WORK PROGRAM AND THE S CURVE

Every construction project will need a well documented WORK PROGRAM or Work schedule. It is as a guide for the construction players on When and how can they achieve the target Completion date. For Planners they are well verse with Work Program. There is lots of computer aided program that can be utilised to enable them to come out with a professional look of a work program. Some of the computer aided program are, Microsoft Project, Primavera, Esteem and may more. The most common are Primavera and Microsoft Project. For a small scale project, work program even can be produce by using Microsoft excel or Office.org.

Most of the work program software are designed in such a way that it can also produce the "S-CURVE"."S-Curve" is a graphical presentation which showing informations such as "Schedule S-Curve", "Actual S-Curve", dates, Percentage of work and may more. Normally this is a method that commonly used to show the overall progress of a project. On the S-Curve graph, we will see what is the value (either in terms of dollar and cents or percentage) of previous work achieve, target value, and progress on the month of reporting.

S-Curve and Work program are both related. Changes to Work Program might affect the S-Curve. S-Curve in actual fact is derive from the work program it self. Without work program, people can still produce S-Curve but the question is, is it tally with what we planned to do?

To those who are new on the planning work, Work Program, once it being amended, it might affecting informations which you want to show on your S-curve.

Construction and OpenOfice Free software.

Today reality, everyone are keen to keep the cost as minimum as it can be. The idea by doing so is, increasing profit from their operation. What does this mean to us as person involve in construction? It simply meant that if I can reduce my cost in delivering my contract successfully, I will be competitive enough to secure more project. As a result, there will be increase in Income. However in construction it is not only about the efficiency in physical construction but also the indirect supporting tools that we use.

Why OpenOffice? OpenOffice is an computer software which functioning as Microsoft office product. It have different type of software such as OpenOffice Calc which do the similar work like excel, OpenOffice writer can serve the purpose of the MS word and OpenOffice impress can do the same presentation like MS Powerpoint.

What so special about Openoffice? Its free to download and use. With this condition, we don't have to spend much money to purchase the software.

Wait. However there is some limitation in using this OpenOffice. You might facing problem with those who does not use OpenOffice especially if you want to share or distribute digital soft-copy of your works. before you share you works save the file as excel file to enable those that are using MS excel be able to open the file and edit it if necessary.

Best of all to those construction that want to minimized the cost on the the computer aided software. It might not be significant. but the bottom line is cost saving.(if possible)

How to Create A Work program with Microsoft Excel version 2010

Creating a simple work program and display it as a Bar chat is relative cheap. This can be done by doing it with Microsoft Excel. However It is very tough to display the critical path and it seems to be impossible to show the logic link between bars. Another disadvantage of this is that it might only practical and applicable to a small scale project that having not more than ten (10) activities. It is due to the complexity of the process in creating the bar chart and it is very time consuming. Below are free step by step guidance to produce a simple work program using Microsoft Excel.

Step 1.
 Open the Microsoft Excel Program and create table as picture below (table can be customized according to what information you want to display.

Step 2:
Insert your the task in the task column and task ID  in the ID column and arrange it according to level of work or in words it shall be the work breakdown code.

Step 3:
Set the DURATION column by highlighting the column and right click. The dialogue box will appear. from the dialogue box, select "format cell". I should appear like picture below.

After selecting the "format Cells", a dialogue box will appear as below.

 Now Under category, Select Number. I set the decimal point to "0" decimal places. then click OK.

Step 4:
Now start Insert Number of duration. See the following Picture.

Step 5:
In this stage or step 5, for column level as " Start " and " finish", highlight both column, Right click and select " Format cells", a dialogue will appear and under the " Category" select Date and set the " date format". See picture below.

Step 6:
After you select your date format which is shown under the "type" tab. Click "OK". Than Start by inserting the start date as per sequence of work. As a guide you can fill the sequence number base on the ID into the "Predecessor" and "Successor Column". Picture below.

For the "Start", "Finish", "Predecessor" and "Successor" column, If you are familiar with Excel Function or Formula, it is better to use the features since with that Features you can easily create links between cells. Or else you will have to fill and calculate it manually.

Step 7:
Next step is to group task under a major task. To do this, First select "Data Tab". See Picture Below.

Then, identify which is the major task. Next highlight the "Rows" which represent minor tasks that form the major task. Picture Below

 After Highlighting the minor task, Click on the " Group" Icon under " Data Tab". It will automatically display the Sheet Like picture below.

The finish product is as picture below.

After you fill in all the data you needed in the table. It is now we can start to create the " Bar Chart".

Step 8

To create the “bar Chart” , First highlight the Row and column that contained the “ Task”, “Duration”, “start” and “Finish”. Next, Click on the “Insert tab” , then go to “ bar”  then click the icon “ Stacked Bar”. See picture below.

