PLANNING AND CONTROL OF BUILDING PROGRAMME IN HDB

Abstract

Over the past 24 years of its existence, HOB has completed four 5-year Building Plans and now in the fifth 5-year Plan, with a total of 400,657 dwelling units and 36,751 of shops and industrial premises completed. Just as the demand was rising sharply in 1981, building construction industry was also beseiged by many problems such as shortage of materials, skilled labour and even building contractors responding to the tenders. Better planning and control is seen to be able to forestall part of the problems and help supplying the targ,targeted units to meet the demand. Planning can be classified into three levels, namely strategic planning, programming and budgeting, with increasing details but reducing scope in that order. These levels of planning are performed at different hierarchical levels of the organization, but approved by the top management. Control system is usually structured according to responsibility centres, the operating units held accountable for results as well as being the entity for dispensing rewards. Many quantitative and behavioural techniques are available in the design of planning and control system for responsibility centres to improve productivity. In pa.rticular, operating budgets are management tools for motivating the operating managers of responsibility centres and both superior and subordinate managers should be committed to keeping the budgets once set up as the standard for measuring performance. Operating managers should be concetned with monitoring the current performance of their responsibility area as that is a measure of their own performance, Programme should also be evaluated periodically by management tor its effectiveness in achieving the organizational objectives. Planning in HOB is demand generated, and top management is exercising control in both planning and implementation of Building Programme by way of its strategic decisions. Development process of a project begins with town planning, through application to authorities for building services, land acquisition to preparation of working drawings tor calling tenders. Building Programme is the aggregate of estates planned for various stages ot implementation throughout the island. 5-year Building Programme is frequently revised to reflect the changes in actual or forecast demand and approved by top management. All senior and middle line managers are concerned with project management, the specific application of planning and control in project work for controlling time and cost of completion. Control measures and contractors' motivation are mostly geared to alleviating delay to completion in the situation where there is still some labour shortage problem due. to the rapid development in Singapore. For there to be success in project management and Building Programme, building resource planning should be made an integral part of the Building Programme and managed at all time. Training and development of HDB Clerks-of-Works and contractors is advocated for their being important ingredient in the implementation of the Programme. Productivity or responsibility centres can be improved through correct motivation of both indi victuals and groups. Better project management can result by having cocrdinators prosessing expert power and being convincing together with more clerks-of-works who can grapple matrix situation and integrate anong contractors on site. The setting up of a Staff Unit for Planning and control and appointment of Corporate Planners at Corporate level will serve to develop, monitor and review the planning and control activities in HDB. It will also play the role of stimulating the planning of Building Programme and its revision as well as coordinating the planning system and Control Organizations both within HDB and among HDB and other bodies.