Almost all people perceive information “drawn” rather than “heard” better. And even better if this information is represented by images, rather than a series of numbers and indicators. Imagine a stranger talking about his dog. He does not describe her appearance and pedigree, does not specify her suit and age, etc. The imagination of each listener will draw his own image. And when we already imagine the handsome dog, it turns out that we were told about a lovely pug. In this situation, we laugh, but when faced with something like this at the enterprise, it will no longer be a laughing matter.
Therefore, in production everyone is trying to visualize as much as possible. One of the most important documents, especially in construction, is considered to be a work schedule. We can safely say that the entire project without this schedule is a lost time. Since it contains all the accepted engineering and technical solutions, as well as optimized timing.
What is a calendar plan?
The title of this document gives an idea of its importance and significance. The schedule of work is a table in which all types of work, their volume and deadlines are displayed. In addition, the graph clearly shows the sequence of work, tied to specific dates (or simply the duration of the various types of work - for standard projects). Most often, this document also contains information about the resources needed at each stage of construction: basic materials, equipment and personnel.
The ability to schedule work is one of the most important skills of managers at various levels. The more accurate and detailed the schedule is compiled, the better all the planned work will be carried out. Despite the fact that construction is considered the “native” industry of the work schedule, managers of all areas will not be hindered by knowledge of scheduling principles .
Where to begin
Any work can be divided into small tasks. The simplest example is making a salad of fresh vegetables. It would seem that easier? But this elementary task can be divided into a sequence of actions. First, purchase all the ingredients, then wash them, chop and mix, seasoning with sauce. Moreover, all actions can be broken in time (there are breaks in work), and can be done sequentially, without breaks in time. In addition, all this can be done by one person, or maybe a whole team of cooks. So, there is a sequence of actions. It remains to calculate the time to complete each stage and determine how much and what kind of personnel is needed for this work. And the work schedule is almost ready.
Regardless of the industry, when developing a schedule , you first need to highlight the scope of work: break down the entire process into components. Moreover, the criteria can serve not only technological differences, but also the number of employees, and the necessary mechanisms and devices, etc.
Deadlines
After dividing the entire production process into a sequence of actions, you can begin to calculate the timing of the work. For production and construction, there are norms and standards by which specific terms are calculated for a given amount of work. For mental work, it is impossible to calculate the timing of work according to the formula. But a manager with extensive experience, owning information about his staff, can quite clearly set the time frame for solving the task.
Knowing the timing of each type of work, we can begin to determine the time required for the implementation of the entire process. It should be remembered that some tasks can be solved in parallel, and for certain processes technological breaks are also needed.
Resource calculation
Of course, staff is an essential element of the process. The schedule of work in construction involves determining the number of performers, specialization of workers and their qualifications. At this stage, we calculate the number and composition of teams and draw up a schedule of their employment at the facility.
Next, we go on to determine the necessary equipment, mechanisms, and devices. In manufacturing industries, regulations also exist for this. And finally, the last, but no less important, is the calculation of the materials necessary for the work.
Calculation of delivery dates of materials
All this information will allow you to combine the work schedule with the schedule for the supply of materials and equipment. Uniformity and uninterrupted operation are the two main principles of planning. Optimization of the schedule in the direction of reducing the time may not give the desired result, because the work will appear simple due to lack of materials (or, conversely, the construction site will be literally crammed with them, and therefore it will take a lot of time to find the right one).
Force Majeure extends the deadlines
Another important detail - when drawing up a work plan, it is necessary to provide for possible risks. For construction, it can be anything - from bad weather to intense traffic on the roads. Given the force majeure circumstances, it is necessary to slightly increase the timing of certain types of work. Most often this affects the duration of the entire volume.
Despite this, planners should not chase to minimize time. Indeed, when the network schedule of work is disrupted, the general contractor will have to pay a penalty to both the customer and related contractors.
Chart Automation
A few years ago, the schedule was compiled manually. Specialists calculated all the deadlines and the need for personnel and materials, and then visualized it using a graphical editor . For small amounts of work, this is a simple task. Another thing is if we are talking about a serious contracting organization leading several facilities at the same time.
Programmers are developing many support programs designed to automatically calculate and build a schedule of work. A sample calendar plan calculated using Microsoft Office Project 2010 Professional, for example, can be easily found on the Internet. However, not every company will agree to spend additional funds on installing software and training personnel to work with it. In addition, each specialized program has its drawbacks. One does not take into account the possibility of shift work, the other without writing macros is not consistent with the calculation of materials, for example, etc.
Therefore, most specialists involved in planning learned to build a work schedule in Excel.
This program has a lot of advantages:
- She is free. In the sense that Excel is part of the standard MS Office package, which is installed unconditionally on almost every computer.
- She is simple. With minimal knowledge about calculating formulas and linking sheets to each other, you can plan.
- She is vivid. All calculations and the result are displayed on one sheet. And making changes is immediately displayed on the chart.