USEFUL GUIDE TO CONSTRUCTION PLANNING

 CONSTRUCTION PLANNING

What is Planning?

Planning is the Process of formulating time based action for coordinating various activities and resources to achieve specific objectives.

Planning - 'What" is going to be done, 'How", 'Where', 'by Whom', and 'When'
                  

Construction Planning is the process of developing construction Project Plan.

Attributes for Construction Planning

• Decision making
• Information gathering
• Identifying / defining activities
• Creativity
• Flexibility
• Inter relationships

Construction Project Planning

1.Design & Drawings Plan

• Conceptual design - Preparing Conceptual sketches and Proposal Analysis
• Schematic design - Approval of Schematic drawings, Preparing cost projections
• Preparing detailed design & drawings, BOQ, specifications, revised cost projections, milestone compleetion schedule
• Preparing drawing schedules, shop drawings and specifications
• Organising the drawings

Preparing Specifications

• Qualitative requirements for the products, materials and workmanship upon which the design is based
• Description in words about the work to be done, the quality of materials and workmanship, the method of construction, the method of testing etc.
• Client's developed standards

2. Time Plan

Time Plan refers the Scheduling - the process of putting the project plan on a Calender time scale.

Benefits of Scheduling

• Schedule simplifies Plan with Barchart, useful in Planning, coordination, Execution and control.

• Schedule Validates time objectives and verifies the accomplishment of tasks on dates imposed for completion of project.

• Schedule aids in the optimization of resources employed and economical use of resources of men, materials and machinery

• Schedule enables forecasting of input resources and earned value in terms of investment, expenditure, output and income

• Scheduling brings out implications of time and resources constraints.

• Monitoring of Projects against the scheduled baseline

Types of Schedules

• Drawings Schedule
• Material Schedule
• Staff Schedule
• Labour Schedule
• Special Sub-contractors Schedule
• Plant & Equipment Schedule
• Invoice Schedule
• Financial Schedules - Working capital, cash inflow and outflow, Direct and indirect costs

3. Resources Plan

• Types of Resources (Labour, Materials and Equipment)
• Total quantities of each resource type
• Roles, responsibilities and skill-sets of all human resources
• Items, purposes and specifications of all equipment resource
• Items and quantities of material resource

A schedule is assembled for each type of resource so that the Project manager can assess the resource allocation of each stage in the projects.

4.Finance Plan

Similar to the Resource plan, a Financial Plan is prepared to identify the quantity of money required for each stage in the project. The total cost of labour, materials and equipment is quantified and an expense schedule is defined which provides the Project manager with an understanding of the forecast spending vs the actual spending throughout the project.

Preparing a detailed Financial Plan is extremely important as the project's success will depend on whether or not it is delivered within the time, cost and quality estimates for this project.

5.Quality assurance Plan

Meeting the quality expectations of the customer is critical to the success of the project. To ensure that the quality expectations are clearly defined and can resonably be achieved, a Quality Plan is documented. The Quality Plan:

• Defines what quality means in terms of the project
• Lists clear and unambiguous quality targets for each deliverable. each quality target provides a set of criteria and standards which must be achieved to meet the expectations of the customer.
• Outlines a plan of activities which will assure the customer that the quality targets will be met.
• Identifies the techniques used to control the actual level of quality of each deliverable as it is built.

Finally, it is important to review the quality not only of the deliverables produced by the project but also of the management processes which produce them.

A summary of each of the management processes undertaken during the execution phase is identified, including Time, Cost, Quality , Change, Risk, issue, procurement, Acceptance and Communication management.

6. Safety Plan

Prepare a detailed Safety Plan which involves every activity of the Project. The safety Plan includes:

• Personal Protective Equipments (PPE) required
• Barrication, safety nets, guard rails and Protective systems required
• Precautionary measured to be taken while each activity (eg. Earth work , Concreting)
• Safety staffs required to manage, based on the size and activities of the project
• House keeping requirements
• Essentials like Lighting, Fire safety
• Any special precaution to activities like electrical, scaffolding, people working in high places

Creating the safer environment to work will improve the success level of the project.

PROJECT PLANNING STEPS

• Define Scope of work, method statement and sequence of work
  
• Generate Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to produce a complete list of activities
• Develop Organisational Breakdown Structure (OBS) and link it with WBS to identify responsibilities
• Determine relationship between activities
• Estimate activities time duration, cost expenditure and resource requirement
• Develop the Project network

FIVE LEVELS OF WBS

1. The entire project
2. Independent areas
3. Physically identifiable section fully contained in  level -2 - reflect construction strategy
4. Desciplines setup schedule
5. Master Schedule activities, quantity and duration

ACTIVITIES

• Function in the project that consumes time, resources and cost

• 3 types of activities
•  - Production Activity, Procurement Activity and Management Activity

A GOOD PROJECT PLAN

• Involves advance thinking as to what is to be done, what are the activities, how it is to be done, when it is to be done, where it is to be done, what is needed to do it and how to ensure that it is done.

• Provides the yardstick for measuring progress and evaluating resources performance

• Provide the basis for coordinating the efforts of clients, consultants, architects, designers, quantity surveyors, specialists, suppliers, contractors and the project staff

• Has build in flexibility in the form of floats, to navigate changes in the planned path for meeting fast changing environments

• Creates healthy environment and make people time, cost and quality conscious

Well conceived Project plan, developed before the commencement of project execution stage 

- making project successful in scope and profit.
- can go long way to  prevent project collapse due to various aspects

✡️ "If you fail to Plan - it is a Plan to fail"