Construction Engineering and Management

Chapter 8 Project Scheduling

Prof. Rafiq Muhammad Choudhry

BSc(Civil-Honor), MSc(CEM), PhD(CEM), Post-Doctorate (CEM)
PE, M.PEC, M.ASCE, M.IEP, Email: choudhry03@gmail.com
Professor of Construction Engineering and Management (CE&M)
Department of Civil Engineering (CE), College of Engineering (COE)
Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

1
Introduction - Importance
 Schedule: A time-based arrangement of activities
planned to take place in-order to complete the
project.

 Just like students need to know the schedule of the

semester, for mid-exams and final exam

 The contractor needs a schedule to know when and

how much labor is needed
 Suppliers need to know when to deliver materials
 Subcontractors need to know when they can do their
work.

2
Developing Schedule
Schedule involve:
- Breaking down the scope into work
breakdown structure (WBS)
- Breaking down the work into activities
- Estimate duration
- Establish relationship
- Finding earliest and latest start times
- Finding critical path
3
Estimating Activity Durations
 Activity: An amount of work that can be identified so
that we know what it involves and when it starts and
finishes
Activity duration is dependent on:
- The nature of work
- Pouring concrete on 1st or 60th Floor

- The quantity of work

- Concrete 50 m3 or 200 m3

- Construction technique used for the task

- Tower crane and buckets or concrete pump

- Resources used to perform the work

- 10 or 20 masons, Working with 1 or 3 backhoe for excavation

- Working hours for the resources

- Working for 8 or 24 hours
4
Estimating Activity Durations
 Durations are expressed in hours, days or
weeks
 Activities with zero duration are called
milestones
– Start, finish or a point of interest in progress schedule.

5
Using Productivity Data (for unit price & crew productivity)
Productivity for a carpenter fabricating and fixing
footing formwork (3 uses for each plywood) = 470 SFCA
per day.

Figure 8.1 Productivity data from R.S. Means Building Construction Costs

6
Estimating Activity Durations
 Estimating duration is not easy. There are many ways for
scheduling process, for example, using productivity rate.
 Example: Form for continuous wall footing
 Productivity for one carpenter 470 square feet contact area
(SFCA) per day (daily output)
 Quantity: There are 6,000 SFCA formwork
 Duration = Quantity/Productivity
= 6,000/470 = 12.76 days
 Uses 2 crews = 12.76/2 = 6.39 = 7days

 Expressed in working days, 5 days means 1 week.

7
Bar Charts
 Bar charts was developed by Henry Gantt in
the 1910s.
 A non-network-scheduling technique
 Length of bar represents the planned
duration. E.g. 4 weeks, 4 months
 Bar charts acts as both:
 Planning-scheduling model (Figure 8.2a)
 Reporting-control model (Figure 8.2 b, Figure 8.3)
 Percent complete scale (Figure 8.3 b)

8
Figure 8.2 Bar chart model a) Plan focus b) Work focus

9
Figure 8.3 Bar chart model a) Schedule of plan focus b) Bar chart updating control focus 10
Bar-Net
 Connected bar chart is referred to as
bar-net (see Figure 8.4).
 Gas Station Project
 Breakdown and sequence of 8 activities
 Duration of the project = 20 weeks.
 The activity Erect Building structure is
connected to two activities (4 Exterior
Finishes, 5 Construct roof)
 Activities 1, 2, & 3 are complete by the end of
week 10.
11
Figure 8.4 Bar-net schedule for the small gas station
12
Scheduling Logic
 To develop a schedule, the logical sequence or
schedule logic that relates the various activities to
one another must be developed.
 See Figure 8.5 (a) Schematic view of pier; (b) Exploded view
of pier
 Figure 8.6 Conceptual model of pier components
 Figure 8.7 Physical construction order modeling (a), (b) & (c)
 Figure 8.8 Conceptual model of pier components
relationship
 Figure 8.9 (a) Alternate row pile driving; (b) Sequential row
pile driving; (c ) Field mishap alteration to pile-driving
sequence; (d) bar chart model of pile-driving operation

13
Figure 8.5 (a) Schematic view of pier; (b) Exploded view of pier
14
Figure 8.6 Conceptual model of pier components

15
Figure 8.7 Physical construction order modeling (a), (b) & (c)

16
Figure 8.8 Conceptual model of pier components relationship

17
Figure 8.9 (a) Alternate row pile driving; (b) Sequential row pile driving; (c ) Field mishap
alteration to pile-driving sequence; (d) bar chart model of pile-driving operation

18
Network Diagrams (CPM Diagrams)
 CPM (Critical Path Method): A deterministic
network-scheduling technique
 Activity-on-arrow / Arrow Networks/Diagrams
 Activity-on-node / Node Networks/Diagrams
 Precedence Networks/Diagrams
 Every project has one start and end point.

