Planning and finishing on schedule is one of the hardest aspects of construction projects. In my own contracting companies, I have come across many different methods for planning and organizing a construction job.
Let’s look at several construction schedule types that different companies use.
Gantt Charts and Critical Path Method(CPM) are the most common, but there are other less common approaches.
I’ll also tell you how to schedule construction projects regardless of which method you decide is right for you.
Gantt Charts
Gantt charts are among the most popular construction schedule types — and for good reason. They help you visualize your project schedule and make locating the critical path (more on what that is shortly) much easier.
Gantt charts typically consist of a calendar with activities and details about them spread out across start and end dates.
WHAT ARE GANTT CHARTS GOOD FOR?
Gantt charts are very helpful for finding new ways to look at your project, which will help you identify the best path towards the finish line. They also simplify management of projects that involve many overlapping activities. The bar layout makes it very easy to shuffle projects around if overlapping would prove to be an issue.
You can find Gantt chart functionality in many construction software programs. It’s become quite popular in many company management applications as well, with programs like Asana offering their own Gantt chart layouts. This makes it easy for even the layperson to understand your project’s progress.
GANTT CHART DISADVANTAGES
If you have a massive project with hundreds of tasks taking place, a Gantt chart will quickly become confusing. The bar layout also does not really show how much work and resources are needed for a particular task — only how long it’s expected to take.
Gantt charts are also impractical for large projects given how difficult it can be to print all the relevant information out on a reasonable amount of paper.
Critical Path Method (CPM)
The critical path method is perhaps the most popular of all methods for scheduling in construction management. It involves identifying the resources and time required to complete a milestone as well as how said goal applies to the overall project.
WHAT IS THE CRITICAL PATH METHOD GOOD FOR?
The critical path method helps to identify the best order a project’s tasks can be completed. As its name suggests, it also helps identify the most critical “branch” of your project’s path, allowing you to easily see which tasks are essential for project completion and what are merely supportive of those tasks.
CRITICAL PATH METHOD DISADVANTAGES
The critical path method may not be the only type of construction schedule you rely on. This is true of projects involving hundreds of related tasks. While you may identify a critical path in such a scenario, you may fail to adequately account for resources required by tasks dependent on those within the path.
The critical path method is not a one-size-fits-all solution for construction scheduling.
Line of Balance
The line of balance scheduling method breaks your project into repetitive chunks, (building a skyscraper, which happens floor by floor). Each graph represents one of those tasks, with time spread out on the x-axis and the y-axis displaying the work area (each floor of the building).
As workers make progress on the task, the chart will reflect how long each iteration takes. Given the repetition, you’ll be able to plan resources effectively, as there will be many similarities.
Goodyear developed the line of balance method in the 1940s and it was later refined by the U.S. Navy.
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
PERT is not construction specific but, as Inc. points out, is useful in organizations that seek to analyze key events and interdependencies along a project’s ideal path to success. It lays out the milestones that will show progress on the project. PERT lays your schedule out neatly and allows for differentiation between fixed deadlines and milestones that you have some flexibility with. It also keeps fixed deadlines top-of-mind and features a layout simple enough to encourage collaboration across many teams, even in complex projects.
PERT also encourages you to create different timelines for activity completion:
- Optimistic time: The best-case scenario.
- Pessimistic time: The longest foreseeable time it will take you to complete a task.
- Most likely time: Assuming no major challenges present themselves, this is the time your activity should be completed.
- Expected time: Accounting for problems (which are inevitable in construction anyway), this is an estimate of how long it will take you to complete the activity in question.
You’ll be able to communicate your intentions given a few different circumstances.
How to Schedule a Construction Project
Now that you know a bit more about the different construction schedules, you may wonder how to implement them in your company. By far, the easiest method of achieving this is to use software that allows you to use your scheduling method of choice.
Consider beginning with a list of your subcontractors and square away any regulatory details (building codes, etc.) relevant to your project. All methods for scheduling in construction management will also require you to identify key milestones for your project’s completion. They don’t even have to be in order at this stage; just list them.
I help my construction clients find which types work best for them. You have many methods to choose from, each with their own advantages and disadvantages that suggest which projects they’re best suited towards. Getting the right type of construction schedule will make a big difference when organizing your projects.
