UNIVERSITY OF GONDAR

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Dep’t Of Hydraulics & Water Resource
Engineering

Construction planning& Management

CHAPTER-SIX

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT SCHEDULING TECHNIQUES

Planning Studies

A trail and error approach is no longer valid for

the construction industry and proper
planning is now vital. The amount of detailing in
planning is likely to be the function of the
size of the firm, the complexity of the project
and the expertise of the management.
CONT..
• Usually may things interfere with the construction

thus making the task of planning and controlling much

difficult. Obviously planning will not automatically
solve or answer these problems. It serves as a
guideline, which is flexible enough to accommodate
the changes and be used for checking planned against
the actual executed work.
Advantages of Planning

Planning has advantages at all of the following stages of

construction:
1. Before the project is started:
™ It is important for the client to estimate his resources and to prepare the
resources
properly and also know the estimated project duration.
™ And helps the consultant to evaluate the tenders submitted by contractors
before
the project is started.
CONT….
2. During the construction stage:
™ Ordering of materials: like for example doors on
time to fix it according to the
time schedule.For resource utilization like equipments.
3. After completion of a project:
™ Serve as a data base for future planning and
scheduling.
Construction Planning – Initial Stage

Before the actual formation of the plan the

following should be considered:
The planning/scheduling technique to be used
The number and type of programs required.
 The purpose of the program.
CONT….

The programs usually developed are

 Performance based on Financial Schedule
 Equipment Schedule
Material delivery Schedule
Manpower Schedule
CONT…
The construction planning may be said to consist of the following steps:
™ Choice of technology and construction method,
™ Determination of the job steps or ‘activities’ that must be performed
to construct the project,
™ Ascertainment of the sequential relationships among these
activities,Determination of duration of activities, and The presentation

of this planning information in the form of a schedule or network,

Task Definition for a Road Building Project

As an example of construction planning, let’s

use a developed plan for a road construction
project including two culverts.

SEE FROM PDF (4)

:
3) Job Logic /Sequential Relationships/ or Precedence

Job logic refers to the determined order in which the

activities are to be accomplished in the field. The start
of some activities obviously depends on the completion
of the others. A concrete wall cannot be poured until
the formworks are in place and the reinforcing steel has
been tied. Yet many activities are independent of one
another and can proceed concurrently.
Example

Suppose that a site preparation and concrete slab foundation construction project consists of
nine different activities:
A. Site clearing (of brush and minor debris)
B. Removal of trees
C. General excavation
D. Grading general area
E. Excavation for utility trenches
F. Placing formwork and reinforcement for concrete
G. Installing sewer lines
H. Installing other utilities
I. Pouring concrete.
CONT

Activities A (site clearing) and B (tree removal) does

not have preceding activities since they depend on
none of the other activities. We assume that
activities C (general excavation) and
D (general grading) are preceded by activity A (site
clearing).
CONT….
It might also be the case that the planner wished to delay any
excavation until trees were removed, so that B (tree
removal) would be a precedent activity to C (general
excavation) and D (general grading). Activities E (trench
excavation) and F (concrete preparation) cannot begin until
the completion of general excavation and grading, since they
involve subsequent excavation and trench preparation.
 CONT…
Activities G (install lines) and H (install utilities) represents
installation in the utility trenche sand cannot be attempted until
the trenches are prepared, so that activity E (trench excavation)
is a preceding activity. We also assume that the utilities should
not be installed until grading is completed to avoid equipment
conflicts, so activity D (general grading) is also preceding
activities G (install sewers) and H (install utilities).
 CONT…
Finally, activity I (pour concrete) cannot begin until the sewer
line is installed and formwork and reinforcement are ready, so
activities F and G are preceeding. Other utilities may be routed
over the slabfoundation, so activity H (install ) is not
necessarily a preceding activity for activity I (pour concrete).
The results of our planning are the immediate precedence
shown herewith.
 :
4) Determination of duration of activities

A straightforward approach to the estimation of activity durations is

to keep historical records of particular activities and rely on the
average durations from this experience in making new duration
estimates. Since the scopes of activities are unlikely to be identical
between different projects, unit productivity rates are typically
employed for this purpose. For example, the duration of an activity
Dij such as concrete formwork assembly might be estimated as:
CONT

Dij = Aij / (Pij * Nij)

Where Aij is the required formwork area to
assemble (in m2), Pij is the average productivity
of a standard crew in this task (measured in m2
per hour), and Nij is the number of crews
assigned to the task.
Example

Activity duration to pour 230 m2 of slab

formwork, assuming a production
rate of 1.5 m2/hr /crew (assuming 8 working
hours per day) can be established as follows
Duration = quantity/productivity
= 230 m2/ 12 m2/day = 17.5 days
Construction Project Scheduling

Scheduling is a mechanical process for formalizing

the planning function, assigning time boundaries
for each part of the work in such a manner that
the work proceeds in logical sequence and in an
orderly and systematic manner.
CONT….

