The Role of Quantity Surveyor in Main Contractor and ID Firm

This report examines the contrasting roles of Quantity Surveyors (QS) within main contractor and interior design (ID) firms, focusing on a Singapore-based case study. It explores the importance of QS in cost estimation, procurement, and project management, highlighting the potential disorganization and financial risks that arise in ID firms without a QS. The research addresses the need for advanced technology in quantity surveying to resolve cost-related issues, resource control, and scheduling challenges. The study investigates the differences in QS responsibilities, current industry practices, and identifies factors influencing QS motivation. The literature review covers the QS's role in project delivery, international construction, and the application of traditional quantity surveying practices. The report also includes a discussion of the research methodology, action plans, and the analysis of data, along with conclusions and recommendations to improve QS performance and address constraints within both main contractor and ID firm settings.

Comparison between the Role of QS
in Main Contractor and ID Firm
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................1
1.1 Problem Statement....................................................................................................2
1.2 Research Questions...................................................................................................3
1.3 Aim of the Research..................................................................................................3
1.4 Research Objectives..................................................................................................3
1.5 Scope of the Project...................................................................................................4
2. Literature Review...............................................................................................................5
2.1 Overview of Literature Review................................................................................5
3. Research Methodology.....................................................................................................10
4. Action Planned.................................................................................................................11
5. Argument and Evidence...................................................................................................12
6. Comparing the differences between the role of QS in a main contractor and the Interior
Design firm...............................................................................................................................14
7. Discussion........................................................................................................................17
7.1 SPSS Analysis...........................................................................................................19
7.1.1 Descriptive Analysis.........................................................................................19
7.1.2 Inferential Analysis In Regression..................................................................20
8. Conclusions......................................................................................................................22
9. Recommendations............................................................................................................24
References................................................................................................................................25

1. Introduction
Architecture refers to the art and science of designing and constructing the built
environment, which supports all the various forms of human activities and interactions. Some
of the main roles of the architectural industry and the necessary skills will be discussed in this
report. It is a fact that, the size of the organization denotes the number of positions i.e., if the
organization is large then there will be many positions to who the work will be divided, but if
the firm is small in such case one individual has to carry out various tasks(Shoko Press,
2019).
The Quantity surveyors supports the firm with professional advice in terms of
property and construction. Their role comprises of completing the detailed reports known as
building surveys. Surveyors also value the worth of properties by identifying defects and they
even give advice related to repair and maintenance.The essential skills needed to be an
effective surveyor are, maths, science and engineering skills, the analyzing ability and the
skills to interpret the graphical data, negotiating, communication and presentation skills.
The interior design firm’s designers ensure that the design and decoration are planned
and supervised inside of the buildings, by concentrating on the aesthetics and functions of the
interior spaces. Moreover, the interior designers are held responsible to the colour added to
the interiors and for the selection of the decorative items like, the furniture, lighting, soft
furnishing and the art work lighting. The essential skills needed to be an effective interior
designer, the creativity, ability to communicate the ideas, imagination, listening and
understandingthe clients’ needs, eye for detailing, colour sense, project and time
management, illustration and technical drawing, and teamwork are required(Shoko Press,
2019).
In the construction industry, the Quantity Surveyor (QS) helps to access the
measurements, quantities, material cost, service cost and labour costs (Willmott Dixon,
2019).This report’s main purpose includes investigating the significant of the QS in the
Interior Design firm.It is believed that the absence of Quantity Surveyor can distort the order
of the work flow process followed by the company. The QS helps to facilitate professional
assistance to prepare the commercial estimations of the tenders/ projects.The QS also
prepares the bills of labour and service costs. It also schedules the quantities of materials
required. They even prepare the builders’ bills of quantities (BOQ) for estimating the tenders
and for other pricing purposes.Thus, in the construction industry, for every single civil
engineering project at least one Quantity Surveyor is necessary.
