for maintenance management.

In this report, the final project report has been developed for the aforementioned activities and all the relevant topics as well as selected information from the RFP have been covered.

Summary of the RFP

The Request for Proposal (RFP) was published to gain attention from external contractors who will be interested to perform Fire Alarm monitoring and management for Emaar. Emaar has also developed a project accordingly and the contractor will be chosen based on the compliance with the proposal requirements, services offered, price charged and relevant details mentioned in the proposal. The overall RFP can be summarized by the following points.

Proposal Guidelines – Emaar has specifically mentioned certain guidelines that must be followed while the contractors submit their proposals. These guidelines mainly give power to Emaar to reject any or all proposals or terminate the RFP process at any point of time, to be able to decide the timings of work to be delivered by the contractors, to negotiate fees with the contractors and determination of level of qualifications of the contractors. Emaar will also have the power to alter the project timeline although the contractor will be notified in case of the same.

Form of Proposal – Emaar has stated that the proposals should be sent in a specific format that includes a transmittal letter, a proposal, a pricing list and some references of companies that the contractor uses for procurement of resources and mutual collaborations during a project work.

Bidder Qualifications – Emaar has set a certain standard of bidder qualification that must be fulfilled by the contractors. The qualifications include certain amount of experience in the field of work, number of full time and part time workers employed by the contractor, past examples of work delivered like corporate websites designed by the contractors’ teams, resources to be utilized in the project, testing plan, timeframe / schedule to be followed for the project, methodology to be followed for the project management and others.

Proposal Evaluation Criteria – Emaar has also released a set of criteria for the evaluation of the proposals submitted by the contractors. In these criteria, Emaar will determine the suitability and feasibility of the proposals as well as organizational experience, previous works, value and cost demanded by the contractor, quality of proposal, technical expertise and others.

Analysis and Decision Process

As mentioned in the summary of the RFP, the decision making process will be done by Emaar based on certain criteria and specifications. The analysis of the proposals for the project is to be done if the following requirements are fulfilled.

• The contractor has clearly described about an overall time period for the execution of the project and has clearly stated the budget required for the project.
• The contractor has stated what will be done in order to fulfill the requirements of the project.
• The contractor has mentioned a list of human resources that he will deploy for the execution work of the project.
• The contractor has sufficient experience in the selected field of the project.

The decision making criteria will depend mainly on the three main points as mentioned by Emaar. These are described as follows.

Asset and Work Organization Design – Asset and work organization design is an important factor for the decision making process required in the project. The project work for Emaar requires the contractor and project workers to handle organizational assets efficiently so that the company does not have to experience losses due to loss of assets during the project. The project requires a considerable amount of time and moreover, will require displacement of certain assets in order to perform technical work related to the project [5]. However, the workers need to ensure that the assets are well managed and not wasted or damaged. Work organization design is also another criterion for the decision making process. The contractor must be able to organize the project work so that the work requirements are fulfilled along with specific target to meet the organizational goals and objectives set during the authorization of the project. Emaar also has the right to decide regarding termination of any contract if the contractor fails to organize the work as per the requirements of the project as well as the organization.

Employment and IR Law – The decision making process for the employment of the contractor as well as the necessary human resources for the project will have to fulfill the guidelines provided by the employment law of UAE. The recruitment of the human resources will also require fulfilling of the IR law of UAE that has some specific rules and conditions for the employment of workers for industrial work [3]. Hence, unless these particular rules and guidelines are followed, no recruitment can be done by Emaar. As per the rules, there are certain conditions like work experience, technical expertise and skills, association with a specific organization, wage structure and others. During the recruitment process, the decision making process to be executed by Emaar should be done after analyzing the fulfillment of these conditions or otherwise, they may face legal action.

Information Capture and Use, IT System for Maintenance Management – The decision making process for Emaar during the project work will also depend on the capture and use of information by the workers under contract for the project. Emaar has set out certain requirements and goals for the project and will also publish information regarding the project after selection of contractor. It is the duty of the contract workers to capture information for the same and use the captured information for applying in the project work with the final goal to meet the objectives set by Emaar [6]. The contract workers also need to utilize IT system for the maintenance management of the Fire Alarm System and this requires sufficient technical expertise of the workers. If during decision making, Emaar finds that the workers are not technically skilled in using information technology in the project, the company may terminate the contract with the selected contractor.

Discussion Regarding Final Project

Project Scope and Objectives

The overall scope of the final project includes inspection and testing resources as well as controlling and management of the fire alarm system. Emaar has set out a set of project objectives that are listed as follows.

• To develop a specific work framework for the project mentioned
• To hire a specific contractor after a significant period of evaluation of project proposals
• To hire human resources as per employment and IR guidelines
• To prepare an asset management plan
• To execute the control and management of the fire alarm system
• To use information technology like software and relevant programs for controlling the fire alarm system online
• To complete the project within a time period of one year

Client Management Strategy

In order to gain success in the project, the contractor must utilize a suitable client management strategy that aims to build a strong work relationship with the client i.e. Emaar as well as fulfill the requirements of the project set by the client. The client management strategy should include the following aspects.

Listen to the Client – Before submitting the proposal or sign contract with the client, the contractor must first listen to the client. The contractor must be able to determine exactly what the client demands from the project and whether the contractor will be able to fulfill the requirements within the pre set conditions like time, budget and others. If the contractor signs contract without understanding the requirements, there will be negative effects in the project and as a result, the clients will not be satisfied with the project.

