Cost-Focused: The Downfall of Many Construction Projects

Many projects begin with a group of financially-driven stakeholders whose primary objective is to maximize margins for investors. These financial goals are eventually passed down to Real Estate Portfolio Directors, who translate them into strict cost targets for each construction project.

While having a clear cost objective is essential for project management, what often gets overlooked is the strategy for achieving those objectives.

Too often, people assume that strategy in a construction project simply means focusing on cost—cutting expenses wherever possible. Over the years, I’ve seen Project Directors from real estate firms fall into this trap. Their approach is singular: reduce cost at all costs. They steer the project in this direction and expect Construction Managers to align and execute without question.

But focusing solely on cost is like trying to run a marathon by sprinting the entire distance, or fielding only your top scorers in a basketball game without regard for defense, stamina, or teamwork. Managing cost isn’t just about keeping your eye on the bottom line—it’s about having a strategy, a playbook, clear processes, and most importantly, effective communication and collaboration.

When cost becomes the sole focus, time and quality are inevitably compromised—and ironically, this often results in higher costs in the long run.

Back to the basketball analogy: you don’t win games with scorers alone. You need rebounders, defenders, playmakers, assists—and above all, a cohesive game plan that gets the team working together. Construction is no different.

In my experience, the best way to manage cost is not by obsessing over it, but by focusing on the Game Plan: collaboration, communication, and coordination. These elements lead to smarter decisions. Sometimes the most expensive option turns out to be the most cost-effective. And sometimes, what seems cheap ends up being the most expensive mistake.

Written by Damián Pizá, Founder of PIZA International, CMAA, ENR, PropTech Project Achievement Award Winner for Innovation and the use of Technology in Managing Construction Projects.

Civil Engineer from the TECH of MONTERREY and Masters Degree from Univ of Texas at Arlington.

PIZA INTERNATIONAL is a Mexico based company that specializes in developing and providing Project Management Office (PMO); Construction Management (CM Agency); Technology Management Services to construction developers and global companies

Timing… makes a difference

luckily I’ve encountered many mentors throughout my career that I’ve learned from, these mentors not necessarily were people that I learned good things, but I also learned what not to do. One of these mentors told me that information was more important than how that information was presented. Later in life I realized that the how information is presented is equally as important as the information itself.

The learning curve doesn’t stop there, after 30 years in the business I can now say that Timing is also very important for your management process.

You don’t go to your parents and ask for money when they are upset.

You can be a great presenter, have the best information, but the sense of timing creates enormous value. This might require patience, sensibility, intuition, a series of interpersonal skills that are rarely talked about in the Construction Management Industry.

Good timing will lead to better management.

Imagine your management process as a moving target, the right timing can lead to a better success rate, you can pull the trigger anytime, but sometimes that target is far that you will not make an impact, wait for it, and you’ll see the difference.

Practice your timing during the management of your project, you´ll create better outcomes.

Written by Damián Pizá, Founder of PIZA International, Winner of CMAA, ENR, PropTech Project Achievement Awards, for Innovation and the use of Technology in Managing Construction Projects.

Civil Engineer from the TECH of MONTERREY and Masters Degree from Univ of Texas at Arlington.

PIZA INTERNATIONAL is a Mexico based company that specializes in developing and providing Project Management Office (PMO); Construction Management (CM Agency); Technology Management Services to construction developers and global companies

Project Management: Punto de Encuentro de la Ciencia, Arte y Tecnología

La evolución del Project Management ha llegado a ser mas un arte que una ciencia. Tradicionalmente, el Project Management, se relaciona directamente a la administración de proyectos, donde los números, controles, mediciones y la organización es lo que lleva un proyecto de inicio a fin, siguiendo las famosas 5 fases (Inicio, Planeación, Concursos, Construcción y Cierre). Sin embargo, estas fases poco a poco van desapareciendo, se van empalmando, se hacen mas cortas, mas complejas y para ello debemos ser más eficientes utilizando procesos creativos, cambiando totalmente la manera en cómo aprendimos implementando la innovación y tecnologías.

