// case study · construction
Site Costing System
Cost control and management reporting for some of South Africa's largest infrastructure projects.
- Projects
- Coega port · OR Tambo second terminal · main road through Harare
- Clients
- Group Five joint venture (Coega) · Airports Company South Africa (OR Tambo)
- Duration
- Coega 5 years · OR Tambo 3 years
- Technology
- Microsoft Access front end on Microsoft SQL Server
- Rudie's role
- Analysis, database design, development, reports and support
// the problem
Two reporting worlds, one project
On Coega port, Group Five worked in a joint venture with a European partner that used a different style of reporting to manage projects. Management needed one view of costs that both sides could trust, every month.
On OR Tambo's second terminal the need was straightforward and demanding: control the project's costs as they happened, not after the fact.
// what was built
One system for every cost on site
Rudie built the Site Costing System (SCS) on Microsoft SQL Server with an Access front end. It recorded every cost on site against the bill of quantities and produced the monthly management reports.
- BOQ items with actual cost against budget, month by month
- Diesel per vehicle and machine
- Bitumen and materials usage
- Stores received and issued
- Vehicles and plant
- Integration with the site weighbridge
- Monthly management reports per category, division and section
// the result
Millions of rands, accounted for
Millions of rands were managed through SCS in every category, division and section of the work. The system ran on Coega for five years and on OR Tambo for three, and was also used on a main road project through Harare.
The same thinking now goes into cost control systems for contractors of any size, built faster with modern web technology.
// let's talk
Tell Rudie what's slowing your business down.
The first visit is free. You'll leave with a clear idea of what a system could do and what it would cost per phase.