Construction Planning Simplified - Part 3

Previous 2 chapters were for the construction team wherein I explained some terms of planning in simple language with examples and the vital contribution expected from the construction team. I believe; it deliberated as to why, how & what the construction team should be party to while preparing construction plan and what is in it for them as well as the planner.

In this chapter, there are some simple guidelines to both planner and construction team, which must be kept in mind while preparing the construction plan. These guidelines are more for the planners to understand and act, whereas the construction team must insist for the same and support planners. Naturally there is a lot of contribution required from construction team here too.

KISS – KEEP IT SHORT & SIMPLE

That’s the first & most important principle for any plan. Remember, the construction plan must be understood by the junior most levels in construction team and hence naming any activity, complexity of activities, lot of relationships or links among the same, constraints etc. will cause unnecessary apprehensions in the minds of construction team members. Planner must avoid complexity while planning. Only provide essential links and as far as possible it shall be FS (Finish to Start) or sometimes FF (Finish to Finish). Almost all activities have some or the other causal dependency or constrained dependency based on the planning exercise done prior to scheduling. Planner must keep a document for records so that it becomes easy to explain it to construction team. If the activities are detailed to substantial level almost all activities can have FS as link.

KEEP INTERMEDIATE MONITORING & CONTROL POINT

Although all the activities need to be monitored and controlled, however as explained in earlier chapter, some activities would have floats, whereas other activities would be on critical path. The activities on critical path are crucial and must be monitored closely, if delayed, these activities can cause delay in overall timeline. Apart from critical activities, the following must also be kept on watch:

1.    Activities, which have very little float or in technical terms are ‘near critical’ activities. These activities should be monitored as in case of any delay beyond float, they can change the Critical path itself.

2.    Activities associated with high risks. As an example, the duration was calculated based on productivity of resources, however if we are not achieving the assumed productivity, not only the particular activity will be out of control but also all the other similar activities in the entire schedule would be disturbed.

3.   Activities, which at the end point are opening up several other activities. Such activities, if delayed, would cause delay of multiple activities.

4.  Resource Constrained activities i.e. these may not have ‘Hard Logic’ but if delayed would end up delaying all activities dependent on it and since the resource constrained activities are usually in a chain, all future activities will also get delayed.

5.    Other activities, wherein the items having long lead time should be monitored closely viz. Supply of Fire and Domestic Water Pumps and Panels, Transformers, Chillers etc., Finalizing contractors for MEP Services and Waterproofing, which have a longer lead for procurement, Finalizing RMC Supplier, where after finalization the Trial Mix need to be done and tested for performance, which takes a minimum of 28 days or more. 

       You may think of many such activities and depict them as milestones, to keep emphasis on them.

AMBITIOUS BUT REALISTIC

Remember that a ‘lax’ schedule is more likely to be delayed & at the same time ‘unrealistic’ schedule may result in demotivation of team as it will fail in initial stages itself causing dissatisfaction among higher-ups. It needs a fine balancing act to keep schedule ambitious and at the same time achievable. Initial achievements in such schedule will give a huge boost to the morale of the team and at the same time, some delays may be recoverable in remaining time. In this, planner would need support from Construction team as they would like to have a ‘lax’ schedule, which would be disastrous in long term.

MODERATELY DETAILED

It is a planners dream to prepare a highly detailed schedule with possibility of hourly tracking of the same including deployment of resources as per the same, however the construction schedule depends a lot on skilled and unskilled manpower resources and has a lot of uncertainties in terms of design details, soil strata, execution capabilities, material supply chain and machinery performance. In case of ‘Operation’ i.e. say like in manufacturing plants’ you have skilled resources, predictable machine performance and almost certain productivity as the activity is mastered by operators.

In case of construction schedule, you normally operate with semi-skilled persons, unpredictable working conditions and situations, rational productivity data, uncertain atmospheric and work conditions and hence the detailing should be to moderate levels. As explained earlier, there has to be a balance between too-little detailing & too-much detailing. Also remember, that the schedule not only need to be prepared but monitored and controlled as well and the information gathering for update, must not become an issue later with limited resources for updates.

QUANTIFIABLE / MEASURABLE

In previous chapter I had categorically mentioned about quantifying the activities i.e. measurable item of work must be known for each of the activity. This forms the basis for calculating the duration of the activity by applying the productivity of resources. The main contribution here is from the Construction team as to how many resources can be deployed for the activity based on other constrains like the work-space, availability of resources with vendor/contractor etc. If we do not have the quantity itself, how can you judge the resource requirements and duration? Any schedule prepared without quantities, is likely to fail as it would be totally based on guess work. Though some experienced planners may be able to prepare the schedule without quantities, resources and productivity data, it would still be a rational schedule and difficult to understand by construction team and at the same time difficult to monitor and control.

ACCEPTABLE TO STAKEHOLDERS

The final item to remember while preparing and finalizing the schedule is that it should be acceptable to the stakeholders. By stakeholders, I mean the parties, who are in one or the other way are either involved or affected by the project. The Vendors, Contractors, Suppliers, Construction Team on one hand at the same time; Design, Procurement, Consultants, Sponsors and Higher Management on the other side are all stakeholders in the project. The schedule must be acceptable to all of these stakeholders. Naturally one side of it would be looking for lenient timelines & other side would demand aggressive timeline. Planner has to do the balancing act here as well and he would be able to do it only if a detailed exercise with involvement of stakeholders has been done while preparing the plan.

As concluding remarks for this chapter, I would like to assure you that any schedule prepared by following these guidelines will have a very high success rate. As you must have understood by now, it not the schedule, which fails but it’s the planning behind the schedule, which fails. Failure for preparing a plan is preparing for failure.

Abhay Gharpure

 ADGP               www.decodingcm.com/pm-blogs/                 https://decodingcm.blogspot.com