Punta Brava Master Plan Golf Community

Hoy en día, podemos reunir 3 fases en una sola, BIM, Drones, Escaneos, Inteligencia Artificial, nos brindan las herramientas y procesos para llevarlo a cabo. Con un modelo (BIM) puedes conceptualizar, diseñar e incluso apoyar la fase de Contratación y Construcción al mismo tiempo. Con Drones puedes revisar el estatus actual de la construcción mientras elaboras los As builts que tradicionalmente quedaban en la fase de Cierre.

El arte del Project Management es la destreza, innovación y creatividad de fusionar y utilizar las herramientas tecnológicas y cambiar la manera tradicional del Project Management hacia la eficiencia y efectividad que hoy en día nos exige la falta de madurez que por tantos años hemos tenido en la industria.

BIM for Construction

To this day, many professionals relate BIM to Collaborative work for Designers only, this is a mistake many companies make, that if implemented could save them more than 5% of project costs.

Here are 3 examples on how we leverage BIM during Construction

1.- Logistics: If we can Virtually manage Construction, we can certainly analyze several options to build the same thing in a different way. Below we analyzed how the cut and fill of these foundations was going to be done. We gathered the Engineers, Contractors and Construction Managers, and analyzed 2 options on a virtual setting, ended up saving 50 thousand dollars

2.- Safety: Similar to the example above, we analyzed the best way to excavate the 4 sides of our project with the highest level of safety, we gathered the Soil Mechanics Engineer, Contractors and CM´s from our Team and went through the options, we actually lost 2 months because the method we needed to apply was staggering the foundations and retention walls, but we probably saved lives, which is unvaluable

3.- Progress Estimates: A contractor normally sends his progress with the Quantities they build, this document is so heavy that takes many hours to review, with BIM, this is reviewed in minutes, and not only that, the audits we have made for other projects the contractor has been very clever in hiding over-costs on each and every estimate an amount of 10K or 5K, which would have added up to 500 millons dlls if it wasn’t for BIM.

There are many other very good processes that we implement during construction, such as Field Verify which we overlay Model with 360 Images and can exactly point the differences. check our Linkedin regularly and other social media. @pizainternational.com @damianpiza

Written by Damián Pizá, Founder of PIZA International, Winner of CMAA, ENR, PropTech Project Achievement Awards, for Innovation and the use of Technology in Managing Construction Projects.

Civil Engineer from the TECH of MONTERREY and Masters Degree from Univ of Texas at Arlington.

PIZA INTERNATIONAL is a Mexico based company that specializes in developing and providing Project Management Office (PMO); Construction Management (CM Agency); Technology Management Services to construction developers and global companies

Focusing on COST leads to OVER-COST

In my years of working for global companies, the focus was always COST, budgets, estimates, change orders, among other admin activities related to COST Controls, COST Reviews, COST Reports, … so on..

Took many years to realize that OVER-COST is the consequence of improper management, and improper management is the consequence of poor methods, and poor methods are the consequence of leadership and leadership has to do with many intangibles such Collaboration, Communication, Coordination.

So being overbudget is the consequence of poor leadership? The short answer is YES, but to get from Leadership to COST there are many in-betweens.

Good Methods will enhance good Leadership which will enhance good Management. Methods focused on improving the intangibles are a good way to start: TECHNOLOGY. 

dp@pizainternational.com

Written by Damián Pizá, Founder of PIZA International, Winner of the CMAA’s and ENR 2022 Project Achievement Award, for Innovation and the use of Technology in Managing Construction Projects. Civil Engineer from the TECH of MONTERREY and Masters Degree from Univ of Texas at Arlington.

PIZA INTERNATIONAL is a Mexico based company that specializes in developing and providing Project Management Office (PMO); Construction Management (CM Agency); Technology Management Services to developers and global companies

Holding Teams Together

It’s no secret, there are capable professionals and uncapable professionals, there are loyal collaborators, but also un-loyal collaborators, it’s not that difficult if you open your eyes, you will encounter committed people and people who have no commitment at all, and guess what? Same goes for companies but I’ll focus on human resources for now. So, what can you do to have loyal, capable, committed professionals (the full package)?

The Pre-requisite:

Be a Leader, not a Boss: understanding the needs, having empathy, providing training, support, family first, professional improvement second, project execution third.