19
 Arrow Networks/Diagrams
 A method of drawing network schedules using
arrows to represent activities, called activity-on-
arrow diagrams
 Dummy: An activity with zero time duration used
to express logic, shown with dotted line, must show
the arrow.
 In the generic activity, “i” - the start node, arrow
represent the activity, “j” - the end node.

General Activity Activity

j
i

20
 Arrow Networks:
Simple Example
Activity IPA*
A -
B A
C A
D B
E C, D

* IPA: Immediately Preceding Activities

21
 Example Solution

B D
30
A E
10 20 40 50

22
Arrow diagrams -Use of dummy
• Two tasks cannot share the same start and
end node.
B

A D
1 2 3 4

Tasks B and C share the

same start and end node

23
Arrow diagrams -Use of dummy activity

• In this case it is necessary to insert dummy activities as

broken lines, which are activities with zero duration, to
maintain the correct logic. These lines do not represent any
activity but are simply a logical link.

A B D
1 2 4 5

A new node is inserted to give C

a different finish node than to B A dummy task is inserted
3 to preserve the immediate
predecessors of D

24
 Example 2 for Arrow Network
. Activity IPA
A -
B -
C -
D A
E A,B
F A,B,C
G E,F
H D,G
I D,G
25
 Solution

A D
20
H
70
d1 d3
B E G
10 30 50 60 80

d2 I
C F
40

26
 CPM Calculations
• ES = Early start,
• EF = Early Finish
• LS = Late Start
• LF = Late Finish TF FF

• TF = Total Float ACT (ES, EF)

i j
D (LS, LF)
• TF = LS-ES
= LF – EF
• FF = Free Float
• FF = Min ES (B) – EF (A)

27
CPM Scheduling
6 0 6 6
A (0, 5) D (5, 10)
6

5 (6, 11) 5 (11, 16)

8 0 d1 8 8
B (0, 3) E (3, 8)
2 4 10
3 (8, 11) 5 (11, 16)
0 0 0 0
C (0, 6) F (6, 16)
8
6 (0, 6) 10 (6, 16)
28
Node Diagram
 A method of drawing network schedule using
circles, square or rectangles called nodes, to
represent activities, called activity on-node.
Sometimes also called precedence diagrams.

 The circle or “box” represents the activity,

the “links” connect two activities

Act
D

29
Example Using Node Networks

Figure 8.10 Node diagram

30
 Tips for Proper Node Network
Drawing - 1
Improper Proper

A A
5 5

B B
3 3

31
Tips for Proper Node Network
Drawing - 2
Improper Proper

A A
5 5

B
B
3
3

32
Tips for Proper Node Network
Drawing - 3
Improper Proper
A
A 5
5
B
or 3

A
B
5
3

B
3

33
Tips for Proper Node Network
Drawing - 4
Improper Proper

A C A C
5 4 5 4

B D B D
3 7 3 7

34
 Tips for Proper Node Network
Drawing - 5
Starting a network diagram (Project Start)
Improper Proper

A A
5 5

B B
PS
3 3

C C
4 4

35
 Tips for Proper Node Network
Drawing - 6
Ending a network diagram (Project Finish)
Improper Proper

X
X
5
5

Y Y
3 3 PF

Z Z
4 4

36
 Example 1 Using Node
Networks
.

Activity IPA B D

A -
A E
B A
C A
C
D B
E C, D

37
 Example 2 for Node Network
. Activity IPA
A -
B -
C -
D A
E A,B
F A,B,C
G E,F
H D,G
I D,G
38
 Solution of Example 2
• Node diagram that starts or ends with more than one
activity, we inserts a PS (Project Start) and PF (Project
Finish) nodes.
A D H

PS B E G I
PF

C F

39
 CPM Calculations
• Total Float or Float, TF: The maximum
amount of time an activity can be delayed
from its early start (ES) without delaying the
entire project
TF = LS – ES
= LF – EF
ES, EF 11, 14
ABC TF (F) = 19 – 11 = 8 F
Dur
= 22 – 14 = 8 3

