As the contractor, you may notice that you fall behind with your construction schedule. Many activities are lagging and you are now figuring out how to accelerate the process. The first step you must do is simplify and find out if it is due to your supplier or subcontractor. There are other situations that may prompt you to accelerate the construction process further.
Read this blog and understand the implications of construction acceleration. We also share with you some tips that can help you speed up the process of your construction schedules.
When to Accelerate a Construction Project Schedule?
Sometimes, the stakeholders or your project team will often ask you to accelerate the construction schedule. The said parties can receive some benefits from this accelerated process. Or, the increasing speed of project completion may avoid working in certain weather conditions and realize contract bonuses.
There is always the need to elevate and accelerate the construction schedule, particularly after a schedule analysis. The contract requires you to do so. If you are facing this circumstance, always try to present this analysis.
- Are you being compensated for such efforts?
- Does the contract have a clause for acceleration?
- How long does the acceleration plan last?
- How many resources are available to complete the process?
- Which activities can be altered when performing the acceleration process?
- How will the project end date be changed following the acceleration process?
- Have you already analyzed all costs related to this particular plan?
- How is the information relayed to your other project team members?
- When does it begin and when will it be finished?
Construction Acceleration Proposal
Suppose you have already decided to follow the acceleration path and are entitled to retrieve the costs associated with the plan. In that case, a proposal should be submitted within a certain amount of time. Typically, the contract will have particular guidelines on how and when to submit this claim. However, where no guidelines are given in the present scenario, a proposal should contain the following items.
Construction Schedules
Prepare a project schedule, providing your team with information on how much time will be saved. It is crucial to determine when the plan starts and ends, including the impact on some related activities. A completely revised schedule follows the acceleration plan proposal.
Cost
The additional crews, efforts, and materials were needed to rush the process. You should also consider the general conditions, waste generated, and extra space required to receive the plan’s tools, equipment, and materials.
In many cases, some contractors will never include the management efforts, like the extra coordination between contractors to further complete the plan. Overhead costs must also be included in the proposal.
Assumptions and Exclusions
A crucial part of the proposal is the list of tasks and activities that will be impacted. But most importantly, you will have to provide a contingency plan if the acceleration process does not result in the assumed savings, either costs or time. List all the risks associated with the said plan and how they can be prevented.
Techniques for Construction Acceleration
When the project starts, you create a schedule that represents your best thinking on how your project must progress or accelerate. Here are five techniques to help you stay on track and in progress:
1. Accelerate early
At some point in your project, you are going to face delays. Thus, if possible, try to get ahead of schedule early. This may be done by starting the construction project earlier than planned or simply adding resources earlier than planned. You need to have a fixated mindset on how things are done to protect against future delays.
2. Fast-track dependent activities
Most of the construction activities in your schedule are linked to others with a last-to-start relationship. So, think about whether you need to wait until the first task finishes or if there can be an opportunity to move forward with the second task early. For instance, you might have two activities, called design solutions or write requirements linked to your schedule.
3. Create clear roadmaps
Being caught off guard is the opposite of effective construction schedule acceleration. So, as the project manager, you always have to think one step ahead, specifically when forecasting project delays.
A software project schedule is a potent tool for facilitating foresight since it shows a lot of dependencies between various tasks and resources. If a specific item is stalling, it is easier for you to determine ripple effects and craft a plan to keep many things moving.
4. Use construction management software
Keep up with the times! It is surprising how many people work in the construction industry and have not taken their strategies and processes beyond a particular era. Some folks are still using traditional tools like spreadsheets to keep track of everything.
Cloud-based software solutions like Pro Crew Schedule now exist for issues that are used to take project managers several hours to address when handling construction schedules.
5. Remove activities that are no longer necessary
When you craft your schedule, you expect all of the activities are achievable and necessary. But, as the project progresses, a lot of things change. You have to review the remaining activities and remove anything unnecessary anymore. Some of the actions might no longer be necessary. Perhaps, some can be pushed to post some implementations.
6. Add valuable resources to the critical path
First, check if you have the flexibility to add resources. This might be for Critical Path or perhaps on some general activities that anybody can do. This particular technique is called “crashing”.
7. Optimize your processes
Look for process improvement opportunities that can save time. For instance, an approval process for the construction schedule may typically take two weeks. Is there any way it can be done in one week or one day? Perhaps, you can begin realizing a specific process that can be done quickly and seamlessly without taking two weeks.
How Can You Recover Costs Associated with the Acceleration?
When the acceleration is due to a request by the project owner or from your client, thus, some of the costs can be recouped. And before starting the process itself, there has to be a certain agreement on why and who will be fully responsible for the costs incurred.
Below are some of the costs that you necessarily have to track down:
- Materials
- Labor
- Tools and equipment
- Overhead and permits
- General conditions
To keep track of all of these, list each in the new construction punch list. Each item should be checked and verified before the construction project is complete.
Pro Crew Schedule: Speeding Up Your Construction Schedule
How far can you go to advance your construction schedule processes? With the latest construction management software solutions these days, speeding up your project schedule is more effortless and seamless. A project manager or contractor like you can conveniently create a consistent construction schedule and prioritize tasks for your project’s success.
With Pro Crew Schedule, tasks like determining dependencies, allocating resources, setting up deadlines, and creating project deliverables can be easily completed within no time.
And since a great start lays the foundation for a successful project, Pro Crew Schedule comes with many benefits that help stream the construction schedule and project planning. See below:
- Better collaboration: A significant advantage of Pro Crew Schedule is that it makes an efficient project team collaboration extremely simple, especially during project schedule creation. It keeps all the communication in a unified commonplace. And insights like status updates and project timelines can be accessed easily with one click and critical alerts can be instantly sent to the relevant parties.
- Effective task delegation: You dwell on so many tasks when you speed up the construction schedule. As the project manager, you find it very tough to assign tasks to some members, which can affect the efficiency of your entire team. With this construction scheduler software, you can easily delegate project tasks to your members and find who is currently available.
- Risk mitigation: Determining possible bottlenecks and deploying effective solutions make a great project manager. With this software tool, you can enhance risk mitigation strategies. This will improve not only the overall efficiency of your team but also your construction schedule.
- Easier integration of new members: The construction schedule is dynamic, and there are a lot of instances when inducting new members into your team is necessary. Integration is, nevertheless, a challenging task to get the new crew members to speed up within a short time.
- Enhanced productivity: Another significant advantage of this software is that it enhances productivity and fully optimizes your decision-making process. And with all the crucial details that can be found in one place, you can always make informed decisions quickly.
Pro Crew Schedule has everything you need in one place. Click here to get started.