The Answer which not many global companies know:

Methodology: it’s the best solution for change, methods do not change, they remain the same, processes, procedures, standards prevail more than professionals do in a project, so if someone decides to leave, there is a very clear path to follow for the person who will fill that position

Methodology becomes very important and vital for a project, people will come and go, people are very unpredictable and to nail the full package is very difficult, but if you have discipline in following your method for the project, having people on board could save your project from a disastrous ending..

Establish your method, training, follow up, do not be swayed, have a PMO, have your weekly processes meetings.

Applying this, you have a much better chance of keeping your team together, and when the time comes for a transition of positions, it will take 1 week instead of 3 months like it usually does.

dp@pizainternational.com

Written by Damián Pizá, Founder of PIZA International, Winner of the CMAA’s and ENR 2022 Project Achievement Award, for Innovation and the use of Technology in Managing Construction Projects. Civil Engineer from the TECH of MONTERREY and Masters Degree from Univ of Texas at Arlington.

PIZA INTERNATIONAL is a Mexico based company that specializes in developing and providing Project Management Office (PMO); Construction Management (CM Agency); Technology Management Services to developers and global companies

What holds teams together?

It’s no secret, there are capable professionals and uncapable professionals, there are loyal collaborators, but also un-loyal collaborators, it’s not that difficult if you open your eyes, you will encounter committed people and people who have no commitment at all, and guess what? Same goes for companies but I’ll focus on human resources for now. So, what can you do to have loyal, capable, committed professionals (the full package)?

The Pre-requisite:

Be a Leader, not a Boss: understanding the needs, having empathy, providing training, support, family first, professional improvement second, project execution third.

The Answer which not many global companies know:

Methodology: it’s the best solution for change, methods do not change, they remain the same, processes, procedures, standards prevail more than professionals do in a project, so if someone decides to leave, there is a very clear path to follow for the person who will fill that position

Methodology becomes very important and vital for a project, people will come and go, people are very unpredictable and to nail the full package is very difficult, but if you have discipline in following your method for the project, having people on board could save your project from a disastrous ending..

Establish your method, training, follow up, do not be swayed, have a PMO, have your weekly processes meetings.

Applying this, you have a much better chance of keeping your team together, and when the time comes for a transition of positions, it will take 1 week instead of 3 months like it usually does.

dp@pizainternational.com

Written by Damián Pizá, Founder of PIZA International, Winner of the CMAA’s and ENR 2022 Project Achievement Award, for Innovation and the use of Technology in Managing Construction Projects. Civil Engineer from the TECH of MONTERREY and Masters Degree from Univ of Texas at Arlington.

PIZA INTERNATIONAL is a Mexico based company that specializes in developing and providing Project Management Office (PMO); Construction Management (CM Agency); Technology Management Services to developers and global companies

Plan as you Build

How exciting are actual times that a 200 hundred year old say “you build as you plan” is now changing to “you plan as you build” well at least in my perspective, here is why..

We know we can plan better and execute much better than before our construction projects, if this is not your case then you havent used proper processes, procedures and software that will make your construction site a virtual reality site months ahead of earthworks. Within our company we call this process “Virtual Construction” where you can identify the majority of the risks as well as value like no other pre-construction process in the past has given you. The ability to collaborate, to have more people support the project, quantify, have better budget accuracy and scope, identify issues / risks, having better safety logistics is really in a league of its own.

However for “Virtual Construction” to be effective, you must know how Construction is done in reality, else you will not get the full benefits of risk avoidance and project controls during construction.

Many students and professionals fresh out of college go to an office job, where BIM and Virtual settings are attractive for them, the pay is good, office hours and you can work remote, however my message to them is very simple, if you do not know how things work on the field your efforts could actually be lowering the value of Technology and will become unusable, otherwise called “EVIL BIM” https://pizaconsulting.wordpress.com/2021/12/17/anti-bim-en-proyectos-inmobiliarios/

Nowadays Planning as you Build takes precedence within our “Virtual Construction” method.

dp@pizainternational.com http://www.pizainternational.com

Written by Damián Pizá, Founder of PIZA International, Winner of the CMAA’s and ENR 2022 Project Achievement Award, for Innovation and the use of Technology in Managing Construction Projects. Civil Engineer from the TECH of MONTERREY and Masters Degree from Univ of Texas at Arlington.