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The elements of a specialist Quantity Surveyor are extensively worried about the
control of the expense on development projects. The techniques utilized, however covers
thescope of exercises which may incorporate cost arranging, esteem building, possibility
considers, money saving advantage examination, life cycle costing, valuation, and cost
estimation. Quantity surveyors controls the development costs by precise estimation of the
work required, the utilization of master learning of expenses and costs of work, work,
materials and plant required, a comprehension of the ramifications of structure choices at a
beginning period to guarantee that great esteem is gotten for the cash to be exhausted. The
strategy of estimating quantityfrom illustrations, portrayals and particulars arranged by
fashioners, basically designers and architects, so as to get ready delicate/contract records, is
referred to in the business as taking off. The quantity of work undertaken regularly are
utilized to get ready the bills of quantity as consented by the QS and agent’s request for the
development of the construction project. Numerous bigger QS firms have their own in-house
strategies for estimation and most bills of quantities arranged today are in a contracted
configuration from the one required by the SMM. By and large an accomplished surveyor
would encourage every one of the abilities accessible to limit extra expenses to a project and
keep up a top notch benefit for clients.
Therefore, this report will help to understand the various roles of Quantity Surveyor in
main contractor and the interior design firm. In this research work, the Singapore Interior
Design firm will be considered for the case study.
1.1 Problem Statement
As in the construction industry, the quantity surveyor plays a significant role almost in
all the phases. The Quantity Surveyors play an essential role mainly in estimating the cost of
the building, but the modern quantity surveyor also facilitates the service which covers
procurement, contractual schedules along with cost management of the project.Thus, there is
an increasing demand for better quality, cost effectiveness and environment friendly
construction, which has led the development of Building Information Modelling (BIM)
technology. However, without the Quantity Surveyor in the Interior Design Company, the
company’s procedure gets disorganized and loses its systematic flow. Thus, the problem
refers to determining the role of QS in the main contractor and in the interior design firm, so
that it is determined whether the advanced technology is required for quantity surveying or
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not, which has the capacity to address and resolve the issues related to cost, controlling the
resource, schedules and so on.
Thus, from the above statement the problem in the Singapore based interior design
firm includes, lack of motivation for the QSs in the Malaysian construction industry,for
improving their performance.
1.2 Research Questions
The below listed research questions must be addressed:
1) What is the difference between the role of QS in various interior Design
companies and in the main contractor?
2) Who is the Main contractor?
3) What does the interior firms do?
4) Is QS important or not?
5) What are the current industry practices related to Quantity surveying?
1.3 Aim of the Research
This research work’s aim refers to studying the comparison between the role of the
QS in the main contractor and Interior Design Firm. It is mainly to differentiate the roles of
the Quantity Surveyor in terms of main contractor and in terms of the interior design firms. In
the project delivery processes, the services of Quantity Surveyor (QS) are valued. The main
strengths of QS includes, negotiation skills and networking skills.In the construction industry,
the Quantity Surveyor (QS) helps to access the measurements, quantities, material cost,
service cost and labour costs (Willmott Dixon, 2019). It is believed that the absence of
Quantity Surveyor can distort the order of the work flow process followed by the company.
1.4 Research Objectives
This research work’s objective includes identifying the role of the main contractor and
the interior firms with regards to Quantity Surveying. This study contains the following sub-
objectives:
1) To conduct a comprehensive review onthe sources and the constraints present in the
interior design firms and main contractors with the QS.
2) To select a methodology for easily identifying the constraints.
3) To review the present practices in the construction industry related to interior design.
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4) To provide solutions to help avoid the constraints.
5) To probe the task of quantity surveyors in the Interior Design Companies and main
contractors.
6) To critically review the literature on roles of QS in main contractor and in the interior
design firm.
7) To explore the quantity surveyors’ role.
8) To study and recognize the factors which has effect on the motivation of the QSs.
1.5 Scope of the Project
Here, the scope of this project includes clarifying the different roles of Quantity
Surveyor in main contractor and in the Interior Design Firm. Moreover, the scope helps to
understand the importance of QS in the construction industry.On the other hand, it helps to
find an alternative for the identified constrains during the delivery process.
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2. Literature Review
2.1 Overview of Literature Review
The preliminary literature review explains the Quantity surveyor’s role in the delivery
of construction projects. Next, QS’s role in the international construction field is reviewed
effectively. The study related to quantity surveying practice of the contractors in the
construction process is also researched. The study on motivatingthe QSs, in the Malaysian
construction industry to improve their performance is studied completely.The importance of
QS in the interior design companies is also determined. The previous research papers are
used to identify the research problems,strengths and weaknesseswith justification. It is
understood that, the QSsare important for facilitating professional assistance to prepare the
commercial estimations of the tenders. The QS also helps to access the measurements,
quantities, material cost, service cost and labor costs. The limitations due to the lack of QS in
the interior design firm are also reviewed. This research is important to determine whether
the advanced technology is required for quantity surveying or not.
