Construction scheduling is an integral part of the construction management process. It involves laying out all of the activities involved in completing a construction project over a timeline to establish its milestones and project completion date.
Accurate scheduling can have a big impact on a project’s success. Project owners are often motivated to get the project done as quickly as possible, but allowing too little time will cause scheduling overruns and throw off every activity for the rest of the project. Scheduling gets trickier when considering that even the best schedule can be thrown off by unexpected events like materials delays, weather events, or site conditions.
Construction professionals can optimize construction schedules by using tools to automate business processes. Truss Payments aids financial management by streamlining payment processes and reducing financial bottlenecks, both of which can help keep projects on schedule.
Here, we’ll discuss how projects can benefit from effective scheduling, tactics construction teams can take to optimize project schedules, and some of the tools that can make the process easier.
Key components in effective construction scheduling
Although scheduling ultimately involves laying construction activities out on a timeline, the reality involves more care and nuance. Any construction schedule has to balance two dueling objectives: the schedule has to ensure that sequential activities are completed in the correct order and arrange actions for efficient time management and resource allocation.
First, the entire project has to be broken out into individual activities. For example, to turn a large open area into offices, the construction team will need to frame out the individual rooms, followed by electrical work, drywalling, and painting.
Next, the schedule needs to allot a time frame to complete each activity. This process involves speaking with the individual contractors involved to learn about the intricacies of the work and how long each will take. The scheduler needs to identify task dependencies—if any task needs to be completed before others can happen—and ensure those are laid out accordingly on the schedule. Construction managers rely on open communication and continued collaboration with all relevant stakeholders to create and maintain the construction schedule over time.
Finally, construction managers should make sure the project is scheduled for maximum efficiency. That means arranging tasks that use common equipment, labor, and space to be set up to use those things as effectively as possible while minimizing downtime.
Construction scheduling software can help manage each of these steps by identifying clashes or missed dependencies to help create a schedule that works well.
An effective project schedule avoids any potential bottlenecks that could stop the project. Managers can avoid delays by allowing for extra time between activities for project teams to regroup and using tools to improve business processes so that they flow better.
With Truss Payments, project teams can pay bills and collect invoices in minutes, using custom user roles to streamline approval workflows. Recipients can access funds as soon as the sender hits “pay,” minimizing payment timelines so teams can keep working.
Tools and techniques for effective construction scheduling
Construction scheduling tools are available that can help construction managers create a realistic and efficient schedule. Those tools work with other construction tools and processes to help manage the project and keep it on the created schedule.
Gantt Chart
Gantt charts lay out the construction project schedule in a way that project teams can visualize each task involved. They outline each task in sequence in a graph format, highlighting the completion time, milestones, and length of each.
Gantt charts represent each task using a horizontal bar whose length varies depending on the duration of the task. The horizontal grid depicts dates, and the bars are laid out according to the start and end date of each task. Arrows indicate which tasks are dependent on others.
Gantt charts are very common in construction scheduling, and are often used in conjunction with other scheduling tools to create and maintain effective schedules.
Critical Path Method
Keeping to a project schedule seems like a simple thing to do, but it can be very tricky in the middle of a project schedule when many activities are happening at the same time. Project teams have to be able to prioritize action items based on their impact on the overall schedule progression.
The Critical Path Method (CPM) on a project is the sequence of tasks from the beginning to the end of the project which must be completed on time to avoid project delays. The CPM helps contractors identify which tasks need to be completed before another task begins, providing a systematic process for evaluating and arranging each task.
CPM often uses tools like network diagrams to help construction project managers arrange activities to anticipate and avoid delays and minimize resource constraints.
Building Information Modeling
Through Building Information Modeling (BIM), project stakeholders from each stage of construction can work together to plan, design, and build a structure using a common 3D model for guidance. BIM technology is used how blueprints used to be used, but the digital version offers a better visualization, leading to more accurate ideas about how different components interact.
Software applications for scheduling and construction project management
Well-applied software tools automate processes to save time for project managers while retaining project data to inform future business decisions. However, using multiple software applications can lead to more work when data has to be manually entered into multiple systems separately.
Using systems that integrate one another can help reduce manual data entry and collect and organize information for more thorough analysis. Truss Payments integrates with Quickbooks Online which integrates with construction project management software, resulting in seamless financial tracking throughout the project.
Challenges and solutions in construction scheduling
Unforeseen weather conditions
Construction scheduling should account for cyclical changes in weather – it’s likely to freeze on a construction site in Boston in January, for instance – but every year brings some unexpected weather events that can seriously disrupt construction progress. Weeks of rain, a major wind event that causes damage to the project or site, or even an extreme heat event that makes it dangerous for workers to be on site during certain times of day will all have an impact on construction projects.
Changes in project scope
A collaborative and communicative relationship between the project owner, designer, and contractor can help sidestep many late-project scope changes and change orders, but there may still be external factors that cause unexpected changes during the project. For example, if a new municipal government alters accessibility regulations, there may be new components that must be included in the project.
Resource constraints
Unexpected shortages or delays in materials or labor availability can seriously disrupt project schedules. Resource management tools can help identify these challenges early to make a plan to cope with them. Buying materials early when supply chains are unpredictable can help avoid this possibility, but then materials have to be securely stored, which can add expense and logistics concerns to construction planning. Labor shortages can be caused by other projects running late, illnesses, or simply lacking enough people for the project to run effectively.
How to manage scheduling challenges
Handling the unexpected comes down to adequate preparation. While no construction planner can account for every potential downfall on a project, allowing for enough space and flexibility between components can give managers the wiggle room to keep everything on track.
Not all of the challenges to scheduling are logistical; projects can grind to a halt if cash flow dries up and trade partners or materials can no longer be secured. Truss Payments helps keep track of project finances to maintain a healthy cash flow, and enables prompt payments to suppliers and subcontractors to maintain good relationships so that the work keeps moving.
Overcoming Construction Scheduling Challenges
Construction scheduling is a complex and nuanced process that requires a deep knowledge of all the activities involved. Challenges to construction scheduling can be internal or external to the project process, but any one of them can derail a project’s progress and make it difficult to complete the project on time.
Software platforms can help avoid these challenges common to the construction industry by collecting and organizing information from different processes to analyze for better decision making and automating complex processes for better efficiency.
Truss streamlines financial workflows to help maintain consistent cash flow, manage expenses, and keep the project running smoothly.