Once you click on the icon “ Staked Bar”, a Bar chart will automatically appear in your work Sheet. It shall look like the picture below.

Step 9:

Next, in the Start and finish Column, Identified the Earliest date to start work. Right Click on that cell, then click “ format cell”. A dialogue box like below will appear.

Inside the dialogue box, under category, click on “number”. Once you click on the “number”, under the sample, you will see a set of number. In this example the number is  41703.00. This number is actually represent the date of 05/03/2014. See picture below. Write down this number on a piece of paper. After you done with this step, Click the “cancel” tab. The dialogue box will close by itself. Next, do the same thing to the last date which you are going to complete your work or task. You will need those number to customized the date axis range on your chart later on.

Step 10.

Right Click on the “X” axis and then Click “ format axis”. Refer to picture below.

After you click the “format axis” a dialogue box will appear as below.

Inside the axis option check the minimum value to fixed and insert the number for start date which you write down earlier  in step 9. Do the same for maximum Value but inset the number which will represent the last completion date of the work.

Still on the dialogue box, click on the number, then go to the category And choose “ date” and choose the date format type which you want to display on your chart. After that step, you can choose the alignment tab in the dialogue box to align the position of your date. See Picture below.

One you done with it, click “Close”. Your Chart Should appear like this.

Step 11

Right click on the “Y” Axis and click Format Axis. A dialogue box like below will appear.

Inside this dialogue box, look for the “ Category in reverse order”.  “Checked “ the box and next Close the dialogue. Your chart should be displayed as below.

Step 12

In the Chart, Right click in between two bars. Then Click “select data” . See picture below.

One you had click on the “select data” a dialogue box as below will appear.

Click on the “Duration” follow by clicking on the “move down” button. This will change the position of your “Duration”.  Once you done with that, Click “ OK” tab. It will close the Dialogue box. This action will make your Chart look as this following picture.

Step 13

Still on the chart. Right Click on any of the green bar. 

Then, click on the “fill colour” icon. Picture below.

Choose the “no fill” . Your chart should be as follows.

Repeat this step 13 but now do the same for the bar that is “red” in colour.The end product for this step  shall be displayed as below.

Step 14

Now identify the “Critical Path” and recoloured it into red. You should have a Bar chart as below.

Step 15

If you want to show both “ Start” and “ Finish” date, Click on the bars that represent the “Start” bar

 (already recoloured with no fill in step 13),then click the “ Add data level’. 

Your chart will look like this.

Now the start date had been inserted. However the date been displayed and overlap with other information. We don’t want this display. Hence we need to re format the “ X “ axis. To Do That we need to change the Minimum Value and the maximum value of “X” Axis. See the pictures below.  For Minimum value, entered value that is less than 41703 and for Maximum Value entered number greater than 41848.

Next, for the “finish date” do the same procedure as what had been done for “ Start Date”  but for  “ the Finish date” click on the “finish Bar” which had been recoloured earlier with “No Fill”. Your end product shall be displayed as follow.

Basically, Your work program created with Microsoft Excel is now completed. However  for a better presentation of Your  Bar Chart, you Can present it as Chart on its own or you can rearrange is such a way  to be display with full description.

a) Bar Chart represent the work program  on its own.

b) Work program with full description.

Congratulation. You just finish creating the work program by using Microsoft Excel.

Estimating construction works

Estimating construction cost is always a tedious task to do. No how it is, this process is the most important part of the work before contractor even decide to take the work or not. However it is always a good practice to do the estimation before commitment is make to any of the construction work.

Normally there is two type of conventional contract. The two type are Contract with Bill of Quantities and Lump Sum Contract. Regardless what type of contract that contractor are dealing with, the different is Lump Sum contract normally do not include the quantity in their document because regardless of the quantity, the price that contractor offered is count. This type of contract normally do not entertained any type of claim that involve the increase in any quantity unless it increment is substantially affecting the cost. Some country have their own set of rules that need to be adhere to in order t make such claims.

Referring to the topic today, Estimating Construction Works. In general I would like to say that the overall work cost consist of three(3) major structure. The structure is The Actual cost for the physical works, The Preliminaries and general and the third structure is profit margin.

The Actual cost. What does it meant? The Actual cost is the estimation on the cost that needed to build and complete the major scope of works. Lets say it is to build a guard house. To build the guard house what are the things that involve that without those item contractor will never be able to complete the works. There are four(4) major item that must be include in this estimation. The four(4) major items are Construction Materials, Plants and Machineries, Man powers and wastage. However, for the Plants and machineries and manpower it is always tied up to the duration that needed to construct the guard house. Apart from these, the materials is always govern by the quantity and the unit price. For a Lump sum Contract, contractor have to do their own Quantity take off exercise.

