CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULING

Prepared By

PROF. LIAQAT ALI QURESHI

UET TAXILA

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Planning & Scheduling

Planning:
Process of choosing the method and
order of work

Scheduling:
Process of determining the interrelationship
of associated timings of operations.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Network Techniques

 Planning & Scheduling with the help of network

diagrams is called Network Techniques.
 Network Techniques (Network Programming)
encompass the methods of PERT (Program
Evaluation & Review Techniques) and CPM (Critical
Path Method).
 Initially developed in late 1950’s. Prior to this, there
was generally accepted method of Planning &
Scheduling or controlling construction works.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Network Techniques

 Present day network techniques offer a more formal

approach to Project Management.
---They have been adopted by some larger construction companies
and Government agencies.
----Many packages are commercially available on a wide variety of
computer systems.
----Many contracts include a network plan as part of their conditions.
 However, the full utilization of techniques has yet to be
reached.
 The development of the techniques is on-going with
both user and theoretician contributing to this
development.
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Why Construction Industry is adopting
Network Techniques too slowly?

 The construction Industry has generally been slow in taking up

these techniques and their universal acceptance across the
industry is still not present.
 The techniques have both advantages as well as disadvantages
but three reasons are generally advanced for reluctance to
universally acceptance of the techniques:
1- Some contractors have had bad first experiences with using
these techniques.
2- There was lack of suitable user-friendly computer programs
to do the tedious and elementary arithmetic involved, in the past.
3- Certain sections of the construction industry refused to
acknowledge that sound analytical techniques are better than
established classical and traditional methods.
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Steps in Construction Scheduling

 Splitting of the project into work activities

 Determining logic relationships/interrelationships between
activities.
 Construction of Network Diagrams.
 Assigning durations to work activities. (PERT and CPM
use different techniques for this)
 CPM Calculations resulting in start times, finish times and
float calculations of activities.
 Marking of Critical Path
 Construction of Bar Charts / Time phased diagrams.
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Activity

 An element of work performed during the course of a project. Or

An amount of work that can be identified so that we know what it
involves and can recognize, when it starts and finishes.
 An activity normally has an expected duration, an expected cost,
and expected resource requirements.
 Activities may be
---- On-site Activities like Excavation, Pouring, Plastering,
Brickwork etc.
---- Off-site activities like ordering materials, deliveries,
fabrication of steel, and anything which affect the construction
work.

 Activities may be Detailed or Coarse in their description.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Network Diagrams

 Any schematic display of the logical relationship of

project activities.
 Always drawn from left to right to reflect project
chronology.
 Usually a combination of arrows and nodes.
 A Network for a project is not unique.
 Mainly of two types:
1. Arrow Diagram
2. Node Diagram / Precedence Diagram

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Arrow Diagrams

 Activities shown by
Arrows. Relationship
between activities
shown by nodes /
events.
 Length of arrows does
not obey any scale.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Predecessor-Successor Relationship

 There is Start-to-finish
relationship between
activities, also called
Predecessor-Successor
Relationship.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
EVENT NUMBERING

 Events are numbered in an

Arrow Diagram.
 For any given Activity, the
head event number should
be greater than the tail
event number
 Each Activity should have
a unique I & j pair.
 Situation in Figure 2.14 is
not allowed.
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
MILESTONES

 Events of some special

significance are called
Milestones.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

CONCURRENT RELATIONSHIPS

 Works done parallel to each other constitute

Concurrent Activities. For Example, shop
steel fabrication for a building may be carried
out concurrently with site activities such as
earthmoving and foundation works.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
AGGREGATED ACTIVITIES & CIRCUITS

 If a group of activities is replaced by one

single activity, it is called Aggregated Activity.
 Activities B to F in In Fig 2.7 (a) are replaced
by activity H in Figure 2.7 (b).
 A Circuit or Loop of activities is given in Fig
2.8.
 Such Circuits or Loops violate the logic of
precedence of activities, thus, not allowed.
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
DUMMY ACTIVITIES

 An activity having zero duration and zero cost (and

uses zero resources) is called Dummy Activity.
 Dummy Activity is represented by Dashed Lined Arrow.
 A Dummy Activity may be
---- Logic Dummy - To fulfill logic relationship
---- Numbering Dummy – To avoid same i, j pair for
two activities’
---- Start / Finish Dummy – To give single start or
finish activity in the network.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
ARTIFICIAL ACTIVITY

 When a time delay is needed in a

construction sequence, an Artificial Activity is
introduced.
 An Artificial Activity is associated with time
duration but has zero cost.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Activity Durations
 Activity duration is forecasted by any of the several means, including:
(1) Check Past Records.
(2) Check Standards and / or cost guides, if available.
(3) Ask the workers, who will do it
(4) make an educated guess

 Any time units may be allotted to activity durations like days, hours, weeks,
months, shifts, etc.

