PROJECT PLANNING IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Project planning for Managers.
Project planning is an important ingredient to ensure the successfulness of a project. Top priority of every project that we undertake is to make money. This must be the first objective for every person that involve in the construction. However, in the process to achieve this goal, is importance to deliver the end product in the most economic way and with the best quality in accordance to the requirement and specification line out by the client and inline with the good engineering practice.
The solution to this is project planning. In this article we will discuss the basic information that must be consider in the project planning.
Two important rules that a project planner must adhere to is TIME and COST. With these two keywords a planner will be able to plan a project to achieve the company objective.
The definition of TIME in the contact of a project is the agreed time frame for a contractor to deliver a complete end product with the required specification without neglecting the rules and regulation by the authority and also the statutory requirement.
COST is the value of the contractor offer and being accepted by the client in order to deliver the end product. This cost in actual fact is already inclusive of the contractor profit margin. Therefore it is very important to a planner to know what the exact construction cost for the project is.
With the definition above you now have the idea on how to create a project plan.
Software, is another important tools that a planner. There are numbers of software or programme for a planner to plan a project. The most common and widely use software is primavera project planning, Microsoft project or even Microsoft excel (for a straight forward project that does not involve a complex lineout).
In scheduling various works that needed to complete a project, a planner need to know when to start, when to finished, what is the work involve, the sequence of work, what the plant and equipment involved and how many numbers of these needed. All of these then will enable a planner to do some calculation whether or not the line out given meet the construction cost that of the contractor. If not an adjustment must be make or a planner can also adjust their plan to gain more profitable margin.
Below are sample of the illustration on how exactly to plan a work. (Sample that being created with the Microsoft excels).

 
Example only:
Construction of the 7.2m(W) X 10.8m(H) X 200mm (thk) brick-wall complete with plastering and weather proof painting.
Step.1 : listing major item involve in construction.

1. Time frame to complete the work 8 weeks.
2. Agreed contract sum $10,000.00
3. Work Involve :
   1. Material Procurement
   2. Bricklaying
   3. Wall Plastering
   4. Installation of scaffoldings
   5. Wall painting.
4. Major Plant and equipment needed
   1. Cement & Sand mixer
   2. Scaffoldings
5. Manpower needed
   1. Bricklayer
   2. Plasterer
   3. Painter
   4. Scaffolding erector
   5. General workers
6. Construction material required.
   a). Ordinary Portland cement
   b). wash sand
   c). special cement powder for plastering
   d). Red brick
   f). Prime coat paint
   g). specified brand for weather bond paint.

 
step 2.: simple calculation on the quantity needed(for material).
Step 3: Simple calculation on the numbers of plant & equipment as well as manpower needed.
Step 4: list down the work involve in a correct sequence.
Step 5: incorporate all the quantity, cost and time required to delivered the project in whatever software you are using.
Step6 : Analysed if you meet the profit margin or if you want to increase the gross profit margin.