The second structure is The Preliminaries and General. Among the item that always fall under this category are:-
1. Insurances
2. Performance bond
3. Site office, transport provision for the superintending Officer and site store.
4. Electricity, Water and Telecommunication,
5. Cost for compliance to Local Authorities Regulations
6. Mobilisation and demobilisation
7. As-built drawings
8. Relocation of existing Services or properties
9. Reporting and meeting expenses
10. Any other item that is not necessary required to complete the works but needed to ensure the smooth flow of the whole works.

Normally under Lump sum Contract this structure is only describe as preliminaries and general as one item. Hence contractor need to do their own breakdown item in order to have a build up cost for this Preliminaries and general total cost.

The third Structure is The profit margin.This profit margin is depend on how much contractor want to make. out from the project.

There is lots of software out there that can expedite this cost estimation work.

WORK PROGRAM BY MICROSOFT PROJECT : STEP BY STEP GUIDE

Work program is an important element in any Construction project. It is a document where it will become a guide for those involve in the project  on when to start and complete a particular project component or task. In actual fact work program is contractor plan on when to start the project and how we plan to complete the hole project. A project without work program, in other words, is a project without target and is about to fail. As the successful person always say “ FAILURE TO PLAN IS A PLAN TO FAIL”.

There is numbers of software that can be utilized to create a work program. Among them are Microsoft Projects, Primavera and  Agile project planning. However in this article, we will show how to create a work program by using MICROSOFT PROJECT. We are using MICROSOFT PROJECT 2010 VERSION (Trial Version Copy)

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Microsoft project can be purchase on-line through Microsoft website.

How to create the work program using Microsoft Project?  Below is basic step to step.

Step 1:

Open your Microsoft project software. Below is how the Microsoft project look like.

Under Default display you will find there is eight (8) columns available. The column named as indicator, task, duration, start, finish, predecessor, resources and add new column.

 Step 2:

Set up the working time for your calendar. This can be done by clicking on the FILE tab.

A display like this will appear on your screen. Next, click the “OPTION” button on the display page.  A “Project option” will appear as below.

At this “Project Option” page, click the “schedule” button. It will bring you to the display as below.

On this page, you can start customized your working days, working hours and many more to suite your requirement. One you done with the option you can save your file under a name.

  

 Step 3:

Start inserting all of the scope of works that necessary to complete the whole project. To do this. Click on the “TASK” tab. The window is as below.

Inside the “Task Name” column, you can start type in ever task that is needed to complete the whole Project. Below is how the completed task looks like.

After finish key-in all the task. Now you can arrange the task into level.

Step 4:

Select the task that you want it to be a sub-task to the earlier task , then click the indent task icon to make it a sub-task.

Below is how the partially complete Work Program look like after the task being arrange into different level.

  

Step 5:

Insert the Duration for each of the task in the Duration column. Below how it look like after you insert the duration.

Step 6:

Insert your start date for the first task that you plan to become the first activity for the whole project. This first task should be a task that must start in order for the project to start.  The start date must be inserted in the Start column. Your finish date for the task will be automatically calculated by Microsoft project software. Your next subsequence task start and finish date will be calculated automatically after you insert the Predecessor for each of the Task.

Below is how your partially completed work program looks like.

Step 7:

For each task in your work program, insert the predecessor task number in the predecessor column.. Predecessor is a task that starts before this task. By doing this it will link the task to another task. Below is how the work program appears on your screen after you completed this step.

Now after this step 7, your already complete the whole scheduling works. This is already a complete work program. In actual on screen display you will see it like the picture below.

From the display, you can see on your right, there is bar chart for each of the task and it is link to another task. This chart show how each of the task link to another or in another word sequence of each task. The arrow from one bar to another bar is showing the sequence of the task which automatically generated when you key-in each of the predecessor for each of the task. This chart is called Gantt chart.

In real construction project there is lot of task involve in order for contractor to complete the whole project. In this situation we need to identify which is the longest sequence of task that will be critical in the project. In other words, if one of the task is delayed it will delayed the whole project. How to Identify it by using Microsoft Project Software. Read the step 8 below.

  

Step 8:

To identify the longest critical sequence of task in a project click the “FORMAT TAB”.

Under the “Format” word (as picture above), you can see the word “Critical task”, “Slack” and “Late Task”. Click the box next to the” Critical Task”.  It will automatically generate which sequence of work is Critical. This method is called “Critical Path Method”.

Once you are done with this action, it should display a series of red bar which these are the critical task that MUST NOT BE DELAYED IT START AND FINISHED DATE. Contractor needs to Start this these critical task as planned in the work program or you will not be able to complete the whole project as planned.

 The picture below is showing the Critical task of the project and also it is the Critical path for the whole project. Delaying either one of the task within this path resulted in delay in completion of the project.