 In CPM, a single duration is forecasted for an activity.

 In PERT (Program Evaluation & Review Techniques), 3 durations are

forecasted for an activity and mean taken by weighted average method.
Then, Project’s Duration or any Event Completion Time is calculated by
probability distribution.
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
CPM Calculations

 Calculates the following for each activity

EST = Earliest Starting Time
EFT = Earliest Finishing Time
LST = Latest Starting Time
LFT = Latest Finishing Time
TF = Total Float
FF = Free Float
 Total Float is Maximum time for which an activity can be
delayed without delaying the project.
 Free Float is maximum time for which an activity can be
delayed without delaying the start of proceeding activity.
 Total Float = Free Float + Interfering Float
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
 EXAMPLE: SINGLE SPAN BRIDGE PROJECT
(ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION)
Activity Code Operation Dependence Est. Dur.
(Days)
ENA Earthworks, north abutment - 5
ESA Earthworks, south abutment ENA 4
CONN Construction, north abutment ENA 14
CONS Construction, south abutment ESA, CONN 12
COMN Compaction, north abutment CONN 2
CIMS Compaction, south abutment CONS, COMN 2
RNB Road, north of bridge COMN 2
RSB Road, south of bridge RNB,COMS 2
PB Prefabricate bridge deck - 18
TD Transport deck to site PB 2
EB Erect bridge deck TD, CONN, 3
CONS,
COMN
LBS Lay bridge surface EB, RNB, RSB 2
ICB Install crash barriers etc. EB 1
L Landscape RNB, RSB 1

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
CPM Calculations

FORWARD PASS
 In Forward Pass through the network, the top two cells, of the
six-celled box at each activity are calculated.
 The top two cells give the values of EST & EFT.
 Forward Pass is carried out from left to right in the network
 The EST of first activity/activities is set to zero or some other
number.
 The EFT of the first activity/activities will be 0 + duration of first
activity/activities.
 The EST & EFT of subsequent activities are calculated as

EST = Maximum EFT of preceding activities.

EFT = EST + duration
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
CPM Calculations

BACKWARD PASS
 In Backward Pass through the network, the middle two cells, of the
six-celled box at each activity are calculated.
 The middle two cells give the values of LST & LFT.
 Backward Pass is carried out from right to left in the network
 The LFT of last activity/activities is set to maximum EFT of the last
activity/activities or some other number i.e. date of handing over.
 The LST of the last activity/activities will be LFT - duration of last
activity/activities.
 The LST & LFT of activities progressing backwards in times are then
calculated as

LFT = Minimum LST of following activities.

LST = LFT - duration Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
CPM Calculations

FLOAT CALCULATION

 In FLOAT CALCULATION through the network, the bottom two

cells, of the six-celled box at each activity are calculated.

 The bottom two cells give the values of Total Float (TF) & Free
Float (FF).

 TF = LST - EST OR LFT - EFT

 FF = Minimum EST of following activities - EFT of activity in
question
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Critical Path

 The path (or paths) in the network diagram,

from start to finish, on which all the activities
have zero total and free floats, is called
Critical Path.
 It is the longest path (or paths) from start to
finish in a net work diagram.
 It gives minimum normal time to complete a
project.
 It is usually marked by double lined / Thick
lined arrows in a network diagram.
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
EVENT TIME CALCULATIONS

 These give finish-time information about

Events.
 A two-celled box is put adjacent to each
event.
 Event EFT and the Event LFT are written as
box entries.
 Underlined notations is used for event
calculations.
 Event Float is the difference between LFT
and EFT. Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Node Diagrams

 Activities shown by Nodes, relationship

between Activities shown by arrows or links.
 These are easier to construct.
 Generally no need of dummies. Instead
dummies used only to give single start or
finish.
 CPM Calculations are similar to Arrow
diagrams.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Bar Chart

 Gives pictorial representation of Activities.

 Activities begin at EST and show their EFT, FF, TF,
Durations, etc.
 Arrows at the relative ends to show dependency.
 Status Line drawn on the Bar Chart to check status of
the project
 Unable to show complete interdependency between
Activities.

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi

Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
TIME-SCALED NETWORK DIAGRAMS

 Alternative way of pictorial representation of

Activities.
 Show complete interdependency between
Activities.
 Horizontal components of solid lines represent
the durations of the activities while horizontal
components of broken lines represent the
activity Free Float.
 Vertical components of dashed/thick lines
have no significance as they use no time.
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi
Prof. Liaqat Ali Qureshi