According to (Mbachu, 2015), from the existing studies and based on the information
available publicly, the author aimed to find answers related to how the stakeholders value the
QS's services in the project delivery process, with the help of desktop survey. Further, the
author investigates the strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement in QS services.
However, it is observed that the NZIQS Conditions of Engagement and a wider literature
could eventually project some insights on the traditional roles of the QS. Boththe pre-contract
and post-contract stages of project development are researched. This research highlights
certain insightswhich refer to the areas of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of
the QS profession. Totally twenty five strengths, twenty five weaknesses, fourteen
opportunities and twenty two threats were found. The strengths included various skillslike,
negotiation skills, networking skills, the weaknesses include lack of business and managerial
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skills, poor attitude, towards the CPD, the inconsistencies related to cost estimate, improper
planning and controlling the expenses of construction for decreasing the cost overruns. It is
observed that in QS services further improvization is required for enhancing its delivery
values. On the other hand, long-term viability includes lifelong learning experience which is
essential to have a diversified portfolio of services. This engages in the joint ventures, and for
those who partner withthe foreigncompanies for exploring the foreign markets related to
construction industry.
As per (Wao and Flood, 2016), in certain countries the profession of quantity
surveying is disagreeable, for example, the USA. But, in the universal development field,
quantity surveyors have prestigious development abilities and are generally engaged with the
projects related to construction. They have diverse names in various nations like for instance,
construction accountant, building economist, cost engineer or the cost manager. Regardless of
the diverse names, they have huge abilities that have advanced to meet the expanding and
changing needs of customers, particularly in the international construction field. This
research paper has successfully explored the quantity surveyors' roles and the complexities
they may discover in global construction. A writing audit and study survey were utilized to
explore the complexities, roles and the dimension of rivalry from other construction experts.
The outcomes demonstrated that the quantity surveyors had numerous jobs in construction,
with a large share of them going about as delegates of customers in the construction ventures.
Likewise, they encountered differed complexities and confronted rivalry from other
construction experts. It is critical that they had methods to defend the profession's survival
and had space for future development and enhancement of their roles in global development.
The examination gives valuable data to those experts and customers wishing to participate in
the international construction.
It is stated in (Cornick and Osbon, 2006), that the Quantity surveyors in construction
organizations apply customary practices of quantity surveying to meet the prerequisites of
the specialist quantity surveyors representing the customer. Different practices must be
utilized to suit the organization's internal cost accounting and reporting prerequisites. The
construction organization's quantity surveyor practice should fulfil both the outside and
interior needs and, so as to help corporate input, must be institutionalized over the
organization's projects. This paper depicts an examination of the role played by the quantity
surveyor in the construction organization, where a specific organization was studied. It was
done as a feature of the organization's quality enhancement process. The examination
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distinguished the requirement for various changes to fulfil the points of the quantity
surveying practice. Also, the paper depicts the consequence of their execution. Further,
during the construction period, it upgrades the cost control of a project and empowers the
quantity surveyor to give better help to the site project manager.
According to(Herman, 2016), the construction industry is effectively contains
competitive environment, and because of this, the economy and quality of life gets affected,
and the method of working used by the people is also changing, for the sake of
sustenance.Motivation of the employees’ play a significant role in the construction based
industry, as it is the factor which contributes to the performance of the QS’s job. Motivation
is the key factor that influences people to do better by initiating action to achieve the set goals
and results in increased performance. Meanwhile, the employees’performance is the measure
of the quality of an organization. In construction, quantity surveyors contribute to the overall
construction performance, mainly, by adding value to the contractual and financial
management of projects starting from the preconstruction stage until post-construction stage.
For adapting to the challenging environment, the way the QSs carry out their work has
changed. Sadly, no motivation framework is available related to the profession of QS which
can relate to motivation for improving their performance. Hence, this research is carried out
focusing on the motivation factors of quantity surveyors from three types of organizations
such as the private consultancy firms,government agencies, and the private contracting
companies, in the context of Malaysian construction industry. This research adapts the
mixed-methods research for achieving the triangulation. Nearly 200 questionnaire surveys
were distributed with the help of email, web and postal based methods. Statistically, 71
questionnaires were analyzedwith the help of KruskalWallis analysis and the rest of the
analysis used the SPSS software. The interviews were analyzedwith the help of content
analysis by using the Nvivo software, post transcription process. The result showed that the
motivation factors of QSs in the construction industry won’t differ based on the various sorts
of organizations. Therefore, one conceptual framework for QSs, irrespective of the
organizationstypes they work in/ with, is developed. The conceptual framework is developed
and validated for benefiting the QSs, construction organizations, education institutions, and
professional bodies’ performance when it is utilized effectively.
