JEROME JORDAN F.

FAMADICO
2010
Construction Planning, Scheduling, Estimating
Friday/ 6-9 PM

January 28,

PROJECT TIME CONTROL

Construction typically involves a deadline for work completion, so contractual
agreements will force attention to schedules. More generally, delays in construction
represent additional costs due to late facility occupancy or other factors. Just as
costs incurred are compared to budgeted costs, actual activity durations may be
compared to expected durations. And because of this, Project Time Control is being
conducted in order to keep the work in schedule, and this is usually accomplished
by: Reporting and recording job progress; Comparing work actually accomplished
with that planned; Taking appropriate action to correct schedules slippages; and
Updating schedule of work to be done.
The first aspect of time control is monitoring. Monitoring requires an established
system of progress reporting that makes a prompt identification of schedule
deviations. And this requires an assessment and comparison of the actual progress
with that planned. Conducting Job Progress Reports enable periodic check to be
made regarding the time status of individual activities. If an activity is on time, all is
well. However if an activity is delayed, it may or may not be a cause for concern but
must be promptly checked. Corrective action, if required, is based upon making up
the lost time through rescheduling of subsequent activities. Periodic network
recomputations that incorporate accumulated plan and schedule changes are called
updating. These updatings often reveal shifts in critical paths and substantial
changes in the flow of activities. The latest updated schedule reflects the actual
present job condition and constitutes basis for project time control.
There are many different ways on how the progress of any activity can be
measured. It can be measured using the number of working days assumed to
complete the activity, the estimated percentage completion of the activity
(accumulative or during the reporting period), and the quantities of work units set in
place (accumulative or during the reporting period). Control systems in general are
no better than the quality of the input information. If progress reports are
inaccurate, then management decisions are made on basis of fictitious situations.
And I agree that the person responsible for the progress reporting must appreciate
the importance of factual and accurate determination because the managements
actions must be based on what actually happened and not on what should have
happened.
Progress reporting depends upon the degree of time control that is considered
feasible and desirable. It depends upon the size, complexity, and characteristics of
the work and runs from daily, weekly to monthly or even longer. The project
manager bears the responsibility for seeing that progress measurement and
reporting are properly done and that the progress information receives prompt
management review. And on some projects, he might reasonably be expected to
carry out the measurement and reporting functions himself which gives him an

independent review of work accomplishment and how the job is coming along. The
actual reporting itself of work in progress can be accomplished by listing the
activities that were on progress during the last reporting period and indicating the
progress measurement for each. A file of the weekly progress reports can be
maintained as an historical job record.
Upon receiving the job progress report, the information therein must be compared
with the latest project schedule. This can be done in a tabular form, such as a listing
by activity of the scheduled start and finish dates and the actual start and finish
dates. However, this method does not actually serve as the best medium for making
quick evaluations of current job progress. And a more convenient and widely used
procedure for recording job progress is to makes use of the bar chart. Bar chart
shows the scheduled and actual beginning and completion dates for each activity.
And as a consequence, it shows the current status of every activity, how its
accomplishment compares with the schedule, and how the work has been
progressing up to the present time. Another procedure in recording project progress
is through the use of a time-scaled plot of the network diagram. Here, the progress
of each activity is entered on the diagram as a heavy line and the critical path is
indicated by double lines. For an activity that is in process, the present status is
plotted by measuring back from the end of that activity the number of days required
to complete it. The time status of any given activity can be easily determined by
comparing the location of its heavy progress line with a vertical line through the
effective date.
After progress recording, progress analysis takes place. Based on the graphical
representation of the progress, an analysis is made as to what activities are lagging
behind and which are ahead of schedule. And once it has been learned that certain
work areas are already delayed in schedule, it must be decided what to do about
the situation. Where there is suitable float available, no corrective action is likely to
be required. It also must be clear that the first activities to check are the critical
ones. However, even the activities with large floats can become critical or near
critical in the event of serious delays. And so, the evaluation of a delay must include
the determination of how delay affects activity floats as well as its potential effect
on overall duration. Corrective action can take two forms, the selection of which
depends entirely upon circumstances. One procedure functions to return the project
to its original schedule by shortening selected activities that are still to be done. The
second general procedure involves an alteration of the operational plan when
following the original scheme seems no longer possible or desirable.
The project manager bears the prime responsibility for project time control.
However, the field superintendent also plays an important role in keeping the
project on schedule. There should be some formal means of communications
established between the two. And the project manager will find it good practice
control to provide concise, short-range summaries that will serve both to inform and
remind the superintendent about current job operation because the latter would
have neither the time nor the inclination to ferret out the pertinent time-control
information.
As construction proceeds and the weekly progress reports keep coming in, more and
more deviations from the project plan and schedule accumulate. Whether or not the

diagram needs redrawing or the schedule requires recomputing depends upon how
extensive the variations have been. Updating refers to network of redrawing,
recomputation, or both, and is primarily concerned with the effect of schedule
deviations and plan changes on the portions of the yet to be constructed project.