Construction Project Schedule Example-Residential Building

Table of Contents for Construction Project Schedule Example-

1. Introduction
2. Planning for Construction Project Schedule Example
   1. Scope Definition
   2. Stakeholders
   3. Work Breakdown Structure
3. Developing Construction Project Schedule
   1. Defining Activities
   2. Sequencing
   3. Duration Determination
4. Determination of Critical Path

1. Introduction

A project schedule is an integral part of project management. The project schedule enables the project manager to place the work scope over a timeline. This way the entire scope completion can be visualized over time and the start and the completion of activities can be determined. A well-made and well-maintained schedule helps the project manager to make the decisions within the deadlines and under the budget.

The various tools can be used to make a project schedule. The simplest tool being Calendar and the most used being the Gantt Chart. The popularity of the Gantt Chart is due to its simplicity and the visualization it offers. It has horizontal bars for each activity spread over the timeline. The resources can be determined and allotted to each activity. The resource can be either men, machinery, or material.

The Gantt Chart also helps in determining the cost of the project. The cost of each resource is determined per unit usage and multiplied by the total number of units and their usage time for each activity. The summation of the cost of each activity gives the total cost of the project. The advantage of calculating the project cost with the Gantt Chart is that it helps in determining the cash requirement over the period of time. Also, the expensive activities can be determined and special care can be given to them to keep them under the budget.

The article enlists the steps and detailed construction project schedule example of G+2 residential building.

2. Planning for Construction Project Schedule Example

All things being equal, Winner will be the General who spends more time in Planning

Sun Tzu in ‘The Art of War’

Every project is unique in nature thus every project needs to have a proper plan to execute it. The planning phase for the construction project schedule example is divided into three main parts for easier understanding- Scope Definition, Stakeholders, and WBS.

2.1 Scope Definition

The project is a residential G+1 building located in the suburban area of an Indian city. The building will be used as a bachelor hostel having eight rooms and two common toilet-bathroom on each floor, a total of sixteen rooms, and four toilets and bathrooms.

The building is to be constructed in RCC with a shed at the top. The foundation type will be isolated footing and combined footing. The plinth level to be located 0.3m above the NGL. The floor heights above the ground floor will be 3m. The staircase to be made in concrete.

The finishing works include the blockwork, plaster, distemper, and painting. Additionally, tiling of floors and skirting, sanitary fittings, electrical fittings, shed truss erection, sheeting work of the shed, and the false roofing below the shed.

2.2 Stakeholders

The key stakeholders with their roles and responsibilities in the given project are as follows.

Project Owner- The owner has awarded the contract to the contractor. The owner has provided the land for the construction, land to accommodate the construction manpower, a single point for water, and a single point for power. The Project owner has provided mobilization advance to the contractor and will timely clear the bills raised by the contractor.

Contractor- The contractor to construct the building as per the design and drawings within the cost, time, and quality standards. The material, machinery, and manpower are to be brought by the contractor. The contractor will raise the monthly bills to the owner against the work done.

District & Other Authorities- The design has been approved by the concerned authorities along with all the statutory clearances required to construct the building.

2.3 Work Breakdown Structure-

The work breakdown structure (WBS) is a scope statement of a project divided into small and manageable parts. For the construction project schedule example, the WBS is shown as below-

The project work has been mainly divided into two major packages- structural works and finishing works. The Structural work of the building has been further divided into the foundation, plinth level, first floor, tie beams, and truss/sheeting works. The Finishing Works have also been divided into several parts such as blockwork/plastering, plumbing/sanitary, electrification, doors & windows fixing, and Painting/finishing jobs.

The WBS elements can be used as the milestones for the project schedule. The elements can be equipped with the assumptions and constraints, resources required, cost estimates, quality requirements, associated schedule activities, agreement information, etc.

3. Developing Construction Project Schedule Example

3.1 Defining Activities

The activities in a project are the smallest level of breakdown of the WBS elements. It can be said that the activities sum up to be a WBS element. The activities are decided either by Expert Judgement, Decomposition, Rolling Wave Planning, or Meeting between the client and the contractor.

The activities are such decided that no activity has a duration of more than 44 days. If so, the activity should be further split into smaller activities. The activities for each WBS element are mentioned below-

Activities for Structural Work-

Foundation: Excavation –>PCC –>Reinforcement & Shuttering –>Casting with RCC

Plinth Level: Columns up to Plinth Beam Bottom –>Backfilling & Compaction –>Plinth Beam Reinforcement & Shuttering –>Casting Plinth Beam with RCC –> Ground Soling and Compaction

First Slab: Columns up to First Slab Bottom –>Shuttering & Reinforcement of Beams & Slab –> Casting with RCC –>Deshuttering

Second Floor Tie Beams: Columns up to Tie Beam Bottom –>Shuttering & Reinforcement for Tie Beams –> Casting of Tie Beams with RCC

Truss & Sheeting Work: Truss Erection above Tie Beams –>Sheeting Work

Activities for Finishing Work-

Blockwork, Plastering, False Ceiling Work & Tiling: Blockwork and Plaster for Ground, and First Floor –> False Ceiling Work for the First Floor –>Tiling for Ground, and First Floor.

Plumbing & Sanitary: Plumbing & Sanitary Works at Ground, and First Floor.

Electrification: Electrification of Ground, and First Floor.

Doors & Windows Fixing: Doors and Windows Fixing of Ground, and First Floor.

Painting & Finishing Works: Paint of Ground, and First Floor –>Final Cleaning of Ground, and First Floor.

3.2 Sequencing

Sequencing is the process of aligning the activities into their order of execution. In sequencing, the dependencies of the activity are also decided and the activities are interlinked with each other.

The activities are interlinked with interdependencies such as FS, SS, FF, and SF with suitable lead and lag. However, as per DCMA guidelines, 90% of the total activities should be linked with the FS relationship, and the rest with either SS or FF but not SF.

The DCMA also recommends not to use lag in the schedule instead, an intermittent activity should be used. However, if unavoidable not more than 5% of activities should have lag. The use of lead should also be minimized as it affects the critical path.

To avoid the lead, we shall use intermittent activity in this example.

The relationships among the project activities are given below-

3.3 Duration Determination

The duration estimation of project activity is a critical task as the scheduling success depends on it. As per DCMA guidelines, no activity should have a duration higher than 44 days. If so, the activity should be divided into two or more activities of lesser duration.

The duration of an activity can be determined by either expert judgement or historical data of similar nature of activity.

The duration of each project activity is as follows-

4. Determination of Critical Path

A critical path in a project schedule is the longest chain of activities required to complete the project. The duration of the critical path is the minimum time for a project to be completed. The activities lying on the critical path are called critical activities and they have zero floats. If the duration of a critical activity is changed, its effect can be seen on the entire project completion date.

To determine the critical path, the activities with zero float and their interdependencies should be identified.

The Critical Path Length Index (CPLI) is the sum of remaining working days on the critical path and total float divided by the total remaining days. The target CPLI should be 1.

Read more about project schedule here.

Still curious? Learn How to check schedule quality? or Try Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 101.

Happy Engineering!!