Did you know that 70% of construction projects experience cost overruns and delays, and 60% of construction projects exceed their planned timelines? Effective construction scheduling is a way out of this problem. Not only can it cut budget overruns, but it can also help ensure timely project completion.

A construction schedule is a project management tool that sequences all construction activities. It organizes the project's timeline and milestones along with the activities and tasks. Deliverables, resource management, asset allocation, tasks, dependent tasks, task duration, and deadline are additional items included in a construction schedule, along with the budget and associated costs of all that work. It shows when and how a project will be finished, and is reviewed regularly by construction managers to ensure that work is progressing according to schedule and will be finished on time. In this blog, we'll dive into the importance of construction schedules, outline the steps involved, and share some of the most effective scheduling techniques.

 

Importance of Scheduling in the Construction Industry

Effective scheduling and project planning help predict accurate budget projections for construction projects. This can assist in keeping the project within the allocated budget. Before construction takes place, resource management and allocation ensure that the appropriate tools and materials are available, maintaining quality throughout the project lifecycle. Scheduling aids in task distribution and task breakdown. The order of the activities can be changed, and the times can be lengthened or shortened to optimize the use of resources. Scheduling provides construction managers with a sense of direction and a road map for the entire team by allocating fixed tasks and responsibilities. This leads to efficient communication and prevents project completion delays. It also aids in assessing whether construction is progressing satisfactorily by comparing the actual work done with the schedule.

Steps in Creating an Effective Construction Schedule 

  1. Break Down the Project into Tasks: The first step in creating a construction schedule is to set up a series of tasks, each of which needs to be broken down into smaller, more manageable steps and tracked until completion. The tasks must include clear instructions regarding the design plans, resources, budget, timeline, materials, and types of equipment.
  2. Estimate Task Durations: The next step is to set up a realistic timeline. As the tasks are interdependent and sequential, any delay in one task will ultimately delay the subsequent task; therefore, construction managers must update the schedule.
  3. Establish Material Delivery Schedules: Before construction can begin, the materials required and the vendors of those materials must be identified. A proper material delivery schedule must be established for continuous, uninterrupted construction schedules. 
  4. Allocate Resources: Determine the equipment required for each task and when and where the equipment may be required for the project. When tasks are planned, it is easier to mobilize equipment as needed across multiple locations.
  5. Collaborate with Stakeholders: Connecting the crew to tasks in the master schedule is necessary because the capacity, knowledge, and commitment of the crew members are crucial to the success of a project.
  6. Define Clear Budget Estimates: The task of establishing the construction budget for supplies, machinery, and resources is crucial. Construction managers can identify any budget overruns by including the budget in their master schedule and breaking it into expected and actual sections. 
  7. Link Relevant Documentation to the Schedule: To keep any plan or change readily available to teams, it is crucial to include all relevant documents, such as plans, estimates, RFIs, submittals, and change orders, and link them to specific tasks in the master scheduler. 

Construction Scheduling Techniques

Some of the important construction scheduling techniques are enumerated below:

  1. Using Bar Charts: A bar chart visually represents how activities are scheduled. A list of activities is created with the start date, duration, and completion date of each activity, and the bar chart is then plotted on the project timescale. A particular project's complexity and the schedule's intended use will determine how detailed the bar chart is. Bar charts can be used to determine how many resources are required for a specific project. By adding resources vertically to the schedule, resource aggregation is accomplished. This aggregation's goal is to establish estimates for the required manpower and equipment and a work production estimate.
  2. Critical Path Method (CPM):  The Critical Path Method establishes a schedule based on critical activities. The least amount of time necessary to complete a construction project is calculated after the critical activities have been identified and scheduled in order. The Critical Path Method determines and assigns start and end dates based on specific logic, such as Earliest Start, Earliest Finish, Latest Start, and Latest Finish which are important cues for the order in which tasks must be performed.  These constraints determine the Earliest Start, Earliest Finish, Latest Start, and Latest Finish of each task. 
  3. Line of Balance Scheduling Technique: This method of scheduling construction work is a planning strategy for repetitive work. The fundamental step in this scheduling technique is allocating the resources required for each step or operation to complete the subsequent tasks without delay. The principles employed are taken from the planning and control of manufacturing processes, usually applied in construction work and, more specifically, in road construction. It is a very powerful and easy-to-use process when the conditions are ideal for this type of work. 
  4. Quantitative  Scheduling: Bar charts are used in quantitative scheduling, or Q scheduling or queue scheduling, to show resource quantities and the locations where the resources will be used.  It is the only scheduling method that illustrates a connection between the order in which tasks are completed and the associated costs. It is only applied when tasks must be repeated but with varying amounts of resources. 
  5. Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT): For a complex project's initial schedule, construction managers use PERT. The process determines task durations, crucial activities, and task dependencies to analyze a project before it starts. Each task has three-time limits:
  • Optimistic Time (O): The least amount of time you think a task will take to be completed. 
  • Pessimistic Time (P): The most amount of time you think a task will take to be completed. 
  • Most Likely Time (M): How long you think a task will take to complete.
  1. Gantt Chart: A Gantt chart is a visual representation of activity against time that aids construction managers in tracking development. The Gantt charts display the task's start and end dates, dependencies, scheduling, deadlines, and the percentage of the task finished in each stage and the task owner. Planned activity is depicted against time on Gantt charts. They are frequently used after tasks have been identified using a work breakdown structure throughout projects, programs, and portfolios.

It has become critical for construction companies to ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget. To ensure proper coordination and increased productivity, scheduling is an important part of the construction activity. Intrivis Inc Engineering Support Services, a unit of iQuasar, LLC, has resources that help companies prepare construction scheduling plans and design more efficiently and effectively. Our staffing services help companies hire project construction managers with expertise in managing large construction projects across the United States.

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