LS, LF 19, 22

40
 CPM Calculations
• Free Float, FF: The maximum amount of time
an activity can be delayed without delaying
the ES of the succeeding activity(s)
– FFi = min(ESi+1) – EFi
– FFB = min(8, 12) – 8 = 0
8, 15
– FF ≤ TF E
2,8 7
B 10,17
6
4,10
12, 17
F
5

41
CPM Scheduling
Activity Predecessor Duration
A - 1
B A 10
C A 7
D A 14
E B, C 8
F C 5
G D, E, F 1

42
 Activity Predecessor Duration
A - 1
B A 10
C A 7
D A 14
E B, C 8
F C 5
G D, E, F 1

Figure 8.11 Diagram with traditional relationships

43
CPM Scheduling
 Forward Pass: A process to find the
earliest start times (dates) and earliest
finish times (dates) for all activities
and to find the project duration.

44
Figure 8.12 ESD and EFD computation for first four activities 45
 Project duration = 20 days
Figure 8.13 Forward pass results
46
CPM Scheduling
 Backward Pass: A process to find the
late start times (dates) and late finish
times (dates) for all activities (Figure
8.15).
 Figure 8.16 shows backward pass for
all activities.
 Figure 8.17 shows total float, free float
and the critical path of the network.
47
 Project duration = 20 days

Figure 8.14 Assigning an LFD = EFD to the last activity

48
Figure 8.15 Backward pass result
49
Figure 8.16 Combined forward and backward passes
50
Total Float (TF)
 TFi = LSDi – ESDi
= LFDi – EFDi
 Critical activities have a TF of
zero.
 Non-critical activities have a TF
greater than zero.

51
Total Float (TF) and Free Float (FF)
 FFi = Min [(ESDj) – EFDi]
for j = 1,2,3, …
 TF of any activity is always equal or
greater than its FF.
 Generally, TF and FF are zero for
critical activities.

52
 TF = LS-ES
FF = Min ES (B)-EF (A)

Figure 8.17 Complete scheduling results

53
Critical Path
 The longest path or paths from start to
finish
 Activities having the same ESD and
LSD (or EFD and LFD) is part of the
longest path in the network. Path with
zero total float.
 Path from start to finish with maximum
total duration (Figure 8.16).

54
Critical Path for Precedence Diagram
 A critical path appears on any precedence
diagram (or Gantt chart) and links tasks
which have no total float. You can trace
critical path through your project from start
to finish.
 There could be at least one critical path or
many parallel critical paths having the same
duration.
 It is possible that all activities are on critical
path.

55
 Working Days

Figure 8.17 Complete scheduling results

56
Schedule the Small Garage Project
 The small garage project provide a more
realistic example of scheduling.

Figure 8.18 Network schedule for the small gas station project

57
About Relationships
 Piles of the east side must be driven
before the piles of the west side
(Figure 8.19 and Figure 8.20)

 East piles are caped and then east

abutment wall be built (Figure 8.21)

58
Figure 8.19 Small bridge section view

59
Figure 8.20 Project Bridge transverse section

60
Figure 8.21 Segment of precedence diagram for small bridge with one pile rig

61
Finish-to-Start (FS) Relationship
 Cast-in-place concrete
 Traditionally, Finish-to-start for
concrete curing (8.22a)
 Finish-to-start for curing is impractical
having many pours
 Introduce a lag time for concrete
curing (Figure 8.22b)

62
Figure 8.22 Modeling the sequence of concrete pour-curing-stripping

63
Start-to-Start (SS) Relationship
 When a successor activity must begin after
a Lag after the start of the predecessor
activity
 A pipe can begin to be laid before the
entire trench is completed (Figure 8.23a)
 Figure 8.23b shows the same scenario
with an SS relationship with lag time.

64
Figure 8.23 Start-to-Start (SS) relationships 65
Finish-to-Finish (FF) Relationship
 Signifies that a successor activity
must be finished after at least the
number of days indicated in the LAG
between the two activities
 Pipe laying to finish at least 3 days
after the trench is available (Figure
8.24b)

66
Figure 8.24 Finish-to-Finish relationships 67
Multiple Mutual Relationships
 Two activities can have more than
one mutual relationship (Figure 8.25).
 2 days lag between FF
2

A B

Figure 8.25 Multiple relationship between activities A & B

68
Gas Station Precedence Diagram
 Figure 8.26 shows the 22 activities
with estimated duration
 Their logical sequence.
 Schedule for 20 weeks
 Final inspection and demobilization is
shown

69
 70
Figure 8.26 Bar-net schedule for the small gas station
Precedence Diagram with Relationship Scheduling
 A precedence diagram is a graphical tool
that shows activities as rectangles or
circles joined by arrows indicating their
dependency and relationship.
 Figure 8.27 introduce several relationships.