Convince the Client – It is also the duty of the contractor that to convince the client that he is the best one for the job of the project. In order to convince the client, the contractor should have evidences of project work performed by him in the past [1]. Moreover, Emaar will also hire contractor based on past work experience and achievements in similar projects and hence, recruitment will not be done unless the client i.e. Emaar is completely convinced.

Deal with Client Issue – The client has authorized the project in order to solve and address certain issues. Hence, the contractor must be able to deal with the client issues throughout the course of the project [10]. Furthermore, these issues must be fulfilled by complying with the project guidelines and standards set by Emaar at the start of the project.

Gain Customer Trust – The final requirement is to gain the trust of the client through the work delivered in the project. This will not only provide the contractor with additional benefits in the project but will also help to develop a proper business relationship with the client so that the client will again hire the same contractor for future project endeavors.

OHS Requirements

This project is for a long term and large scale and hence, it must comply with Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines. Furthermore, for testing phase of the project, creation of a hazardous environment like fire and smoke needs to be created and hence, OHS guidelines will play a major role in this phase of the project. Some of the OHS guidelines to be fulfilled in the project include the following aspects.

Safety Equipments – The project work includes the testing and control of the fire alarm system for which, an environment of smoke and fire needs to be created within a controlled environment at a certain part of the building [2]. Since the workers will be actively working on the project in this situation, they will need to wear fire resistant costumes, smoke mask and use equipments for protection against fire and smoke.

Fire Extinguisher – Fire extinguishers should be kept ready at all times during project work. There are high chances that the demo fire during alarm testing may get out of control and try to spread around the building [11]. In this case, fire extinguishers are to be used to immediately extinguish the fire.

Training – The workers should be well trained to handle the hazardous situations in order to ensure occupational health and safety for themselves [8]. Furthermore, training is to the provided to the people residing in the building regarding how to understand the fire alarm system in order to get rid of any fire or smoke hazard inside the building.

Profit Projections and Sustainability

Emaar has authorized the project only because of certain profit projections and sustainability of the building against any type of hazards. As per an analysis conducted by the company, it has determined that if there is at least one case of smoke and fire incident in one year, it will lose significant amount of funds for the assets damaged and destroyed by the fire [7]. On the other hand, if the project work is completed successfully at the expense of a certain amount of fund, the chances of damage from the fire incidents will decrease by 80% and this, the company will have significant profitability from the project.

Sustainability is also an important part of this particular project. With repeated incidents of fire and smoke, a huge amount of assets and properties can be damaged or destroyed and the residents of the building may also be hurt from the incidents [3]. With the fire alarm system, the chances of such damage are minimized thus enhancing the sustainability of the company with respect to the particular building.

Projected Timeline for the Project

A proposed timeline for the entire project is shown in the following table.

Conclusion

This report has delivered a suitable project report on the management, maintenance, control and testing of the fire alarm system for Emaar. In this report, the overall RFP has been summarized in order to determine the exact requirements set by Emaar for hiring contractor and starting the project work. The project work for Emaar requires the contractor and project workers to handle organizational assets efficiently so that the company does not have to experience losses due to loss of assets during the project. The project requires a considerable amount of time and moreover, will require displacement of certain assets in order to perform technical work related to the project. In addition to the handling and management of assets during the project, the project workers will also need to give significant attention towards certain aspects like client relationship management, occupational health and safety, maintaining sustainability and others. Of these factors, OHS is the most important as there are significant hazards associated with the project work especially during testing of the fire alarm system. This project is proposed to be executed over a period of 505 days and aims to optimize the performances of the fire alarm system such that the chances of damage in the building due to fire and smoke can be minimized by at least 80%. For choosing a particular contractor for the project work, Emaar has to deal with significant decision making process that has also been described in the initial parts of the report.

References

• Almost, J. M., VanDenKerkhof, E. G., Strahlendorf, P., Tett, L. C., Noonan, J., Hayes, T., ... & Paré, G. C. (2018). A study of leading indicators for occupational health and safety management systems in healthcare. BMC health services research, 18(1), 296.
• Bergström, G., Lohela-Karlsson, M., Kwak, L., Bodin, L., Jensen, I., Torgén, M., & Nybergh, L. (2017). Preventing sickness absenteeism among employees with common mental disorders or stress-related symptoms at work: Design of a cluster randomized controlled trial of a problem-solving based intervention versus care-as-usual conducted at the Occupational Health Services. BMC public health, 17(1), 436.
• Cascio, W. (2018). Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
• Garrido, F., Verbeke, W., & Bravo, C. (2018). A Robust profit measure for binary classification model evaluation. Expert Systems with Applications, 92, 154-160.
• Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.
• Kapur, P. K., Anand, A., & Sachdeva, N. (2014). Profit estimation for a product under warranty: an evaluation based on customer's expectation and satisfaction. International Journal of Reliability, Quality and Safety Engineering, 21(06), 1450029.
• Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
• Meera, C. S., Sairam, P. S., Sunny, S., Singh, R., & Singh, R. (2015, March). Implementation of an incampus fire alarm system using zigbee. In Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom), 2015 2nd International Conference on(pp. 732-737). IEEE.
• Obeidat, B. Y., Al-Dmour, R. H., & Tarhini, A. (2015). Knowledge management strategies as intermediary variables between itbusiness strategic alignment and firm performance. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 11(7).
• Painter, R., & Holmes, A. (2015). Cases and materials on Employment Law. Oxford University Press, USA.
• Yazdani, A., Neumann, W. P., Imbeau, D., Bigelow, P., Pagell, M., Theberge, N., ... & Wells, R. (2015). How compatible are participatory ergonomics programs with occupational health and safety management systems?. Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 111-123.