JLC Live New England 2021 - mapyourshow.com

Project Scheduling JLC Live NE 2021 8/3/2021

Presenter: Mike Patterson 1

JLC Live New England2021

Presented by:

Informa Exhibitions is a registered and/or recognized education provider with The American Institute of Architects Continuing Education Systems. Attendees can earn credit upon completion of this program provided you sign in with appropriate license number on forms provided at the seminar room check-in tables. Electronic Certificates of Completion for all attendees will be available 7-8 weeks post show.

This course is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

Questions related to specific materials, methods and services will be addressed at the conclusion of this presentation.



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© Patterson Builders-Remodelers, LLC 2021

• What are the benefits of job scheduling?

• Components of a job schedule

• Building a Gantt schedule



Time is money

The sooner you can complete the work, the sooner you can earn the money

The more efficiently work is run, the MORE work can be done in a given time

More work means more gross profit, without an increase in overhead

Nobody likes surprises Clients like knowing what’s going to happen & when.

When they’re anxious, you’re not happy!

Subcontractors like predictability. They like to know when you’re going to need them, and that the job will be ready when they arrive.

It’s critical to know when to order products well in advance, particularly these days!



Forecasting Seeing out farther into the future, you can more

easily plan major purchases or new hires.

Seeing out farther into the future, you have more leeway in choosing your work and clients

Seeing out farther into the future, you have the ability to make changes before small problems become BIG problems.

Murphy’s Law seems to hit the hardest for those who are least prepared!

Scope of Work

WHAT will be done?

Resources

WHO will do the work?

Time

HOW long will it take?



Typical Gantt Schedule

Time appears as columns

Work flows through

the columns

It’s easy to see how each task relates to

the others, and to see the entire project at a

glance.

Most importantly, we can see the

Critical Path



MS Project is the most common. Costs about $620 per license, but older versions are available for much less.

There are others, many lower in cost than MS Project. Some are even free.

An excellent free version is ProjectLibre(https://www.projectlibre.com/)

Determine time available for work

Things to consider: Hunting season…maybe you won’t see your plumber for a

few days. Vacation…yours and others. Sorry! I’ll be at the beach that

week! Holidays…No, ma’am, we don’t work on Labor Day, and

we’re closed between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Your work schedule…do you work (4) 10 hour days, or (5) 8

hour days? How about Saturdays? Occasionally? Never? Anything else keeping you off the job, or limiting

things? Account for it now, BEFORE you promise your client…they’ll hold you to it!



Setting the stage

1. Click on PROJECT tab

2. Which opens a dialog box, where we

can enter the project’s start date

1. Click CHANGE WORKING TIME tab

2. Select non-working days

3. Enter information about the non-working days

Setting the stage



Define the Scope of WorkWhat is being done?

Are whole areas being painted, or only affected areas?

Is that little bit of rot repair included, or not? The more thorough you are, the more accurate the

schedule will be. Remember…if it isn’t on the list, it won’t

happen on time, and you’ll probably be the one eating it!

Build a Task List Broad or specific is up to you, but do whatever is

needed for you to get a good handle on the work.

Example: “Frame Shell” vs. “Frame 1st Floor”, “Frame 1st floor walls”, “Frame 2nd floor”, etc.

For more complicated tasks, breaking things down into subtasks might make sense, particularly for work you might not be as familiar with.



In this column, we enter the various tasks that make up the

work of the project.

Building the task list

Even on a modest addition, there are plenty of tasks that

need to be accounted for!

Building the task list



Assign resources to the tasks

Things to consider: How your company is staffed.

Do you have large and small subs?

Do you mostly do things in house, or mostly subcontract?

No right or wrong, just be sure your schedule accounts for the way YOU work.

In this column, we assign resources to

the project

Assigning resources

Double clicking on the Resource Name box

opens a dialog box, where resources can be entered

Typing in a value of 100% represents 1 carpenter.

200% represents 2 carpenters, etc.



When using the same resources over several tasks, just Ctrl+C (copy) from one

box, and Ctrl+V to paste into another box

Assigning resources

To add another carpenter, change the value from

100% to 200%

In this example, we want to have an additional carpenter on site, as the addition grows

higher

Assigning resources



Assign time/durations to your task listThings to consider:

Will this be your “A” crew, or a slower crew?

