Many people describe affordable housing as a “hot potato”——the government keeps a close watch at all times, and the relocated residents anxiously await move-in. For construction workers, this means not a single day of delay in the schedule, not the slightest compromise in quality, and still ensuring corporate profitability despite low project margins.

　　Yet at the Third Company of China Construction First Building (Group) Corporation, there is a senior project manager who is not afraid of such a “hot potato” and is even deeply immersed in it, enjoying every moment. The more than 400,000 square meters of Xiju Village relocation housing he was responsible for delivering was completed a full year ahead of schedule, became a quality-control model for affordable housing in Beijing, and also won follow-up affordable housing projects worth nearly 2.5 billion yuan. He is Gao Mingxing.

　　How can a massive affordable housing project be managed well?

　　From November 2010 to the present, Gao Mingxing has been responsible for the construction of the Xiju Village relocation housing Plots D and E and the Xinzhuang farmers' resettlement housing Plots A and D, making him a true senior project manager for affordable housing. The Xiju Village relocation housing Plots D and E were the first affordable housing projects Gao Mingxing was responsible for, with a total construction area of more than 400,000 square meters. Affordable housing of such a massive scale is rare even in the vast city of Beijing, and it was essential to ensure that relocated residents could move in a year ahead of schedule in accordance with the requirements of the Beijing municipal government. Gao Mingxing was not intimidated by these challenges; instead, with wisdom and years of accumulated engineering project management experience, he developed a set of management methods of his own.

　　“The project is too large; it is truly impossible to keep an eye on everything.” Gao Mingxing said. But when it came to each specific link in project management, he was confident and methodical. “For links such as contract signing and preliminary planning, I must be involved, to understand the difficulties and risks in project performance and to solve these problems in a targeted way during construction.” “Actually, there is no secret; it is simply that overall planning must be done well in the early stage, and key control must be exercised over quality, schedule, cost, and other aspects during the process.” Gao Mingxing explained with ease.

　　“Every morning, Manager Gao is always the first to arrive at the project. He knows each employee's working hours, work status, and even personality traits very clearly.” said Sun Fei, head of the technical department of the Xiju project. Gao Mingxing also has his own methods for “managing people.” For new employees, Gao Mingxing pays close attention, cultivates and identifies those who perform outstandingly, and gradually gives them “heavier responsibilities.” In the subsequently started Xiju Plot E, Xinzhuang Plot A, and Plot D projects, Gao Mingxing boldly promoted and appointed a group of young people, letting them take charge of daily management.

    How can follow-up projects be secured?

　　The Xiju project was the first time Gao Mingxing led a major project department, and it was also another cooperation with the client Beijing Zhongzhu Real Estate. Regarding the importance of maintaining a good relationship with a “major client,” Gao Mingxing said that it was the first time Zhongzhu Real Estate had developed affordable housing through an agent-construction model, so reasonable concessions had to be made in business negotiations, and long-term cooperation must not be harmed for short-term interests. At the same time, they had to find breakthroughs within themselves and learn to save money for the client through design optimization while ensuring quality.

　　Guided by this approach, the project department's technical staff continuously saved money for the client and generated profits for the company through design optimization. For example, in the construction of the garage roof, by changing the waterproofing material method for the garage roof, which was expensive and difficult to construct, they saved millions of yuan in cost for the client, while also eliminating potential losses in the bid and achieving a win-win with the client. It was precisely this win-win spirit and value-added, considerate service that led the client to hand over follow-up projects worth about 2.5 billion yuan to the Third Company, including the Xiju Village relocation housing Plot E, the Zhouzhuangzi farmers' resettlement housing, and the Xinzhuang farmers' resettlement housing.

　　Not only did he save money for the client, Gao Mingxing also always considered the subcontractors. The project department signed savings-and-overrun agreements with each subcontracting team, assigning responsibility to every worker. The project department stipulated that whenever material loss was reduced in accordance with the regulations, 70 percent of the saved or overrun portion would be returned to the labor subcontractor. On the one hand, this effectively avoided material waste; on the other hand, it greatly saved costs for the project.

　　How can the government and relocated residents feel reassured?

　　On July 21, 2012, Beijing's severe rainstorm tested the excellent quality of the Xiju project——there was not a single seepage problem in the buildings. “This is affordable housing. What do residents care about most? Quality. So we must build with a conscience.” Gao Mingxing says this every day. Under his education and strict supervision, the Xiju affordable housing had no common residential quality problems such as water leakage, becoming a quality-control model for affordable housing in Beijing.

　　“Money that should be spent must be spent; quality requirements must not be lowered just to cut costs.” Gao Mingxing is absolutely uncompromising on project quality. To ensure the quality of backfill soil, Gao Mingxing required that a professional organization be hired to do the backfill, with acceptance checks every 30 centimeters.

　　Gao Mingxing's meticulousness and sense of responsibility for quality won the trust of the government and completely reassured the relocated residents. On June 28, 2013, as the decoration work of the Xiju project was nearing completion, 3,283 relocated households from Xiju Village were invited by the project department to see their new homes in advance. “Everyone must carefully explain the housing design and construction process, patiently answer residents' questions, carefully record existing problems, and carry out rectification immediately.” Before the relocated residents inspected their homes, Gao Mingxing held a special meeting with all project department staff and set strict responsibility requirements.

　　On the day of the home inspection, 3,283 households came to the construction site one after another to carefully check whether their new homes had quality problems. “We never expected not only to move in so quickly, but also that the quality would be the same as the model apartment we saw back then!” After the inspection, the relocated residents expressed their satisfaction.

　　At present, the relocated residents of Xiju affordable housing have moved into their new homes one after another, and part of the Xinzhuang affordable housing project has also begun decoration. “The Xiju project cannot be considered finished; we are sorting out the later-stage materials and will apply for the ‘Luban Prize’ in the field of national affordable housing construction, striving to bring back the golden Luban statue.” Speaking of striving for the affordable housing “Luban Prize,” Gao Mingxing was full of confidence.