4007A Plan building construction work CONSTRUCTION PLANNING PDF

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In most cases the detailed planning for a building project takes place after the tender has been won and a
contract is signed up....

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4007A Plan building construction work

CONSTRUCTION PLANNING

IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN YOU WILL PLAN TO FAIL! PLANNING CONCEPTS In most cases the detailed planning for a building project takes place after the tender has been won and a contract is signed up. However, this isn’t always the best way to approach planning for a building construction project. If you don’t do enough planning when formulating your tender or quote and find out that you have actually ‘won’ the job, the first thing you might think of is “what have I missed out on that all of the other contractors new about or discovered?” There is now a growing practice, particularly for large $ value building projects or government funded works are involved to require contractors to submit a brief ‘Working Plan’ , ‘Project Strategy’ or ‘Method Statement’ within their tender bids for evaluation by the client and their project consultants. This project planning overview is done to provide the client with a greater level of confidence as to the capability and realistic strategies that the builder has used in their project planning and analysis. Depending on the size of the project this can be a very time consuming and a costly task for builders particularly if it does not result in them being awarded the contract! But if they do win the work they can be reasonably assured that their bid is based on a sound planning strategy rather than just wishful thinking and lots of guesswork! The final preparations for commencing site operations will be far less hectic and the building works more likely to proceed in an orderly manner than would be the case if little consideration had been given to the planning of the project works. Every construction project will involve some degree of planning: The above scenario looked at the context of planning for substantial construction projects but even very small building jobs involving only the person who will actually perform the work need some degree of planning. The person who takes the time to ‘think’ & ‘plan’ what they will do, how they will do it and what they need to have (materials/equipment/help/etc.) to perform a particular job before they start on the physical construction works will be in a far better position than those that rely on simply addressing issues as they arise. Sometimes we are forced to adopt a ‘suck-it-and-see’ approach but this is never a replacement for reliable planning strategy. Although the home building industry has generally been seen as being fairly haphazard in its commitment to develop detailed planning procedures, construction project planning is recognised by most industry authorities as being a critical part in the success or failure of the builder’s business. TASK 1: Planning for the very ‘little’ building project It’s a warm Saturday afternoon and you have just mowed the lawn. You’re on your second beer and your kid is pestering you to build a sandpit to play in just like the one they have at their pre-school. Your partner watched a gardening show and wants a raised garden bed to grow veggies. That clever bloke on the TV show knocked up a fantastic garden bed (it even has a bench seat in it) in less than 15 minutes. You have been given until Sunday afternoon to get this sand pit/garden bed/bench project finished. That should be plenty of time. Right? Page 1 of 4

4007A Plan building construction work

START YOUR PLANNING: - Mind Mapping/Brainstorming a Project Plan Take 5 minutes working in groups to THINK ABOUT and come up with the things you will need and things you might need to do to achieve this building project within the time frame allowed. Use some sub-headings like DESIGN, MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION and SAFETY to help get you started. From this type and size of project up, planning will become more complex and with multiple and inter-related activities as the project’s work tasks and components increase in number and complexity. TASK 2: The bigger building project. How many separate and distinct subcontractor trade groups could you as the builder expect to work with and organise on a typical residential house construction project? Get back into your groups and write up a list. Try to put the subbies/trades in their correct order of attendance. How many did you come up with? Activity Scheduling This is the critical aspect in project planning. It is the basis of being able to create a viable construction program. It identifies all appropriate work activities that comprise the overall project works. It schedules these activities in their order of required commencement and completion. It determines if any start/finish relationships exist between activities and finally allocates an appropriate time period to each of the activities, tasks or operations that must be undertaken to satisfactorily complete the project. This means you need to know (or work out) several very important things including: What are the main activities involved in completing the building construction project? This obviously depends on the size and the complexity of the building construction project that you are planning for. Even a small straightforward project – say building a basic timber deck – will involve several main tasks or activities. Assuming you have a set of plans for this project you might identify the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Obtain/order materials. Set out work. Excavate for pad footings. Install posts/stumps. Concrete footings. Bearers & joists frame. Fix decking. Decking oil/finish.

The more construction trades/work activities involved then the greater the numbers of main activities are identified to create the most useful construction program. If a project planning schedule contained only ‘Start Deck’ and ‘Finish Deck’ activities it would be useless! By ignoring all of the tasks that exist between the ‘Start’ and ‘Finish’ of the project, the end result is a project program that tells us virtually nothing. Which activities do I need to program? As a general rule the activities that should be identified in a construction program are the ones that will be essential to the completion of the project. This doesn’t mean we need to micro-manage a project program and identify things like lunch breaks or divide some main activities into small subset tasks. We should try to maintain a basis of 1 working day minimum duration for each activity we choose to include on our program.

