Overview
In construction management, scheduling is an easiest and crucial task done for tracking the parts of a project. The schedule ensures that all the project steps are completed in a given timeframe which reduces costs and also minimizes bottlenecking. In detail, it includes mentioning the date of completing each activity before the next step is carried forward in the construction process.
Scheduling is of utmost use to companies who conduct a project in BIM Services software as it helps to virtually plan the activities, display time, and cost of each task to be done in the project. Construction Schedule is the track of performing activities in a given time to improve the projects on a large scale.
Due to project delay, there are huge overrun costs on the project that is expected to be 80% approx. as stated by McKinney and Company in their live journal. Scheduling is maintained by General contractors and project managers who keep track of completing a task in a given time and date.
Superintendent verifies all the scheduled tasks given by the subcontractors and other responsible parties involved in the project for assigning the work scheduled by them. The lifecycle of a construction project begins when the owner knows a market need and end when the project is completed.
Construction project schedule provides insight on each step over the completion of them in a project. Development of early schedule helps to complete given activities and positively adhere it to the financial decisions.
While planning for any construction projects, the things you must take into consideration are design, permits, and costs for planning tasks and completing it in a given time is what scheduling is all about into construction projects.
A contractor is responsible for completing the tasks of the project by taking a look at the scheduling process. Construction schedules are categorized into two aspects which depend on how long the activity will take and who is responsible for the same.
Benefits of Planned Construction Schedule
Planned and well-executed construction schedule process can aid in managing materials, labour and equipment. It can adjust to unexpected events. This way, the owner and the contractors can complete the project on-time and within budget constraints.
It will help to identify and manage activities which are required for completing the project and in which order the tasks need to be completed is considered. By proper planning of scheduled tasks, it can increase productivity and efficiency of the overall project.
Due to scheduling software, all the information is updated and gets stored in a single place which allows any professionals to access the project flow when needed. Project updated can be stored in one location to provide a project overview.
With better planning and budget allocation, the contractors can take qualitative decision making about activities required to complete the projects. Scheduling software has the latest technology advancement that helps to get proper project workflow and insights to monitor resource allocation and wastage.
Setbacks of construction schedule on projects
Construction schedule setbacks are expensive and universally experienced. Many factors are affecting the cost estimation and scheduling of construction project which needs to be worked upon.
Large scale projects usually get delayed and are over budget due to minor delay that creates construction project setbacks which fall for many problems such as disruption of cash flow due to project delay; labour costs arise, storage cost increases, loss of use and lawsuits.
Construction companies who have effective quality control drive can reduce project delays and gain competitive advantage and reduce rework while improving ROI on projects. There are difficulties of construction schedule that is lack of scheduling ownership, lack of alignment between project teams and inefficient work processes.
Accountability in scheduling process
Lack of accountability in construction schedule states in traditional methodology the accountability of project task was given to one or several individuals who had to complete the task in a given time frame and update when the task got accomplished, but it never happened this way. Supervisors are often not aware who manages the project scheduling process and how the workflow must go align.
The workers are not known about the construction process to be carried out in the project and hence create vague scheduling process and don’t own the ownership for the same. Here what would matter is proper planning about scheduling process and accountability. They must trust their team members and give work responsibility with delegacy and authority-based.
Alignment
During the constructability reviews and project communication it is often observed that lack of alignment between the two parties leads to waste reduction in construction projects. The basic misalignment begins when the two parties don’t understand that the design team would not know about constructible field and construction teams won’t have hands-on design process.
For reviewing the design, all the construction team needs to work together on constructability reviews that can depict changes in the construction process which are a delay in the construction process, communication, rework, and redesign.
Constructability reviews are often carried out in pre-construction stage using collaborative software where the teams can create and view accurate visualization for identifying changes in the project. Communication plays a crucial role in a construction project which might cause delay, variations in design change and site conditions which can also affect the important decisions of projects.
With digital communication, we can keep up with documentation and delivery by parties involved in the project. It is vital for the teams while communication provides the right amount of context which can lessen the time taken and minimize necessary changes.
Mismanagement of work process
Resource waste can lead to delays in the construction project and vice versa. Waste occurs due to improperly managed site and project logistics, which arises because of site safety conditions, noise pollution, material delivery delay, and storage capacity problem.
Logistics in a project needs to be controlled and managed with software advancements. It allows the contractors to visualize the tasks on-site before work begins, working in 4D BIM, solving the trouble for logistics and managing schedule deliveries of material effectively.
Steps to prevent construction schedule delay in the projects
There are many causes for construction delay and a plethora of parameters which needs to be taken into account for improving the project when underdeveloped for betterment of project by contractors.
Additional labour wages, additional costs for materials and storage, legal disputes, cash flow problems and reputation damage for all the construction parties involved are some of the proving construction project delays.
- Project Planning: – Planning is an initial and most important step in any construction project to execute activities against overruns, uncertainty, risks and delays. With advanced software we can use for scheduling, one can make customized project plan templates such as agile development or software development, specific to standards, details of project and scope of a project before commencing the actual work on-site.
- Pool of Information: – Team members or professionals who are working on construction project needs to be on the same page from a start point to finish, which can help them spend time to get relevant information of the project. With cloud computing, we can store all the documents, share and collaborate for better tracking of activities in the construction project. BIM Coordination Services would enable the team to stay communicated and connected with all the departments of a project and work collaboratively.
- Automatic project process: – With customized templates, we can increase standardization, set stage for the project team to meet the upcoming project’s requirement. With the best process and digital process, we can save time and effort that can be invested in other tasks.
- Track and measure the progress: – It is crucial to have access to relevant information and project status for making a decision. It helps to keep project goals on track.
Conclusion
Any construction project would need proper planning and schedule that can help the contractors and owners who are responsible get activities on track. Scheduling should be done at the initial stage and with the use of advance software and tools.
we can virtually work with managing waste, material quantity-offs, and complete task. Information with construction parties involved in the project is most important as it brings coordination among architects and engineers throughout the project.
