Construction Project Management - Tips/Tools/Techniques

One of the crucial purpose of preparing any plan or schedule is to facilitate the construction team, not only in execution but to follow correct sequence, monitor productivity & take some control measures. To achieve this purpose the construction team including the front line supervisors should be familiar with the terms used in planning & scheduling. There are several terms which; though clear to an experienced planner; are somewhat baffling to construction professionals with no planning background. In this chapter I shall try to familiarize these terms to construction team through simple explanation. Let's start with understanding difference between planning and scheduling. PLANNING The term Planning is associated with basic thinking about the methodology for delivering the project. Thus all the strategy about phasing, zoning, logistics, vendor deployment, sourcing Material etc. comes under purview of planning. In simple terms, you decide in how many parts the slab ...

When do we start planning for a project? Is it possible to prepare a feasibility report, without an idea on the project timelines? How can one estimate project’s viability in terms of IRR, NPV, ROCE etc. without duration estimate? An approximate idea on the timeline of schedule at-least in terms of major milestones or a ballpark figure is essential while conceiving a project. It means that the Planning starts as soon as any project is being conceived. The plans prepared during this stage may not be very detailed, however the level of detailing depends on the size or the project and the risk associated with it. Bigger and riskier the project, more and more the detailing in plan. Planning during the feasibility stage would be focused on some elements as these are the most important ones for main stakeholders of the project. These are: a)     The project must deliver the output matching to Business need and in line with the trend of market demand for the same. This...

  I worked for around 9 years in Gulf Countries and have good idea about the productivity of human resource in these countries. In India; for block-work masonry, we talk about 70 to 80 blocks per mason per day (6-7 sqm/mason/day) as productivity; whereas in Gulf it’s about 200 to 230 blocks per mason per day (16-18 Sqm/mason/day). Similarly, for cement plastering in India, the productivity is like 10-12 Sqm per mason per day but in Gulf its 25-30 sqm/mason/day. I can give several such examples where it can be noticed that the productivity there is 3 to 4 times of that in India. What, we all should be worried about is that we are falling in to a vicious circle: Although there are several efforts being taken to improve the overall productivity for the item of work; almost all these efforts are directed towards one of the following: a)      Mechanization of works: Use of Plant & machinery viz. Cranes / Climbing Platforms   b)      Cha...

The data on productivity of resources is used in Estimation, Planning, & later in Controlling the Project Plan. Our estimates on cost and duration will go haywire if we do not have correct data on productivity. Even in day-to-day monitoring of works, the construction team must have the productivity data, else they would not be able to control and forecast the progress of works & their requirements for resources. Just ask yourself, your peers, subordinates, contractors or even your managers about it; take one activity for example and ask the Labour or Equipment productivity for the same. Most likely you would be surprised as the data would have a large variation, sometimes to the tune of -500 to +500%. There are chances that some of them would not even know about the existence of such a term and their answer would be pure guess work. If the awareness about resource productivity is that level, the knowledge about factors affecting the productivity, is far from the arena. Isn’...

  I am involved with Construction Project Planning for past 30 years since starting the work life. Well! Let’s say I started application of theory of planning, scheduling, monitoring & control; into practice 25 years back, when I became the Planning Engineer after 5 years of site works. Application of Logic, Numbers & Calculations, Principles, Procedure, Steps, Sequence etc. all falls under Science and hence one would naturally believe that ‘Planning’ is ‘Science’. The same is true about Construction, Surgery, Baking or Cooking. However, mastery in these fields is always referred as learning the ‘Art of Construction’, Art of Cooking’ etc. For that matter, we sometimes exclaim; ‘that Surgeon is an Artist’, or ‘that software engineer is a genius in Art of Coding’ etc.   Evidently, mere science is not enough for mastering a trade & these expression tell that ‘Art’ does gets some prominence over ‘acquired knowledge’ or in other words ‘Science’.   The m...

  Planning without Productivity Data   The planning cell of any project has to go through several stages of Preliminary Planning, Phasing, Zoning, Strategy for Procurement of Material and vendors, Logistics Planning, Strategy for deployment of Plants & Machinery & several such considerations.   After all these initial stages, next comes the Decomposition of the Scope of Works i.e. the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Activities; Sequencing of works, Recourse Allocation and duration estimate for the activities.   The allocation of resources and duration estimate is the crux of the matter in scheduling and this depends mostly – rather completely on the productivity of resources for the various items of works.   Once the schedule is ready (off course with some iterations, adjustments, smoothening, levelling etc.) it has to be updated with actuals and most important item thereafter is the ‘controlling’ of schedule. Here again it mostly depends on p...