By Richard Ormerod, Industry Sector Manager, Asta Development
With demands on your time getting greater and the increased need for you to report on progress, it is becoming ever increasingly important that you have the right tools for the job. The need for full visibility over all parts of your project, from pre-construction through to completion, is needed in order to minimise delays. This is especially true in the house builder market where ‘time is definitely money’. There are many factors - both internal and external - that can affect the successful outcome of a project. This is where an easy to use project & resource planning tool is essential. So what are the factors that need to be considered?
Pre-construction activities
The ability to meet deadlines is often affected by delays in pre-build activities including planning permission, consultant appointment, design information, materials procurement, etc. Some house builders do not include pre-construction activities in the overall plan, as a result it is difficult to get clear visibility over upstream activities and the impact that delays (e.g. in the land programme) may have on the build programme. Construction directors are often asked to recover delays by speeding up the rate of build in of the construction programme. By gaining visibility of both pre-construction and construction within one coordinated master plan it is easier to see what needs to be done in order to meet completion dates.
Manage sub-contractors
Without a streamlined, computerised system, communicating with sub-contractors can be a time-intensive process. What is required is a simple way to communicate job sheets quickly and easily to each sub-contractor, showing them the necessary information they need to complete their tasks on time. The job sheet should be an accurate sub-set of the overall build plan. The best practice for this is to:
- Create a colour code for each sub-contractor
- Assign this colour code to the tasks that each sub-contractor is responsible
for completing
- Filter and sort the plan on the basis on colour codes to show what each sub
contractor has to do – and when
- Multiple tasks per line to show repetitive tasks, this reduces the size of the
project report.
Each sub-contractor is likely to have their own project management tools, these could be the same as yours but this cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, it is essential that you have the flexibility to communicate in different ways, whether it is outputting reports to other project management packages, or using the clipboard, Acrobat pdf, Microsoft Excel or html.
Capture progress from site
Manually collating progress reports from each site each week takes time, requires duplicate input (Site Manager and HQ Construction administrator) and can also result in delays and input errors, but this is still common practice in the house building industry. By using automated solution either via the web, or a PDA solution, you can save significant amounts of time and also increase data accuracy. The added advantage of a PDA solution is that, with some project management software, the electronic ‘ticksheet’ can be displayed in the order that the site manager walks around the site to report on progress. With this method of reporting the plan is updated quicker (e.g. eliminating faxed back ‘ticksheets’ and paper sitting on desks), potential delays can be spotted earlier and so solutions can be put in place to prevent them escalating and affecting completion dates.
Keep projects in line with the accounts system
If the project management system is not integrated with the accounts system, project progress – and sometimes cost data – needs to be inputted twice. This causes delays and opens up the process to errors. Companies would benefit from a project management solution which integrates with accounts, ensuring that progress on site is also automatically recorded in both the finance and project management systems.
Summary
If all tasks are included in one plan – from planning permission to completion – potential delays can be identified much more quickly and the project rescheduled to give the construction teams more realistic view of completion dates.
If the project is taking place on brownfield sites, the build process becomes even more complicated. Additional factors need to be taken into account such as demolition and checking the quality of the soil. Using project management software these complexities can be built into the project plans and dealt with more easily.
Meeting completion targets is key to running a highly efficient and successful construction operation and keeping customers satisfied. But with the best will in the world, delays do happen, and the job of the construction director is to keep projects on track. A project management solution which provides visibility of the entire project life-cycle from planning permission to completion is required to help construction companies meet build targets.
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