Thus, the interior design firm’s service contains some general practices like, the
Consultation of Design, DesignConceptual, Presentation of the Design, project’sbudgeting
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and costing, management of the projectand assigning the roles. During this process, each
party compels on the design and it is the role of the project manager to take care of the budget
by controlling and managing the tasks prepared by the QS.
The quantity surveyor’s role in the interior design firm comprises of ensuring that
each costings are prepared in the quotation form prior to the actual spendings, thus all the
expenses are reported right from the starting throughout the construction period. In various
project, the customer does this in the tender format,which is needed by the QS to propose the
quotations and for spreading it into various categories of personnel associated to the project.
This technique is broadly utilized by numerous financial specialists for controlling the use of
the funds and ensures that it was lead in the most reasonable and legit practice. When the
majority of the classifications are listed the items, then the QS’s obligations includes to
completely look into the detail of all the costing that are valued in the most ideal way. Above
all, each quotation that was drafted, should be explained by the QS either to the sales
personnel or to the designers, as the most of the QS won't meet the customer to legitimize the
expenses. It is also obvious that leading any project requires various personnel like the
administrators,designers, workers and the sub-contractors. Everybody must perform their
respective roles with utmost care and with responsibility for accomplishingthe project
effectively. As a whole, the QS’s role refers to a scaffold or the interpreter between the
designers, project manager and the sales for executing the respective design. The QS can be
denoted as the core for running the business.Thus, detail attention is needed to ensure that
there won't be any cost spillage during the project’s execution time. The project’s directions
and task execution is firmly specified in the quotation.
The following is the proof that various reviews related to motivation factors of the
construction professionals are researched.
According to (Leung, Chen and Yu, 2008) concentrates on the interrelationship
between the job performance, commitment and the job satisfaction of the construction
professionals present in Hong Kong.
The author from (Oyedele, 2010) investigates on designers’ motivation in the Irish
based construction companies.
As per (Lim and Ling, 2012) the research relate to HR (human resource) practice
which leads to job satisfaction of the professional staff in contracting companies present in
Singapore.
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From various studies it is determined that there is at least one motivation factor,
which is later utilized as the foundation of this study. However, a lot of research on the
factors which impact employees’ motivation in the organisations is present, and thus enough
literature are present and updated to deal with the professional quantity surveyor’s motivation
(Bowen and Cattell, 2008).
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3. Research Methodology
For this study, Literature reviewis the primary research method. The constraints are
identified and classified in a structured approach by using SPSS. The role of QS in main
contractor and ID Firm are compared. The difference in the roles are determined. Thus,
depending on the results the importance of QS will be determined. At last the usage of
advanced technology for quantity surveying will be researched (Pittard and Sell, 2016).This
research uses the quantitative approach, where the descriptive and inferential analysis will be
carried out.
The strategy to be implemented for this research could effectively include,
investigation, archiving the study, ethnography, actions on the conducted study and
researching on the case.The data is collected from the literature review, document
commentary and the prepared questionnaire.Thus, the collection of data will be carrying out
qualitatively with the help of the method like, questionnaire survey. In the survey, the
question form need to be formulated to provide opinions for the participants. Hence, the data
will be collected quantitatively with the help of numeric data, and this information will be
included in the survey’s form. The SPSS software will be used to statistically analyze the
results of the survey.
As a whole, the necessary steps to be followed in this study are listed below:
1) Reviewing or reading the articles related to Quantity Surveyor and the Interior
Design.
2) Identifying the issues related to Quantity Surveyor and the Interior Design.
3) Establishing the research proposal’saim and objectives.
4) Reviewing more number of articles associated with the problems in the project
without the Quantity Surveyor.
5) Comparing the role of Quantity Surveyor in the main contractor and in the
interior design firm.
6) Reviewing more number of articles associated with the problems in the project
with Quantity Surveyor.
7) Then, ensuring the development of the research design and the research
method.
8) Preparing and developing the research programs.
9) Submitting the research proposal.
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