Construction Scheduling Basics
Because of how long construction has been an industry, and the sheer number of projects consistently going on, there are numerous ways to structure your scheduling.
In a field where even a small percentage increase in efficiency, or small reduction in spending, can make the difference in winning a bid, or delivering a successful project, there have been many different methods developed to improve scheduling.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common techniques and terms you may come across as you think about how to organize your scheduling processes.
Key Methods and Terms
Gantt charts are not necessarily unique to construction project scheduling, but they are a useful tool to help visualize your schedule.
Gantt charts were created by Henry Gantt, an engineer, in 1917 as a way to help visualize complex projects.
The Gantt chart is a simple graph with a vertical and horizontal axis. The horizontal axis represents the time of the project while the vertical axis will contain all of the tasks associated with your project.
This type of representation of data is very popular and has been folded into many modern project management softwares.
A Gantt chart is a good beginning step to start grouping together tasks and to get an understanding for how long each set of activities will take.
Most likely a Gantt chart will not be sufficient to fully represent the totality of your project. However it can be critical in helping you devise a critical path.
Critical Path Method
The “critical path method” in construction project scheduling is one of the most popular ways to structure a schedule—and rally all stakeholders around the items that drive the overall project toward completion.
As the name implies, the critical path method focuses on which tasks or activities will be mission critical to the completion of your construction project.
When following the critical path method, the project manager will identify the central “thrust” of the project and then build a schedule that keeps this critical path front of mind.
From the central pillar of the path there will be activities that branch off as prerequisites to complete the critical tasks, but your team will always have the critical activities as a guiding light.
Think of the critical path method as turning your project into a large tree. The trunk are the activities that are mission critical to your construction project. The branches are the rest of the tasks that make up your project.
The project can move forward without some branches, but there’s no tree without the main trunk.
To get started in utilizing this method you will need to do some pre-planning to ensure you have all the inputs necessary. A construction scheduling platform will help here.
Like most things in life, you only get out of this method what you put into it. Not considering every activity or task could end up with teams focusing on the wrong thing, or in aligning resources to the wrong area—and result in costly delays.
How to Utilize the Critical Path Method
When setting up this method for your project take these steps:
Interview every major stakeholder to get a clear picture of the full project
Begin prioritizing tasks to get a rough idea of criticality
Start thinking about what type of technology you will need to utilize this method
Plan recurring meetings and check-ins to keep the whole team aligned
Write down the key data points you will need to track
Not only will these steps benefit you as the project manager in the long run, it will establish strong lines of communication early leading to better alignment.
Once you’ve implemented everything you need, you will realize why many construction projects utilize this method to handle their scheduling.
Benefits of the Critical Path Method
The benefits of this method include:
Clearly identifying main priorities
Setting clear goal posts to track progress
Easily align resources (schedules and costs)
Recognized as an industry standard in construction project scheduling method
Following this method will enable you to provide crystal clear status updates as it becomes very obvious which tasks need focus, and which aren’t as critical.
Resource Oriented Scheduling
Do you have limited time, budget, and resources? Most project managers will typically answer yes to this question for any project they’re working on.
The unfortunate reality of the world we live in is that you will always be strapped for something and feel like you don’t have enough of one particular thing.
Resource oriented scheduling attempts to solve the problem of having limited resources available.
Carnegie Mellon University lays out the advantages of this particular method, and why it’s necessary:
“Resource oriented scheduling is appropriate in cases in which unique resources are to be used. For example, scheduling excavation operations when one only excavator is available is simply a process of assigning work tasks or job segments on a day by day basis while insuring that appropriate precedence relationships are maintained. Even with more than one resource, this manual assignment process may be quite adequate.”
Resource oriented scheduling is another tool you can keep in your kit and deploy it at the opportune time.