Project Planning, Scheduling and Control

What are Construction Projects??????

Construction projects are the organized effort to construct a building, structure, road etc. or combination of these. It consists a set of partially ordered, interrelated activities that must be completed to achieve a goal.

Construction projects consists numerous mini-projects; a construction project is not a single activity. Larger scale construction projects require human multitasking. Parties involve are Employer, Designers, Project Manager or Engineer, Administrators, Constructors etc.

In order for construction projects to be executed in a cost-effective manner, effective planning is very essential. Any project management team involved with the design and execution of the infrastructure must take action to implement various type of safety measures and analyze the overall cost of the project to ensure that, work-related injuries & financial troubles are not met. Proper thinking in planning is required in all construction projects because of the various type of environmental and financial impact the job will possess.

As a result of these inborn traits, all construction projects, to be successful, require detailed planning revolving around the items such as the availability of materials, logistics facilities, scheduling a proper budget, site safety, bidding and the inconvenience the project will impose on the general public, deciding method of executions, specifications and quality standard to be met, milestones to be met etc.

This presentation describe only the planning and scheduling from Constructors end.

Phases of Construction.
A. Pre-construction phase
• Pre-qualification
• Bid preparation and submission
• Bid evaluation & agreement with contract

B. Construction Phase
• Award of contract
• Submission of bonds and guarantees
• Temporary works, mobilization for works and planning and scheduling for works
• Designing of work if any
• Construction of works
• Testing, commissioning, handing over

C. Work close up and maintenance

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Work breakdown structure provides the foundation for project planning and control, cost estimation, scheduling and resource allocation. This is a process of dividing the project task into smaller manageable components for planning purpose. A work-breakdown structure element may be a work, data, service or any combination thereof. A WBS is providing the necessary & essential framework for analyze cost estimating and control along with providing guidance for schedule development and control as per project requirement.
WBS is an organizational tool for complex projects
– A first step in creating a schedule
– Useful in defining the Scope of Work (after decided how to carry out the work)
WBS Consists of:
– Milestones of project
– Subdividing work into smaller & smaller portions

Construction Planning & Scheduling

Definitions
• Activity – is an effort that requires resources and takes a certain amount of time (Duration) to lie with the project.
• Event – a specific accomplishment or milestone (the start or finish of an activity).
• Project – a sum of activities and events leading to a definable goal.
• Network – a graphical representation of a project depicting the precedence relationships among the events and activities.
• Critical Activity – is an activity that if delayed will hold up the project duration as per the schedule.
• Critical Path – the sequence or path of critical activities in the project that forms a continuous path from the start of a project to its completion.

Objectives
• Planning, scheduling, and control of complex projects
• Find critical activities to manage resources
• Determine flexibility of non-critical activities (slack)
• Estimate earliest completion time of project
• Estimate resource (human, plant, equipment, material etc.) requirement Vs time
• Determine time – cost trade-offs
• Establish tool to coordinate with other parties such as Owner, Engineer and Other contractors
• To establish obligations & responsibilities of each parties
Types of Activities involves in Construction Contracts are basically:
Construction works involves various activities, which can be divided basically into following categories:
• Construction
• Designing
• Procurement
• Management - related
Elements of Construction Planning
• Project winning approaches and contract types
• Detailed cost estimation
• Planning including method of work, QA & QC system, Safety assurance and Environmental protection system etc.
• Scheduling using Bar charts, CPM
• Resource scheduling & Resource leveling
• Time-Cost Trade-off Analysis
• Cash flow analysis
• Project updating and delay analysis
• Project control techniques
Type of plans to be developed for effective construction work management are Time, Cost, Plant & Equipment, Staff & Labour to be deployed, Subcontract employment and work, Material require, Procurement, Finance etc.

The Elements of Project Scheduling
• Project Definition. Statement of project, goals, and resources required.
• Activity Definitions. Content and requirements of each activity.
• Project Scheduling. Specification of starting and ending times of all activities in the project.
• Project Monitoring. Keeping track of the progress of the project.