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8. IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN

Objective:

To understand the principles of successfully implementing a plan, by communicating the plan to key site personnel, monitoring the progress of work, and identifying problems.

Summary:8.1 Monitoring Progress of the Activities8.2 Monitoring Progress of the Project8.3 Site Implementation of Plan

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• The plan generated from the activity network (following rescheduling) indicates:– planned start and finish activity times;– floats available (management by exception etc);– when to order equipment, materials, etc;– when information (plans, etc) are required

• Having established this plan, we need to implement it (a cyclical process):– communicate what is to be done to site personnel;– monitor the progress of work to see if it deviates from the plan;– plan remedial action to bring project back on target (control).

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8.1 MONITORING PROGRESS OF

THE ACTIVITIES• Monitor the progress of work to see if it deviates from the

plan, and determine:– whether behind, ahead, or on schedule;– identify where the problem is:

• section of project (eg: ground work - weather) ?• a site manager is not performing well; etc...

– suggest possible solutions;– determine likely impact:

• project completion delays;• cash flow problems; etc..

• Use a template to monitor:

4Fig. 8-1: Monitoring the Progress of Work Using a Bar Chart

0 5 12 15 21 25 30 32TIME

1-2 (5 days)

2-3 (7 days)

3-5 (6 days)

2-4 (10 days)

5-7 (5 days)

4-6 (10 days)

6-7 (7 days)

PlannedStart & Finish

TIMENOW

RevisedStart & Finish

= ActualProgress

ActivityCompleted

Activity behindSchedule

Activity onSchedule

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TIMENOW

3-5 (6 days)

– Activity 3-5 was planned to be 100% complete.

3-5

75%

– At its revised schedule, activity 3-5 should be 75% complete.

30%

– Activity 3-5 is actually just 30% complete• what is meant by % complete?

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• The portion of an activity completed can be measured in many ways: – physical quantity of object built:

• volume,

• area,

• length, etc..

(problems ?)

– value of work built ($) (problems ?)– laborer hours (days etc) completed (problems ?)– activity hours (days etc) completed (problems ?)

7Fig. 8-2: Measuring Activity Days

0 5 12 15 21 25 30 32TIME

1-2 (5 days)

2-3 (7 days)

3-5 (6 days)

2-4 (10 days)

5-7 (5 days)

4-6 (10 days)

6-7 (7 days)TIMENOW

= ActualProgress

ActivityDays = planned

= actual

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• A primary use of the shaded bar chart is to identify which activities could lead to delays to project completion or to milestones:– compare delay in the activity with its float, looking out

for:• critical activities, or activities with small total float;

• activities that are susceptible to delay (eg; weather dependent)

• accumulating delays along a sequence of activities;

• possibility that further delays will be incurred (eg: ground obstructions for piling operations).

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8.2 MONITORING PROGRESS OF

THE PROJECT

• Shaded activity bar charts are good for monitoring work at the activity level.

• What about the overall progress of the project?– Compare the planned and actual cumulative progress

curves for the entire project (or section):• Typically, cumulative progress curves follow the classic

‘S’ form

– Can measure progress as for activities (ie: value of work completed, laborer hours completed, etc)

10Fig. 8-3: Measuring Cumulative Activity Days

0 5 12 15 21 25 30 32TIME

1-2 (5 days)

2-3 (7 days)

3-5 (6 days)

2-4 (10 days)

5-7 (5 days)

4-6 (10 days)

6-7 (7 days)TIMENOW

= ActualProgress

ActivityDays = planned

= actual50

25

0

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Fig. 8-4: Monitoring the Cumulative Progress of Work

CUMULATIVEPROGRESS

TIME

= planned progress= actual progressTIME

NOW

extent to which workis behind schedule

trend is divergencetherefore

worsening

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8.3 SITE IMPLEMENTATION OF

PLAN• There is a need to communicate the plan to

site personnel– Detailed, identifying resources required, on

which days– Only go a short distance into future (2-3 weeks)

as detail quickly becomes out-of-date.– May give a review of previous weeks activities.– Should be in a form understood by supervisors

(eg bar charts and simple data lists)– Information targeted at a specific operation (eg:

concreting; framing; etc)

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Fig. 8-5: Example Short Interval Schedule

OPERATION:

Activity Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

Last Week Week 1 Week 2

Foundation

ProfilesExcavateFormsRe-bars

Concretingsee sheet 2Strike form

delayed2 laborers; 2 carpenters; drawings #45-2122

2 laborers; 2 steel workers; schedules #31-2122

4 laborers; 1 mixer

see sheet 2

2 laborers