PIZA INTERNATIONAL is a Mexico based company that specializes in developing and providing Project Management Office (PMO); Construction Management (CM Agency); Technology Management Services to developers and global companies

How Technology is Changing the Management Landscape

20 years ago the only technology we had to manage a project, were web based PM software’s that basically helped you manage documents and workflows. Not very efficient by the way,  you couldn’t have visuals, it stalled, it reset, and it was annoying to receive emails of each and every edit someone did. In other words, it safe to say that it didn’t do anything to create value or to have better collaboration, but it was a start, and I mean a real start, because it helped understand the future of technology and construction, yes, that annoying software helped a lot but not because of the actual software, but of where we were going with this.

Field Verifying from BIM to Field

Fast forward to 2022, you have technologies such as Drones, BIM, Scanners, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Apps and Softwares for photos, drawings, RFI, Submittals, Virtual tours, etc etc.  it’s a whirlwind of technology that actually many Construction Managers still do not use or understand, because they never engaged in changing, and the less they know, the more in the past im sure they feel.

So how do you start using technology in your projects?  For me, it all starts with BIM, understanding how it works, what can it do, and how..  it will immerse yourself in the basics of what a CM needs to know, however, you must engage fully, im not saying you need to model or program or design, but you must be involved and understand how it works, believe me, you will get better. Here are some helpful steps you can implement

a.- Find the Time, you will need time and prioritize Technology, otherwise will NOT work

b.- Engage the Model with a Visualizer, we use 360coordinates by Autodesk Model visualizer, otherwise known as 360 Glue

c.- Start asking questions to your BIM Coordinator on getting you the info you need

d.- Have a purpose, what are you going to use Technology for

e.- Start building software around BIM, like Plangrid, PM Apps, Drones, Scanners, others.

For the last 12 years we have been at the forefront of this ever changing technology that is disrupting, in a fantastic way, the construction industry, the more we embrace it as CMs the better results we’ll getin cost, time, quality and safety

dp@pizainternational.com http://www.pizainternational.com

Written by Damián Pizá, Founder of PIZA International, Winner of the CMAA’s 2022 Project Achievement Award, for Innovation and the use of Technology in Managing Construction Projects, serving as an example of Excellence to the Industry.

Mexico based company that specializes in developing and providing Project Management Office (PMO); Construction Management (CM Agency); Technology Management Services to developers and global corporations

How can BIM help with a wave of corruption hitting construction projects.

Back in the day when I was a field engineer, I learned very quickly how to short cut, how to overcharge and how to do unethical things that at the time I didn’t really thought about it as being corrupt in any sense. Actually the owner of my company praised and he loved scoring “goals” to the client.

Just re-thinking about this makes me sick, but it was just the way it was and its exactly the way it is for many professionals  and projects right now. You see it is not considered unethical, its  considered a Sport.. The owner of my company would actually put the mic on mute and flip a finger to the telephone; would make a dance; or would high five everyone in the room, and fresh out of college Civil Engineers and Architects were happy our boss was happy..

You learn from the good and you learn more from the bad, the worse thing is that the BAD is 10 times more contagious than the GOOD, so you must be very careful on your choices.

Having this in mind, we started to audit cost estimates from the contractor using BIM and using a quantity software to review which families were already paid and which were not, we had a quantity take offs on each and every cost progress estimate. We were very surprised that the contractors were overcharging in a very diligent way, these are some clever means used by them

  1. Doubling up on construction elements that were already paid
  2. Increasing the dimensions of an element creating an overcharge
  3. Estimating quantities still not constructed

All of this adds up to thousand of dollars and probably millions once project is finished.

Corruption is everywhere and its not necessarily unethical, but its how many score goals, and believe me, everyone likes to score..

Use your BIM Execution Plan and model as it will be constructed, it will help you control your budget and avoid paying more than what you agreed to. Will save you thousands and probably millions in the years to come.

http://www.pizainternational.com

dp@pizainternational.com

Written by Damián Pizá, Founder of PIZA International. Mexico based company that specializes in developing and providing Project Management Office (PMO); Construction Management (CM Agency); Technology Management Services for cost and time savings to developers and global corporations

Certified Construction Manager; CM-BIM
Certified, Civil Engineer (ITESM),
Masters in Construction Administration at the University of Texas at Arlington;
LEED AP; OSHA +30

Member of the Board of Civil Engineering of the TECH of Monterrey