Study On Entire Process Control Of Construction Project Cost

With the improvement of socialist market economy reform, the economy of China develops fast, the project construction scale and technological level increase day by day. The target of project management is to plan, organize, balance, and control all the work in one project cycle. The core of control is quality, progress and cost. Because of China’s long-time planned economy system, the construction industry mostly adopt quota pricing model to determine the project cost, which is generally limited to the settlement audit after completion of project. When the project cost staff prepare the final account of project, the construction scheme and design have already been decided and put into practice, so the remaining work is just to calculate project cost change caused by the alteration of design and prevent overestimation of project budget. If decision-making is lacking or unreasonable in the initial stages of the project, or the scheme has some omissions or infeasible factors, the cost management will be counter-productive. In addition, scheme selection and design of some project deviate from the construction and later-period management, which also complicates the overall cost control, and brings irretrievable economic loss in later-period control. So the urgent task is to strengthen the whole process cost management of the project, which concerns about the enhancement of the management, efficient allocation and utilization of limited investment in the construction of the project cost control, in order to reduce project cost, save construction investment cost, attain economic and social benefit, while at the same time keeps the scale, standard, construction period, quality of the project intact.The whole process of cost control is referred to the whole cost management which permeate throughout the entire stages of construction investment decision and implementation. It mainly includes the project planning, investment estimates, economic evaluation, project financing analysis in the investment decision-making stage; scheme selection, construction draft design, and budget control in the design stage; the compilation of the quantities bill, contract signing in the bidding stage; the control of design change, project visa and claim management in the construction stage; the audit settlement in the completion stage. Many factors affect the project cost. In order to achieve the cost control target, staff from policy makers to field project management personnel should change the thinking-mode from passive control to active control. In case of deviation from the construction target, rectification should be taken timely and considered from more aspects, such as the selection of technical measures to ensure the construction period and quality, reduction of the unnecessary extra standard design and construction content, rigorous drafting of the terms of contract, and timely disposal of change in construction process.This paper first expounds the purpose, significance and the concept of project cost control, introduces briefly engineering cost control in foreign countries, describes the basic theory, development and management of domestic engineering cost control, and puts forward the problems existing in the whole process of cost control of domestic engineering project. Combined with the example of cost control of LQY hospital, the paper discusses the relevant practical significance and fundamental purpose of cost control in the investment decision stage, design stage, bidding stage, construction stage and completion stage. Considering the actual situation of project cost control, this paper also summarizes existing problems at various stages of the project application in the whole process of cost control. An example of hospital relocation is given, and the reason for various events is analyzed. Based on the results of previous studies, reasonable suggestions and management measures are proposed. Through the investigation of LQY hospital construction site, together with the relevant statistical data, analysis and summary of the implementation of each stage of the construction cost are given, as well as deviation analysis and corrective measures are executed. From the study on cost control theory of the whole process and practical case, this paper provides for the development of related cost control in the whole construction project management. Methods summarized in this paper can also extend to other engineering construction projects and further improve the management level in project cost control to create better social and economic benefits.