Have you done this sort of work before? If not, how do you know, and what resources are there to get a good idea? RS Means? HomeTech books? On line forums? What else?

Do you feel comfortable estimating the amount of time your subs might take, or would you rather they tell you?

Is site access good, or will you need to work around it?

There are many different variables that affect time, and the more detailed your list of tasks is, the better you can account for them. Be as realistic as you can, but a little on the pessimistic side!

Enter the estimated time to complete each task

Assigning durations



Assigning durations

Some tasks have durations entered as 0, and are called milestones. They have no

duration, but they are tasks which need to happen on certain

dates, just not at a set time.

Assign predecessors and dependencies to the tasks

OK, what are predecessors and dependencies?

They describe when one task can start, in relation to another, and when those tasks must finish, in order for the job to remain on schedule.



In this column, we enter the predecessor

for each task

Linking tasks

Which begins to show the work

flow

Assign dependencies to the predecessors

Not every task immediately follows its predecessor…sometimes it DEPENDS. So, what kind of dependencies are there?

There are several, but the most commonly used is “Finish to Start” (FS), where one task cannot begin until its predecessor is complete. This is also the default. If you enter only a predecessor number, it automatically assumes an FS dependency.

Example: “close in inspections” cannot begin until “electrical rough-in” is complete, which, in turn, depends on the plumbing rough-in being complete. “close in inspections” would then have an FS dependency on “electrical rough-in”.



Tasks like “close-in inspection” can often have more than one

predecessor, meaning that several tasks must be completed before

you can get your close-in inspection

Assigning dependencies

The relationship between “close-in inspection” and

“electrical rough-in” is Finish to Start,or FS

Roofing, for example

Assign dependencies to the predecessors

The next most common dependency is “Start to Start” (SS), where one task cannot begin until its predecessor has begun.

Example: “Final cleaning” and “Final inspections” will both need to start at the same time, as neither can begin before “Trades trim out”, and both must be completed before “Substantial completion”.



“Final pro clean” and “Final inspections” are linked in a Start to Start dependency,

since both will need to start at the same time

Assigning dependencies

And both are on the critical path. Substantial Completion

cannot happen until both have been completed

Assign lag time to the tasksNot all tasks follow one another immediately.

Example: “install hardwood flooring” might have an FS dependency on “deliver & acclimate hardwood”, but with a lag time of 3 days. In other words, the hardwood flooring cannot be installed until it has been delivered and racked, but it cannot be installed directly afterwards. It must acclimate for 3 days. On the schedule, this would have a dependency of FS+3days.



In this example, hardwood installation is shown

happening immediately after the material has been delivered

Assigning lag times

By changing the predecessor from 37, to

37FS+3days

We insert the required amount of

acclimation time between delivery and

installation

Assigning lag times



Assign lead times to the tasks

Example: “order windows and doors” is assigned an SS dependency on “deliver and unload window and door package”, but with a lag time of -6 weeks. In other words, the windows and doors cannot be delivered and unloaded until they have been ordered, which must happen at least 6 weeks prior to that. On the schedule, this would have a dependency of SS-6 weeks.

In this example, the windows and doors must be delivered

and unloaded on November 8th

Assigning lead times



With a predecessor of 21SS


The task “order windows and doors” occurs on the same day as their delivery

Changing the predecessor to 21SS-6 weeks moves the order date back to September 27th




Which happens to be two weeks BEFORE the

beginning of the project


Repeating the process for the other order milestones allows us to see, at which point in the

project things need to be ordered

We might be thinking about inspections and insulation & drywall

that week, but we need to be thinking about ordering appliances

and plumbing fixtures, too!




Once all of the tasks have been entered, labor allocated, and dependencies applied, you can see how the project is going to flow. So, what’s with the red and blue tasks?

Blue tasks are non-critical, while red tasks are critical. They form what is called “The Critical Path”

This is how the software defines things, based on the durations and dependencies you’ve assigned. It’s not something that you do as a separate component of building a schedule.

What is a critical task?