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4007A Plan building construction work

How will these activities be done? This examines ‘buildability’ issues which are vital to construction planning. We might need special equipment, specific tools or construction plant to enable the work tasks to be performed most efficiently and effectively. Look at the notes on prefabrication as a method to control time issues in construction projects. It’s not good enough to simply identify the need to excavate footings as an activity. How do you intend to do it? By hand or by machine? If by hand how many people are required? If by machine, what type is appropriate for the task? Who will do them? Similar to the above question, the How & Who are about resource requirements to achieve a task/activity. The builder should consider whether an activity is to be undertaken by a subcontractor, supplier, site labour resources, off-site fabricator or perhaps combinations of these. The last thing you want is confusion such as when the plumber comes to install pipe work but can’t start because the excavator hasn’t dug trench runs. How long will these activities take to complete? Based on production rates, measured quantities, work experience and subcontractor commitments, estimating how long each activity will take to complete is probably the hardest part of creating an accurate construction program. Is it reasonable to think that if your brickie says he can lay 500 bricks each day, then a job with 5,000 bricks will take 10 working days? If you employ two bricklayers can it be done in 5 days? Why not employ 10 brickies and get it done in a day? Will the activities be ‘one off’ or require several stages of work to complete? Some activities will be one off in that after they are completed that stage of trade works is over such as excavation works. Others will have staged works completion such as the electrician who will perform a service rough-in activity by pulling cabling to all termination points for power, light, communications etc. After they complete this stage the cabling is covered over by wall linings, claddings etc. and the works progresses until the electrician is recalled to fix off all the electrical fittings and fixtures. In what sequence are they able to be carried out? This requires disciplined planning logic to be undertaken if the program is to be of any use whatsoever. Put simply the schedule cannot allow impractical (or impossible) sequencing of activities. From the example above, it would be impossible for the fixing off of electrical services if the electrical rough in had not yet occurred. Similarly, we could not program concrete to be poured prior to the completion of formwork and reinforcement placement being complete. Where possible we should always look for opportunities for concurrent work activities to be performed but only when they are not dependent on a preceding activity. Prefabrication & Project Planning Experience is showing that better time control of building projects results from planning for a reduction in the number of on-site construction operations that must take place. The greater the amount of off-site, work shop pre-fabrication of the building structure and components, the more likely it will be that the overall project program will follow the project program. Here is an example to consider: In the not too distant past (say up to the 1950’s/60’s) one of the most important trades on site for home building was the role of the ‘Joiner’. This was generally identified as a specific trade and class of work. Basically, timber joinery work involved fabricating timber windows, door s & frames, (the glass fitting was done separately by a ‘Glazier’) timber staircases, handrails, balustrades, kitchen benches & cupboards, wardrobes, linen Page 3 of 4

4007A Plan building construction work

closets and all other detailed timber joinery items. This was very exacting and time consuming work – far more so than basic construction carpentry. Consider how this has changed and how it has impacted on a typical construction program. Complete off site mechanised fabrication in workshops of window units, doors, kitchen cupboards and staircases so that they are simply delivered to the building site complete or with some minor assembly, ready for installation. Exercise:  Consider a comparison between the time that is required to complete the framing stage for an average house if using prefabricated wall frames and roof trusses compared with traditional framing for wall frames/coupled roof from stick timber. What about human resources? Are there any other implications? This aspect should have come into any pre-tender planning when construction methods, materials & selection of any construction plant and equipment needs were examined to come up with the fastest and most economical methods required to construct the building project (sometimes called a ‘construct-ability’ or ‘buildability’ analysis on very large projects) What happens if/when things change? Every activity schedule & the construction program that is generated by it need constant monitoring, revision and updating. Part of your Supervisory or Management objectives will be to make sure this occurs. The main problem normally encountered within construction programs is making up for lost time – in other words, falling behind the programmed works. Strategies should be established to handle this including: 

Building in some ‘slack time’ on the program. This is basically allowing more time than would reasonably be required to complete a task or tasks. This provides flexibility within the job, but risks under utilisation of labour and resources and will probably increase the tender price and decrease the chances of winning jobs!

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Plan to a tight (short time frame) schedule. Employ additional casual labour as the need arises to increase project work output/productivity. Risks arise in respect of the ready availability and skills of the casual workforce. Also, there is a point at which throwing any additional labour resources will actually impact negatively on work output. People tend to just get in each other’s way!

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Plan to a tight schedule and then work overtime/extended times (Sat/Sun/night work) as necessary. Generally will not be cost effective in making up lost time and would need to be covered by site agreements. Usually only used for emergency situations.

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Plan for a realistic project time frame and use a contract that allows for ‘extensions of time’ (EoT) claims to be made by the contractor to extend the completion date requirement. This is only useful if the reasons for delays are due to the client or their consultant’s actions/inactions.

Despite our very best efforts it is unlikely that absolutely everything will go ahead in accordance with our project plan. BUT it can be confidently stated (and has been reinforced by repeated example) that some degree of project planning will ALWAYS be much better than no planning! The successful outcome of project planning depends on the quality and the accuracy of the information and methods you use and your ability to review and respond to changes that occur. This really forms part of the ultimate challenge in running a successful building construction project which is fairly straightforward in terms of the common objectives shared by both the client and the builder - bringing the job in on time and within budget. Unfortunately these objectives can become highly elusive for many builders particularly for the ones that don’t bother to PLAN! Page 4 of 4...