Thus, a construction project scheduling is a

projected time table of construction operations
that will serve as the principal guide line for
project evaluation.
 Preparation of schedules:

Preparation of schedules involves the following three steps:

1. Determination of activities or job steps. Breaking the works into smaller
units or activities.
2. Determining of the activity durations.
3. Determining the sequential relationships among the activities or preparing
the Job
Logic.
4. Establishment of a plan network i.e. developing a bar chart or network
diagram.
Scheduling Techniques:

There are two common methods of scheduling used in

the construction industry. This are:
A. Bar chart (Gantt chart) Scheduling method.
B. Network scheduling method: which include the
Critical Path Method (CPM) and the
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT).
-
Bar Chart (Gantt Chart) Method:

The bar chart is probably the best known of all the planning techniques. It
basically features a
plan of a project split into a logically related individual activities each
represented graphically
by scaled lines. Bar charts present the project schedule plotted to a
horizontal line scale. The
bar lines represent the time period allocated to each operation and the
relationship between
the commencement and completion of each can be readily observed.
Advantages of Bar chart:

 Useful to report information to people who are concerned about a project

but may not be involved in day-today management.
 A simple format and readily understood at all levels of management,
 It can provide a quick, visual overview of a project in convenient way to
monitor job
progresses, schedule equipment and crews and record project

advancement.
Disadvantages:
 Interdependencies among activities are difficult to show. The bar
chart itself doesn’t provide a basis for ascertaining which activities
are critical and which are floaters.
 It is not an adequate planning and scheduling tool because it doesn’t
portray a
detailed, integrated and complete plan of operations.
 Can't tell what will be the effect of a delay today will have on the
timing of future activities.
 :-
NETWORK SCEHDULING

is a method of scheduling activities by joining them in a series of

interconnected links, which reflect relationships of activities by the planner.

Basic Assumptions:
1. The project can be broken down into a group of activities.
2. Each activities can be assigned a duration.
3. The logical relationship among activities are known and fixed in the network chains
:
Rules for Preparing the Network Diagram

1. No activity can start before the preceding activity is

finalized.
2. There is only one start and finish for an activity.
3. No activity leads back and forms a loop.
4. The logical precedence, concurrent and subsequent
activities must be clearly
developed.
5. A Dummy activity is established only to show
relationship. A dummy activity is
assumed to have duration of ZERO time units and it is
introduced on the network
when it is necessary.
 CONT
Presentation of Networks: -
Showing the job activities and their order of sequence
(logic) in pictorial form produces the project network.
This network is a graphical display of the proposed plan.

There are two methods. These are: -

Arrow/ activity arrow Diagram
Node/ Activity Node Diagram
 :
Network Logic

Network logic refers to the determined order in which the

activities are interrelated in order
to accomplish the task.
Identifying the preceding activity and immediately preceding
activity (IPA) is the easiest method to develop the network logic
and draw the network diagram.
Example 6-3: Develop the network logic for the activities given
in example Above (table)
see pdf (11)
Types of Network Schedules:

The two common types of network schedules used in

the construction industry are the Critical Path Method
(CPM) and the Program Review and Evaluation
Technique (PERT).
Critical Path Method (CPM)

The most widely used scheduling technique is the

critical path method (CPM) for scheduling, often
referred to as critical path scheduling. This method
calculates the minimum completion time for a
project along with the possible start and finish
times for the project activities. Indeed, many texts
and managers regard critical path scheduling as the
only usable and
practical scheduling procedure.
Cont…
The critical path itself represents the set or
sequence of predecessor/successor activities
which will take the longest time to complete.
The duration of the critical path is the sum of
the activities' durations along the path. Thus,
the critical path can be defined as the longest
possible path through the "network" of project
activities.