A task that, if delayed, will cause the entire project to be delayed. On the schedule, they appear in red.

Example: “close-in inspections”. Until you get that green sticker, you can’t insulate, start drywall, trim, or anything else on time.

Example: “deliver and uncrate kitchen cabinets”. Until that is done, you can’t install the cabinets, measure for countertops, install countertops, backsplash tile, etc.



If the close-in inspection is delayed, everything behind it

is delayed!

Critical tasks

If the cabinets aren’t delivered on time, everything

behind it is also delayed!

What is a non-critical task?

A task that must be completed, but whose completion time is not on the critical path. On the schedule, they appear in blue.

Example: “roofing”. The work might only take a few days, but as long as it’s done by the time you need a close-in inspection, the job will remain on schedule.

Example: “exterior trim & siding”. As long as the work is wrapped up by the time the job is ready for interior trim, your carpenters can hop inside, and the job remains on schedule.

The time allotted for completion of non-critical tasks is called “float”.



The roofing work will only

take a day

Non-critical tasks

As long as it gets finished by the time the close-in inspection is

needed, there won’t be any delay

The time between the actual duration of the work, and the date by

which it must be done, is called FLOAT

How do we alter the critical path?

Alter the sequence of work

Alter lag & lead times

Alter the resources assigned to the work



Alter the sequence of work

Example: When to do the exterior painting. Waiting until spring to complete your entire scope might not be ideal, and might be worth a slight delay in the project as a whole, if it can be completed sooner.

Example: Get the kitchen cabinets set first, before the remainder of the interior trim. If your countertop sub needs two weeks from template to install, you might want to get that clock running as soon as possible.

Based on when the exterior painting gets done, our completion date is 1/16

Altering the Critical Path



A potential problem here, is that the exterior painting is scheduled to start in mid-October, which may be too late in the season, in some

climates


1. By having our carpenters start immediately on the exterior trim and siding

2. And THEN going inside to frame

3. We are able to get the exterior painting done a

week sooner




This adds a week to the completion date, but allows the

entire scope of work to be completed. Is that worth it? It’s

up to you!


Alter lead or lag times

Example: It’s ideal for trades to have the job to themselves most times, but can you overlap them a little, and save some time? Sometimes a little overlap is a good thing.



The HVAC people, the plumber, and the electricians are

scheduled with no overlap


By changing the lag time between the plumbing rough-in, and the HVAC rough-in, to -

1 days, instead of 0 days (ignore the typo!)


Double clicking on the task bar opens a dialog

box



By overlapping, we shave a day off the schedule


And by doing the same between the

plumber and electrician, we can save another day

Alter the resources assigned to the work

Example: maybe you could sub the exterior trim, which would allow you or your guys to stay inside, finish the interior framing, and get the job ready for rough-ins, while still getting the exterior complete soon enough to paint, before the weather shuts things down.

Example: maybe you could add another carpenter when it comes time for interior trim: allowing you to finish more quickly.



1. If we subcontract the

exterior trim

2. Our carpenters can be inside, framing, while the trim gets done outside, at

the same time


In this example, our carpenter will set the cabinets before

going on to complete the rest of the trim, for a total duration

of 10 days




By changing the relationship between cabinet installation

and completion of the interior trim from “Finish to Start”


Double click the task bar, to open the dialog

box

To “Start to Start”




Adding another carpenter, we can do both tasks at the same

time, and save 5 schedule days.


Gantt schedules allow you to easily see the flow of your project, from start to finish.

Gantt schedules allow you to easily identify potential delays, before the project even starts, and allow you to plan the work efficiently and realistically.

Gantt schedules allow you to easily see problems approaching, and allow you to do something about them before they become unsolvable.

Gantt schedules are the best way to show information to everyone involved in the project, with as much or as little information as they need to see.



PDF copies of this presentation, a copy of my Fine Homebuilding article on project scheduling, along with sample project plans, and a sample MS Project schedule, may be downloaded here:

https://app.box.com/s/aihoz9tnktnluqu962ldp0jfxkruabgr

I’m happy to answer any questions, and can be contacted at:

[email protected]

JLC Live New England 2021 - mapyourshow.com

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