LINE OF BALANCE.

Principles of the line-of-balance method

In construction, there are some projects in which a predominant feature is that of
repetition. A housing contract is a typical example; driving piles and capping them
is another; a block of flats or a hotel each with a series of identical rooms and
facilities are yet others. For such works it is extravagant, as well as difficult, to
draw and maintain critical path networks illustrating the detail of the construction
process for each of the units involved. The updating of such a network and its use
as an instrument of control for the delivery of materials and each individual
construction operation presents many problems of organization. The discipline and
logic of networking can, however, be employed in a more rational way for such
projects by using the line-of-balance method.
The line-of-balance method is based upon the establishment of a required delivery
programme for completed units. From this progamme requirement, the dependency
and relationship of foregoing activities on it, a schedule can be prepared for the
delivery, manufacture or construction of the various parts which go to make up the
whole. A line-of-balance schedule will be built up using a number of examples to
illustrate the main points of the method.
Let it be assumed that the construction of one unit of housing is made up of the
activities shown in Table 10.1 alongside the duration of each.

The line-of-balance method is based upon the need for maintaining a given
delivery schedule. The time analysis of the activities for one unit of housing is
therefore made with relation to its completion date rather than commencement
date. Figure 10.8 below shows the network for one housing unit drawn on a time
base and within the resource constraints for this particular work. It will be noted
that the time scale is reversed with the final event, number 10, being at time zero.
Working back from event 10, the lead times for each of the other events in the
network can be calculated. The lead times represent the number of weeks (in this
case) by which the particular event must precede the end event if delivery is to be
made on time. A schedule of lead times can be drawn up as in Table 10.2.
The delivery of housing units from the hypothetical schedule may be illustrated in
two ways. It may be stated as a straightforward, week-by-week schedule giving the
number of units to be delivered during each separate week. Alternatively it may be
represented diagrammatically as in Fig. 10.9. This example illustrates the handover
rate of 2 units per week from a batch of 60 houses,

the whole to be completed by the 31st December 1975. The ordinate represents the
quantity completed at any one point of time in the programme.
A line-of-balance can be determined for each control point in the network of the
single unit of housing. In Fig. 10.10 a delivery schedule is shown for the handover
of 70 houses in 55 weeks. At any point in time within the schedule shown on the
horizontal axis, the necessary control information regarding the control points can
be established. At the point marked 'today' at the end of the 35th week, the number
of house foundations which should be completed can be read off against the graph
of completed deliveries by going forward the lead time, in this case 10 weeks. In
other words, if the foundations for a house are not completed by 'today', it is not on
schedule for delivery in 10 weeks time. Similar information can be established for
each control event and the line-of-balance chart of Fig. 10.11 can be established.
Performance can be plotted against it by simply making a visual check of the work
completed so far.
Example
The site for a project consisting of 120 similar houses will become available for
construction to commence on the 1st January 1976. A handover rate of 6 houses
per week is required — the project to be completed by the 31st March 1977.

The contractor will be working a five-day week at 42 hours per week and taking
holidays, etc, into account decides to base his programme on a total of 300
working days. Figure 10.12 shows the programme. Table 10.3 can now be drawn
up after consideration of the resources which will be used. The sequence of
activities will be that adopted in Fig 10.8. Against each activity is placed, in Table
10.3, the estimated number of man-hours which are required to complete it. In
column three can then be put the total number of men G that will be required to
complete six per 42-hour week: G = M x 6/42 = M/7. It is infrequently the case
that the calculation for the total gang size, G, will result in a round and convenient
number so that an adjustment process has to take place. The adjustment must also
take place in the light of the optimal number of men that can be employed on one
house at a time. These are listed in column 4 of Table 10.3. The actual total gang
sizes, taking these two factors into account, are listed in column 5.

Because of the rounding-up or down process, production will not be quite at the
rate as if the gang size of column 2 were adopted. A revised rate of houses per
week, R, for each operation can now be calculated from the formula R = R1 x S/G,
where R1 is the original rate of production required, i.e., 6 per week in this
example.
The duration in working days for the completion of each operation in one house,
D, can now be calculated on the assumption that the 42 working hours per week
are equally spread over each working day as 8.4 hours per day:
D = M/H x 8.4
These figures are listed in column of Table 10.3. In column 8 of Table 10.3. are
listed the durations for the completion of each operation in the total number of
houses for the project. If N is the number of houses, the completion time will
therefore span a duration of N — 1 construction periods. The durations for each
operation over all houses is then T = (N - 1) x 5/R working days.
Enough information is now available to enable a programme chart to be produced.
To explain the principles of the line-of-balance-chart it will be assumed, initially,
that each of the operations will be sequential rather than having some concurrent
activities as in the diagram for the unit of housing. The activities will be assumed
to be in the sequence of the list in Table 10.3., reading from top to bottom. Against
a horizontal axis of working days and a vertical axis of numbers of houses the chart
of Fig. 10.13 is plotted.
The first operation is that of foundations. Against house 1 the time in working days
from column 7 of Table 10.3 is plotted horizontally. The plot starts at time 0 and
continues for 3.91 days — the time allowed for the foundations of one house. The
foundations of houses per working week are completed and two parallel lines are
plotted at this slope to represent the commencement and completion of the
foundations to all 60 houses.
Completion of the foundations for the sixtieth house will take place at 94.44 + 3.97
= 98.41 days. Similar bands can be constructed for all of the operations. It should
be noted that it is generally impracticable to commence the next operation
immediately after the completion of the one before. A time buffer needs to be
allowed between them. When a succeeding sequence of operations is completed
more quickly than its predecessor, then the bands on the line-of-balance chart will
close towards the top and the buffer needs to be established on the 60 house line in
this case.