Construction Project Management: Planning and Execution

Posted on Feb 19, 2025 in Business Administration and Innovation Management

Planning in Construction Project Management

Planning involves establishing a sequence of actions so that events occur in a way that aligns with previously established interests, which we call goals.

The planning to be performed by a project head encompasses the following aspects (work plan):

  • Temporal and Economic Plan: Consists of two separate plans: Business Plan and Cost, Payments, and Collections Plan.
  • Quality Plan.
  • Plan of Suppliers and Subcontractors.
  • Health and Safety Plan.

Business Plan

Analyzes all activities into which the construction process is decomposed and establishes intentions relating to (program book):

  • Construction systems.
  • Activities to outsource.
  • Allocation of time to activities.
  • Labor to contract directly for the work.
  • Type and number of machine tools and aids that will be acquired.
  • Temporary goals that must be met by the activity, including the date of commencement and termination.

The graphic expression of this program is the Network Director of the Work. From this, the Gantt chart director will be derived.

Process: Organization => Planning => Programming

This comprehensive program will determine:

  • The estimated duration for the work, which must be equal to or less than the Deadline.
  • The dates for partial deliveries, which will be at or below those involved.

Plan for Costs, Payments, and Collections

Establishes the anticipation of the outcome of the Work:

  • The final cost of the Work and its programming costs in each month (monthly and origin).
  • The total predictable charge, taking into account the actual measurements and possible charges of activities budgeted but not necessary, and programming (monthly and origin).
  • The estimated charge (or credit) from the application of the interest rate (financing) on the capital which has been available (ratio Payments – Collections, month to month).
  • The estimated result at the end of the work and its schedule (monthly and origin).

Implementation Activities

  • General view;
  • Quality: Providing materials from ancillary industries and the degree of care, diligence, and professionalism provided by labor. Control will determine this.
  • Cost: Depends on the market value of labor, materials, and machinery, but also on the proper exploitation of resources.
  • Results: Depend on the prices that have been fixed and the above concepts.

Concepts Subject to Planning and Implementation

  • Production: Quantification of the result of running the activity on a physical drive. Commonly called workload.
  • Resources and operational assets: Assets are those whose behavior depends on the cost and/or duration of irradiation; operational resources are those whose number depends on its cost and/or duration.
  • Duration: Time associated with the activity for its production. It can be expressed in calendar time (calendar days) or arithmetic time (weekdays).
  • Amount of work: Consumption of temporary labor. It is always expressed in reference to the type of device used (laborer, 1st officer, etc.), so its dimensions are time x type of resource.
  • Rhythm or rate of production or execution: The result of dividing the production by the duration of the activity.
    • Rate = Production / Duration
  • Cycle: Time spent doing the production unit; its formula is therefore the reverse of the previous one.
    • Cycle = Time / Production
  • Yield: The amount of work associated with the production unit.
    • Yield = Amount of Work / Production
  • Productivity: Output per unit of amount of work (hours worked).
    • Productivity = Production / Quantity of Work

Calculation of Yields

  1. Classical systems: Methods of timing.
  2. Work Sampling System: Method of snapshot observations.
  3. Graphics Programming Techniques: Program activities is a list of dates (start and completion) of the activities covered, which are temporary objectives of the program that the author provides for these activities. Graphical programming techniques are based on the use of graphic symbols (bars, arrows, rectangles, circles, etc.) to represent activities and their interdependencies, resulting in a graph called a graph, by which you can easily calculate the start and end dates of activities.