71
Relationship Scheduling
Activity Duration Predecessor Relationship Lag

A 1 - -
B 10 A SS 2
C 7 A 1
D 14 A FF 16
E 8 B FF 12
B 3
C FF 5
F 5 C
G 1 E, F
D 2

72
Figure 8.27 Diagram with relationships 73
Forward Pass with Relationship
Scheduling
 Figure 8.28 presents forward pass for
first four activities
 Figure 8.29 presents complete
forward pass for all activities

74
Figure 8.28 Forward pass for first four activities 75
Figure 8.29 Forward pass for small generalized network
76
Backward Pass with Relationship
Scheduling
 Figure 8.30 presents late date
computations for activities D, E, F,
and G.
 Figure 8.31 presents complete
backward pass for all activities

77
Figure 8.30 Late date computations for activities D, E, F, and G 78
Figure 8.31 Complete backward pass for generalized relationship 79
Total Float, Free Float and Critical
Path with Relationship Scheduling
 Figure 8.32 presents free float
computations for activity A

 Figure 8.32 presents complete

computations for total float, free float and
critical path with relationships

80
Figure 8.32 Free Float computation for Activity A 81
Figure 8.32 Complete computations for generalized relationships 82
Construction Scheduling
 General Notation for an activity
 List of activities, duration and their precedence
Duration
Activity Precedence
(weeks)

ES EF
A 2 None
TF Activity Duration
B 6 A
LS LF C 6 B
D 1 B
E 3 A
F 3 D,E
G 2 C,F
83
 Duration
Activity Precedence
(weeks)

A 2 None
B 6 A
C 6 B
D 1 B
E 3 A
Activity on Nodes F 3 D,E
8 14 G 2 C,F

0 C 6
8 14

0 2 2 8 8 9 9 12 14 16
0 A 2 0 B 6 2 D 1 2 F 3 0 G 2
0 2 2 8 10 11 11 14 14 16

2 5
6 E 3
8 11 84
 Duration
Activity Precedence
ES EF (weeks)

A 2 None
The critical path: Activity (no &
Float Duration B 6 A
A, B, C, G description)
C 6 B

LF D 1 B
Project Duration: LS
E 3 A
16 weeks
F 3 D,E
8 14 G 2 C,F
Activity on Nodes 0 C 6
8 14

0 2 2 8 8 9 9 12 14 16
0 A 2 0 B 6 2 D 1 2 F 3 0 2
G
0 2 2 8 10 11 11 14 14 16

2 5
6 E 3
8 11 85
Working to Calendar Dates
 In calendar dates, nonworking days such as weekend
and holidays are skipped in the count.
 Let us assume a small project whose schedule is
shown in Figure 8.33
 Figure 8.34 shows the calendar for the project with a
start date of December 23. The contractor has
chosen not to work on Saturday and Sunday, as well
as on December 25 and January 1.
 Assume that the calendar of Figure 8.34 applies to
the schedule shown in Figure 8.33
 Table 8.1 shows the ESD, EFD and LSD, LFD for the
network.

86
 ES EF
Project duration = 13 days
TF Activity Duration Working day
TF
LS LF

2 5 5 10 10 13

0 B 3 0 D 5 0 E 3

2 5 5 10 10 13

0 2

0 A 2

0 2

2 7

3 C 5

5 10

Figure 8.33 Network for working to calendar dates

87
Figure 8.34 Project calendar with working days

88
 2 5 5 10 10 13

0 B 3 0 D 5 0 E 3

2 5 5 10 10 13

0 2

0 A 2

0 2

2 7

3 C 5

5 10

Table 8.1 Working to calendar dates conversion for network

89
Software for Scheduling
 There are many software for scheduling
 MS-Project
 Primavera P6
 Primavera is a database based software
whereas the MS-Project is a file-based.

 Primavera is more powerful software when

compared to the MS-Project software as it
reduces the project risks.

90
Homework

1. Solve review question 8.1, 8.2, and

8.3

Dated:
Submission: There is no need to
submit to the instructor
Thank You