Importance, Roles and Responsibilities of a Planning Engineer in the Indian Construction Industry

Abstract

The role of the planning engineer is crucial for successful planning, monitoring, controlling of the project. The Indian construction industry lacks the ability to implement project controls and project management tools leading to tremendous delays. It is crucial that at least planning engineers should be deployed for each construction projects for transparent reporting to sr. management. Collaboration & Synchronization between various departments during the project life cycle can only be achieved 100% by having a planning engineer in the project organogram. The proper organization hierarchy is essential for the implementation of the role of planning engineer. Project Controls department must be introduced for better working of planning engineers. This study examines the obstacles faced by the Indian construction sector when implementing the role of planning engineer. This study uses a questionnaire survey, answered by the industry experts. There were 140 respondents. The questions related to effectiveness of planning engineers in the Indian construction industry were also covered. The responses conclude that the Indian construction industry is struggling in managing/implementing the role of planning engineer, thus, facing a biggest failure in getting the right reports at the right time that are delaying the projects in terms of cost, time & change of scope. The Indian construction industry must be more organized. Management should be more concerned about ensuring the proper implementation of roles, responsibilities & authority of planning engineer, follow international recommended guidelines like AACE for understanding in detail about the role & responsibilities of planning engineer, provide latest software to planning engineer for digitalization of reports and provide appropriately training at the required time.