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Lecture Notes
CHAPETR VI
CONSTRUCTION PROJECT SCHEDULING TECHNIQUES
A trail and error approach is no longer valid for the construction industry and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.
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.
At the same time that the choice of technology and general method are
considered, a parallel step in the planning process is to define the various
work tasks that must be accomplished. These work tasks represent the
necessary framework to permit scheduling of construction activities, along
with estimating the resources required by the individual work tasks and any
necessary precedence or required sequence among the tasks. The terms
work "tasks" or "activities" are often used interchangeably in construction
plans to refer to specific, defined items of work. The scheduling problem is to
determine an appropriate set of activity start time, resource allocations and
completion times that will result in completion of the project in a timely and
efficient fashion. Construction planning is the necessary fore-runner to
scheduling. In this planning, defining work tasks, technology and construction
method is typically done either simultaneously or in a series of iterations.
In practice, the proper level of detail will depend upon the size, importance
and difficulty of the project as well as the specific scheduling and accounting
procedures which are adopted. However, it is generally the case that most
schedules are prepared with too little detail than too much. It is important to
keep in mind that task definition will serve as the basis for scheduling, for
communicating the construction plan and for construction monitoring.
Completion of tasks will also often serve as a basis for progress payments
from the owner. Thus, more detailed task definitions can be quite useful. But
more detailed task breakdowns are only valuable to the extent that the
resources required, durations and activity relationships are realistically
estimated for each activity. Providing detailed work task breakdowns is not
helpful without a commensurate effort to provide realistic resource
requirement estimates.
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.
For a project of any consequence, there is always more than one general
approach and no unique order of procedure exists. It is the planners
responsibility to examine the workable choices and select the most suitable
alternatives.
Example 6 - 2:
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). 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. Activities G (install
lines) and H (install utilities) represents installation in the utility trenches and
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). 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 slab
foundation, so activity H (install utilities) is not necessarily a preceding
activity for activity I (pour concrete). The results of our planning are the
immediate precedence shown herewith.
All formal scheduling procedures rely upon estimates of the durations of the
various project activities as well as the definitions of the predecessor
relationships among tasks. The variability of an activity's duration may also
be considered. Formally, theprobability
distribution of an activity's duration as well as the expected or most likely
duration may be used in scheduling. A probability distribution indicates the
chance that particular activity duration will occur. In advance of actually
doing a particular task, we cannot be certain exactly how long the task will
require.
Where Aij is the required formwork area to assemble (in m 2), Pij is the average
productivity of a standard crew in this task (measured in m 2 per hour), and Nij
is the number of crews assigned to the task.
Preparation of schedules:
Construction Stages:
On large projects it may be desirable or essential to divide the project into
several construction stages, which may be constructed independently or in
conjunction with each other.
Example: A new water supply scheme for a city might include the following
stages:
Construction Activities:
Most projects are divided into construction activities to facilitate job planning.
It is a portion of a project, which may be performed by a classification of
laborers (CREW) or perhaps by a single type of equipment.
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. The bar
chart has been the traditional management device for planning and
scheduling construction projects. Bar charts are particularly helpful for
communicating the current state and schedule of activities on a project. As
such, they have found wide acceptance as a project representation tool in the
field. For planning purposes, bar charts are not as useful since they do not
indicate the precedence relationships among activities. Thus, a planner must
remember or record separately that a change in one activity's schedule may
require changes to successor activities. There have been various schemes for
mechanically linking activity bars to represent precedence, but it is now
easier to use computer based tools to represent such relationships.
Basic Assumptions:
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.
3
B D
A 5 6 F
1 2
C E
4
B D
ST A F
C E
Network Logic:
Network logic refers to the determined order in which the activities are
interrelated in order to accomplish the task.
Example 6 -3: Develop the network logic for the activities given in example 6
-2.
Using the Precedence Relations table of the project the following network
logic can be developed.
Basically the two event times are the one that starts in the earliest possible
time and the other on the latest possible time. The method used to calculate
them is different from each as shown below:
Important Definitions:
This is the earliest time that an activity can start. It represents the earliest
event time of the preceding activity.
This is the latest time, when an activity may be completed without affecting
the project completion time. It represents the late event tine of the
succeeding event.
It is the latest possible time that an activity can start without affecting the
project completion time.
Total float time is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without
affecting the total project completion time.
TF = LFT EFT
Free float time is the time that an activity can be delayed without affecting
the early start of the following activity.
D ij - duartion of activity i j.
The total float time that can't be exceeded as it will cause a delay in the
project. Meanwhile the free float of an activity can be exceeded.
A. Network Logic:
2 4
F
I
B
C E G
6 7
1
A H
5
3
D
2 4
F
I
B
C E G
6 7
1
A H
5
3
D
CRITICAL PATH: -
2 4
C E G
6 7
J
1
A
5
3
H 2 14 24 24 22 8 8
I 7 17 24 24 17 0 0
J 5 24 29 29 24 0 0
Exercise: Develop a network diagram for a factory project with the
following information and determine completion time and floating times
of activities.
The two commonly used network methods for project planning and
scheduling are the program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and the
critical path method (CPM). Both PERT and CPM are termed critical path
methods because both use the critical path to complete expected project
duration, early and late times, and slack. The two are frequently described
under one term, PERT/CPM. Despite their similarities, PERT and CPM were
developed independently in different problem environments and industries.
PERT was developed for application in projects where there is uncertainty
associated with the nature and duration of activities. It originated in the late
1950s during the U.S. Navys Polaris Missile System Program. In complex
research and development programs, there are questions about the kind of
research to be done, how long it will take, what stages of development are
necessary, and how fast they can be completed- largely because of the
uncertainty about the exact nature of the final outcomes. Such projects are
contracted as new developments unfold and before problems in technology,
materials, and processes can be identified and resolved. Thus, the duration of
the project is uncertain and there is considerable risk that the project will
overrun the target completion time.
Based on this distribution, the mean or expected time, te, and the variance, V,
of each activity are computed with the three time estimates using the
following formulas.
te = a + 4m +b
6
2
V= b a
6
The expected time, te, represents the point in the normal distribution where
there is 50-50 chance that the activity will be completed earlier or later than
it.
a m te b
Te =te
CP
Where, te, are expected times of the activities along the critical path.
In PERT, the project duration is not considered a single point estimate
contrary to CPM, but an estimate subject to uncertainty owing to the
uncertainties of the activity times along the critical path. Because the project
duration; Te, is computed as the sum of average activity times along the
critical path, it follows that, Te, is an average time. Thus the project duration
can be thought of as a probability distribution with an average of Te. So the
probability of completing the project prior to Te is 50 percent, and the
probability of completing it later than Te is 50 percent.
The variation in the project duration distribution is computed as the sum of
the variances of the activity durations along the critical path.
Vp =V
CP
Both questions can be answered using the standard normal distribution curve
(Z-values) given in the attached table.
TE
Z = TS ; Z = -0.82
VP
The probability of completing the project within 27 days is equal to the area
under the normal curve to the left of Z =-0.82. Referring to the table,
F(-Z) = 1- F(Z);
= 1- F (0.82)
= 1-0.7939
= 21%
ii) Given, F(Z) = 0.95, Te= 29 days, Vp= 6.0
Find, Ts
From the normal distribution table, the Z values for 95% probability is
approximately 1.645
1.645 = Ts 29
6.0
Ts =33.03 days
In other words, it is highly likely (95% probability) that the project will be
completed within 33 days.
Advantages of network scheduling: