Programming in Construction-Anthony Clifford.pdf

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Society of Construction Law Singapore

Programming in Construction

By Anthony Clifford, C.E., MICE, BSc (Hons)

Chairman – International Construction Consultants Pte Ltd

Society of Construction Law Singapore





NOTES





Preface :

A programme, especially in this part of the world, is frequently produced in order to satisfy one of the contractor’s contractual obligations of his contract. Usually too much is left to the whim of subcontractors who subsequently take over the pace of the project ignoring all but their own interests. This paper is intended to give those who have not been directly involved with managing a construction project an in-depth insight of how a programme is (or should be) formulated and provide advice as to who should make the decisions, and the factors that should be taken into account when making these decisions. The effect of methods, sequencing and programme on the contract price will be reviewed and many real life examples will be shown from the author’s own experience. It is intended that those attending this seminar will leave with a better understanding of the process of compiling and monitoring a programme, and indeed the limitations of a programme, and that they will also have a better understanding of the factors that need to be reviewed when adjudicating a dispute. Perhaps unusually, the author will start the question time with some questions of his own to the audience, before responding to any further questions from the floor.





Contents :

1 Introduction

2 What is a Programme 3 Importance of a Programme

4 Contractual Requirements for a Programme

5 Programme Compilation Responsibility

6 Actions Prior to Programming

7 The Critical Path

8 Resource Leveling 9 Programme Monitoring

10 Corrective Actions 11 Client Induced Delays or Disruptions 12 Ownership of Float 13 Types of Programme Format 14 Summary

15 Questions





1 Introduction : It is a fact that in most instances the largest claims made by a contractor on a project are based on time delays caused by a wide variety of reasons, frequently with delay events that are concurrent with others although possibly in different work streams, and possibly divided in terms of cause responsibility. It is also a fact that most projects that are completed on time or early usually provide financial success for both the contractor and the client, whereas contracts that are completed late invariably cause financial pain, usually to both contractor and client. A sound and realistic programme that is regularly monitored will drastically reduce the likelihood of financial distress, or at least alert the participants of the need to make accommodation in their budgets for unavoidable cost overruns when delays cannot be averted. This paper will outline the actions that are required and the responsibilities that need to be taken by the various parties to ensure that a project programme is as accurately and comprehensively compiled as is possible, is realistically monitored, and appropriately adjusted to ensure the earliest completion that is compatible with the lowest cost. 2 What is a Programme : A programme is the compilation of a series of events, linked into a stated sequence. It is subject to the effects of the planned methods of execution and takes into account a large number of restraints, which may be either stated, imposed, guessed, assumed, created or decided, and utilizes the resources to be deployed. It must be practical and achievable. Is it an art or a science – we shall see ! 3 Importance of a Programme : A programme is required to :

• Provide an overall framework by means of which a contract is planned and executed.

• Afford coordination with third parties

• Mark milestone dates and identify the events leading to them

• Protect contractual interests

• Monitor progress

• Provide a framework for reporting.




Although it may seem obvious that in order to achieve the above objectives a programme must be kept alive as a document and be subject to revisions as required, sadly in many instances once it is produced it is either filed or left to fade on a wall and regular monitoring does not take place. Unless a programme is regularly monitored it is to all intents and purposes useless. Programmes can and should be compiled for all activities concerned with the execution of a contract. These include :

• Tender submission preparation

• Tender enquiries

• Design

• Procurement

• Manufacturing and delivery

• Construction proposals submitted with Tender

• Master schedule of construction activities after award

• Testing

• Commissioning

• Hand over and completion activities

• Final accounts

These programmes themselves can be prepared in many formats and styles as we shall see later. 4 Contractual Requirements for a Programme : A programme is required to facilitate the planning and coordination of all activities to ensure completion on time. In almost all contracts the contract documents will state the overall completion date, together with any intermediate phase completion dates the client may require either for himself or for third parties with whom he may have separate but project related contracts or commitments. The specifications will require the contractor to produce a programme which shows that he can achieve these objectives, and usually an outline programme is demanded as a part of the contractor’s tender submission. A wise client will have the tender programme examined by a person competent to do so – and will not just check that the completion date and intermediate milestones are compliant. This would be the first step in establishing an understanding between a potential contractor and his client. Frequently the contract may instruct more rigorous requirements with respect to the contractor’s programme submissions both at tender stage and during the execution of the contract. These may include a labour histogram which as we shall see may have very limited usefulness, outline method statements, design freeze dates etc. Other more useful requirements could include the stipulation that no duration for any activity should exceed a stated number of days. This latter requirement ensures that the programme goes into sufficient detail to be monitorable and




avoids large long duration items which could include a number of critical activities which would be difficult or impossible to track. Once a contract is awarded the contractor is required to produce his master programme within a set time, although his failure to do so will not relieve him of his obligations to complete his works by the stated contract completion date. This programme is then required to be “Approved”, by the client, although again failure to receive approval does not relieve the contractor of his contractual obligations. It must be said that the submission of a programme by a contractor and its subsequent approval or rejection by the client can be somewhat toothless tiger, although rejection could have some significant contractual implications, as will be seen later. Also the client and / or his consultant may not have the in-house time, experience or competence to carry out a full and in-depth study of the way the contractor has compiled his programme and this generally means that a programme will be accepted providing it meets all stated milestones and completion dates, unless there are some obvious errors. As we shall see later the contractor should also include milestones of his own which will need to be met to satisfy his own design or order placing needs, and the contractor’s contractual rights, should these milestones be rejected or missed by the client, will be a subject for debate at the end of this paper.

5 Programme Compilation Responsibility : The person responsible for the production and monitoring of a programme must be the manager in charge of the construction, in close consultation with his colleagues advisors and other concerned personnel. He must mastermind the programme and take account of all contractual requirements and imposed restraints. He must also identify and declare any restraints and conditions he may need to impose on others in order to make his programme workable. The manager will need to make decisions on methods and sequences and make sure that the resources that will be required to be able to implement these decisions are available or obtainable. The programme can then be compiled by the planner under the direction of the manager. 6 Actions Prior to Programming : Most tender documents require a construction programme to be submitted with the tender. This is to enable the client to satisfy himself that the contractor has taken account of the stated contract milestones and that durations, sequences etc are broadly achievable. The contractor will have had limited opportunity and indeed limited resources during the tender period to fully research the decisions he has taken in his tender submission, apart from some major aspects that may have had a significant affect on his price.




After an award a fully detailed master construction programme is required which the contractor will then need to follow or improve upon when executing the work. The compilers of this programme should review all decisions made at the tender stage and may well make major changes to those decisions where circumstances may have altered or simply because better ideas have emerged. Early decisions are needed to avoid delays, and the availability of resources and equipment, both temporary and permanent, needs to be thoroughly and rapidly checked and where necessary orders placed promptly. For the purposes of this paper, the actions and decisions to be taken to create an overall master construction programme for a whole project will be examined. The same principles however will be valid, with some modifications, for the creation of programmes for other actions and activities such as short term schedules, section programmes etc. Before work on a programme can commence lists of activities, possible sequences, conditions, restraints, assumptions and production parameters (upon which studies need to be conducted and decisions made), has to be drafted and reviewed. These will include the following : (i) Physical Factors :

• Location

• Accessibility

• Ground conditions

• Weather ( or seasonal ) conditions or changes

• Working space available

These could have a direct effect on the choice of method or even sequence. (ii) Technical Implementation Factors :

• Labour availability

• Labour ( and supervision ) quality

• Labour morale / competitiveness

• Materials availability

• Equipment availability

• Availability of off site fabrication or precasting facilities

• Degree of mechanisation possible These also could have a direct effect on the choice of method or sequence. (iii) Financial Factors :

• Cash availability

• Cash flow impact

• Construction cost impact

• Cost of borrowing

• Resale opportunities




These factors could restrict the choice of methods, even when the methods being rejected may otherwise have been preferred. Financial restrictions are very much a fact of life in the construction industry, and if more than one project has been awarded to a company at the same time the status of available finance could well dictate decisions on methods. No programme of construction can be complied without making decisions on the methods to be utilised and sequences to be adopted, as these will directly affect activity durations and programme structures. Method determinations need to take into account the degree of skill available in the locality, the quality of supervision available, the responsiveness of local labour to imported supervision and the overall likely morale of the labour force. These factors (as well as financial ones) could influence the degree of mechanisation to be adopted and priced into the bid sum. As an example, the configuration of the site, the space available for storage, accessibility around the site etc will affect decisions on whether or not to adopt open cut excavation methods, whether to pile from existing ground or from reduced levels, whether to fabricate components on site, the number of working fronts to open up etc. Availability of equipment and plant could further influence decisions on mechanisation, as could resale or reuse opportunities for these items, once a contract has been completed. Judgment will also have to be made as to whether the commencement delay, incurred whilst awaiting delivery of equipment and resulting from a decision to mechanise, can be accommodated or compensated by the subsequent increased productivity. Figs 1 and 2 show examples of the effects of decisions being made for alternative methods of construction.

Most established companies have data bases of production parameters built up over the years. Whilst these can provide a useful reference and check, it would be a foolish manager who would adopt these parameters blindly without carefully considering their application to the specific location and conditions of the tasks being programmed. A client also needs to be mindful of the decisions taken by the contractor and his subsequent degree of flexibility, or lack thereof, to accommodate changes he may be considering before instructing the implementation these changes.

Provisional decisions concerning methods, resource levels equipment to be utilized etc must be made to facilitate a first run through of the programme ( see Section 7 below – The Critical Path ). Refinements will then have to be made to optimise the programme or to ensure that it meets the required completion dates. Further runs with further adjustments will then be necessary until an overall optimum compliant programme is achieved.




7 The Critical Path : Once the programme has been compiled, with durations, sequences and resource levels decided, the critical path can be determined. The critical path is the sequence of items whose start or completion times cannot be delayed without having a direct impact on the overall completion date. Before the days of computers these were determined by critical path networks - enormous sheets of paper covered with arrows (activities) and nodes which indicated sequences, or by precedence diagrams. Happily now computers do this task for us. For those not familiar with this process a simplified precedence diagram is shown in Figs 3, 4, 5 and 6. The links between boxes shows the sequence of activities which enables earliest start and finish dates for each activity to be determined and the shortest overall duration to be established. Going backwards through the diagram enables the latest start and finish dates to be determined. Those activities where the earliest start and finish dates are the same as the latest start and finish dates are the activities which lie on the critical path.

Where intermediate milestones for phased handovers are required in the contract sub-critical paths may exist which may or may not include, partially or totally, items that are on the main critical path. Using his selected methods, resources, sequences and decisions the contractor will carry out his first programme run to see if adopting the decisions he has taken will enable him to complete on time. Invariably it will not, and the contractor will have to revisit his decisions and make one or possibly several adjustments possibly several times in order to massage the programme into a workable and achievable schedule that satisfies his contractual obligations.

8 Resource Levelling : Part of the further refinement runs will include resource leveling. This is the process whereby the start of some activities will be deliberately delayed in order to avoid the high peaks of specific resources for short durations which would result if all activities commenced at their earliest start dates. Resource leveling applies not only to labour resources but also to craneage, equipment, production or fabrication facilities etc. Usually in a programme each activity will be scheduled to commence at the earliest start date to allow maximum float. In reality the resulting resource peaks will not be able to be accommodated and the resource leveling exercise must be carried out to determine activity start dates – otherwise the early start dates will have no chance of being realized and will result in false float periods being indicated in the programme. The items to be subject to delayed commencement resulting from resource leveling need to be carefully selected,




particularly if productivity, which has a direct influence on durations, is difficult to accurately forecast. It is most important that this exercise is carried out. An example of resource leveling is shown in Fig 7. It will be seen in this example that Sector C has now had its float drastically reduced. A check would need to be made, taking account of any assumptions with respect to productivity, that this remaining float gives a comfortable margin for contingencies. After checking that his revised decisions are compatible with all concerned parties requirements and contract conditions, the programme can then be tabled as the contractor’s master construction programme. . The contractor will then need to monitor that his decisions and assumptions can be made to work in reality !! It should be remembered that the critical path is determined by the contractor’s selected sequence of work, by his assumed durations determined from his selected methods of construction and from his assessed productivity parameters and leveled resource requirements. Near critical paths will also need to be very closely monitored, since minor errors in productivity assumptions could easily change the critical path and cause items on these sub-critical paths to become critical.

9 Progress Monitoring : Apart from its initial indication of sequences a programme will have little further use unless it is properly and comprehensively monitored – it is after all, as can be seen above, a collection of assumptions and educated guesses, many ( or even most ) of which may be erroneous to some degree. Progress against a programme therefore needs to be closely monitored and where necessary corrective action will need to be taken to redress unacceptable slippages ( see Section 10 below ). It is not sufficient either to simply mark progress on a programme. This will serve to merely to indicate the status of affairs at the time of marking up, although if previous statuses are shown on the same sheet some indications may emerge to show whether or not a slippage situation is being contained. Effective statusing will not only provide information regarding the current situation of an activity but will also indicate production trends and can project the date at which a current rate of progress will achieve completion. This can then be reviewed against the available float for the activity and a determination made as to whether or not corrective action is required. These marked up charts, programmes or drawings should be studied when adjudicating claims and delays – usually there are enough of these documents and record photographs available to enable this examination to be carried out retrospectively, although hopefully the contractor will have maintained contemporary records relating to a specific delay.




This paper will now examine the various means of progress monitoring and comment on their attributes and shortfalls. (i) Progressively Marked Up Drawings : This can be done either diagrammatically or by marking up working drawings. Each week’s or month’s progress can be shown in a different colour to indicate progress during each period. Changes in rates of progress between one period and another can be compared. This method gives a good picture of the extent of progress achieved at any given time, and is a useful visual presentation for senior management. By comparing the progress achieved in each period an indication of the date at which completion may be achieved can be given. It will also show periods of slow progress which should trigger a more detailed examination of these periods to determine the causes of the slow progress. It is, however, unlikely to be suitable or accurate enough, without much more detailed information, to be used as a basis for deciding corrective actions. An example of a marked up chart is shown in Fig 8. (ii) Marked Up Programmes : Marked up programmes give a good picture of actual against planned progress, but very little else, although some indication of trends can be shown if the statuses of previous periods are also shown on the same document. At a summary level it is useful for reporting to senior management but would need to be accompanied as necessary by an explanatory narrative to explain the impact of any apparent slippages avert what could otherwise possibly cause needless concern. Marked up programmes are also useful at site management level to determine which activities or sectors need more detailed investigation and monitoring. To gain most benefit from this scrutiny the contractor’s planner should go through the detailed programme and prepare a report to highlight to the construction manager any activities that may potentially have an overall impact on completion. At working level marked up “Mickey Mouse” programmes can be presented at weekly meetings with site supervisors to highlight gains or slippages to their targeted progress. It is then the construction manager’s responsibility to review the activity and the impact it may have on other activities, and as necessary trigger whatever remedial action may be necessary to deal with the situation. An example of a marked up programme at working level is shown in Fig 9. (iii) Tabulation of Progress : Progress on some activities can be usefully monitored by tabulation, where each week progress is recorded on the same sheet and comparisons of each week’s production can be made. Providing the activity continues to be regular in nature




this can be a very useful and accurate means of forecasting the completion date of an activity. Piling, pipe laying in open country, construction times for each level of a high rise construction or any similar repetitive construction activity can be accurately monitored in this way. An example of a tabulated report for piling is shown in Fig 10.

(iv) “S” Curves : A popular and useful monitoring tool, “S” curves can be quite accurate in forecasting completion dates for an activity. However they need to be used with care if they are not to be misleading. Although useful for repetitive activities, “S” curves can also be plotted for ongoing activities where the work content or planned rates of progress may vary as work progresses, provided these variations in rates of anticipated progress are carefully plotted. Careful extrapolation of current rates of progress can be used to indicate likely completion dates, providing any variation in the future work profile is taken into account.

An example of this is structural work. A popular monitoring parameter is the volume of concrete being placed, but this seemingly simple parameter has to be very carefully reviewed before being adopted, if it is not to be misleading. In particular, usually base slabs are heavy structural elements, spanning between piles or pile caps and need to be of a substantial thickness to resist ground pressure and ground water infiltration to provide a solid foundation for a structure. Walls, depending on whether or not they are below ground level may be either very thick or quite slim. Suspended slabs may be thick rigid structural elements in basements where they serve a strutting role, but much lighter where they serve as superstructure floors for residential purposes. Simply monitoring overall volumes of concrete placed could therefore be misleading if work is progressing simultaneously on foundations, walls and suspended slabs, since the volume of concrete being placed would not distinguish between these elements unless they are being monitored separately. Good progress on foundations could therefore conceal slippages on the more time consuming walls and suspended slabs. It is therefore also important to select which parameter to monitor to give a broader perspective of where current rates of progress for a section of work is heading.

For example it may be necessary to monitor a different structural parameter, such as formwork erection or rebar fixing, or even falsework erection if these are critical activities in a section of work.

Similar monitoring can be carried out for other bulk items such as bulk earthworks, backfilling, building finishes of various kinds etc, including roofing, floor and wall finishes, door fixing etc. An example of an “S” curve is shown in Fig 11. This figure also demonstrates the consequence of a lack of resource leveling by the contractor, who could not possibly have been able to achieve the start and finish dates shown in his




programme for each section of work. This would have had a knock on effect on following activities, and as a minimum will have provided distorted float periods for those activities. (v) Tabulation of Completion Dates : This is merely the tabulated recording of the dates at which activities are completed compared to their target completion dates. As a tool to trigger management action it is useless, although these records would be useful as data supporting claims for delays. 10 Corrective Actions : Once programme monitoring detects that an activity is not proceeding as planned and that the slower rate of production being achieved is going to cause critical delays, immediate corrective action is required. The longer this corrective action is delayed the worse the situation will become and the more expensive and difficult the required corrective action will be. Changes of sequences and or methods and or resource levels are all corrective measures available to the contractor should critical delays occur, and these are usually the most economical solutions for expediting recovery. A favourite and frequently used remedial measure taken by contractors when they suffer delays, however, is to simply increase working hours. This has very limited value. Research has shown that hourly productivity can drop to as low as 65% of normal levels when working hours are extended beyond 12 hours a day, 6 days a week on an ongoing basis – and the payment of overtime rates makes the costs prohibitive. In these instances, productivity in terms of value of work done per dollar spent, can fall well below 50%. Safety standards are also compromised by the adoption of these solutions. It is far better and far more cost effective to deploy additional independent resources with additional supervisors, although with MYE restrictions in Singpore this can be difficult to implement. Another very effective solution is to introduce an incentive scheme to reward increased productivity. On one project the author obtained double productivity at about 20% increased hourly cost by the introduction of such a scheme. Any or all of the factors considered when formulating the original programme production parameters for an activity not achieving its targeted rate of progress should be reviewed and corrective actions may need to be taken to improve production ( by increasing resources ) or productivity ( by revising methods, introducing incentives etc. ), or a mixture of both. Another solution is to investigate the possibility of implementing additional measures which may make it possible to move some of the items off the critical path that are currently on it. This can be done by studying whether or not the criticality of an activity could be circumvented by resequencing, or accommodated by introducing temporary measures to compensate for the activity’s delay.




Proposals could be made to the client to enable him to take temporary or partial occupation of critical areas only. A further measure could be for the contractor to help the client by providing services to him to assist in fitting out his premises etc. which may be late in starting due to a late handover. This will probably involve some expense due to out of sequence working and or additional activities, but is an option well worth considering and which could prove to be the most economical solution. When client induced changes have impacted the critical path cost options should be offered to the him to allow him to make appropriate choices between delay and additional cost.

Whatever measures are adopted they should then be included into a revised programme and the effectiveness of these measures will need to be monitored. What should not be done is for the programme to be reissued showing blindly shortened durations to achieve the required completion date, with no measures being implemented to achieve these shortened durations, other than to extended working hours. As has been noted above, extended working hours rarely solve the problem or at best have only a limited production effect, and at a very much higher cost due to overtime payments and reduced efficiency and productivity. 11 Client Induced Delays or Disruptions : These can arise from several main causes, including :

• Late issue of designs or drawings

• Late revisions to designs or drawings

• Conflicting details and / or design errors on clients drawings

• Late issues of details from client’s third party contractors

• Changes to client’s requirements

Having hopefully solved or contained his own problems the contractor is contractually obliged to do his utmost to mitigate the effects of these further factors which can disrupt his work. They can and frequently do occur at an early stage of a contract and be due to the client suffering delays in sourcing his own needs through third party contracts, or from delays by those appointed third parties in settling the details of their equipment and the spaces needed to accommodate or install equipment ( how many door openings have had to be enlarged to get equipment inside a room !). Upon receipt of an instruction of change or in the event that required details or drawings not being supplied, the contractor should notify the client of the circumstances and advise him of the consequences of these events.




In order to mitigate or prevent potential delays or disputes arising from the late issue of drawings a recommended action is for the contractor to highlight his own critical requirements for the issue of details or designs by inserting his own milestones in his programme and monitoring these milestones. It is best to do this when submitting the tender programme, as the client will then be made aware of the contractor’s needs and assumptions before award. During the execution of the contract the contractor should also give advance notifications to his client of the impending occurrence of these milestones to enable the client to take action to expedite the issue of the required information. This not only serves to reduce the likelihood of a failure to meet the milestones ( or at least to give the client and the contractor the opportunity to take compensatory action ), it also serves to strengthen the contractors case in the event that the milestone is missed and delays occur. Unfortunately, it is frequently the case that there is no time during the tender period for these issues to be addressed or that they are not recognised as potential problems during the tender preparation period. The contractor’s requirements may also change when his construction personnel adopt a different construction approach to those who prepared the tender bid, causing a further dilemma. It raises the interesting legal question as to whether the client has to accept the contractor’s milestones for the supply of information and drawings and the rights of each party if the client refuses to do so. This may also cause the client to reject the contractor’s tender, or if already appointed, to reject his master programme. In all cases the contractor is contractually bound to use his best endeavours to mitigate delays and should offer his client alternative courses of action to reduce their impact. Frequently a client will point out that his instruction did not impact any critical item and merely utilized some of the contractor’s float periods. This raises the question as to who owns the float and who has first option to use it to mitigate delays. This question is dealt with in the next section below.

12 Ownership of Float : Before consideration is given as to who owns float, a review should be made as what float is and how it is created. As can be seen in Section 7 above, float is the surplus time available should an activity extend beyond its scheduled duration. It is determined by the sequence in which a series of operations is carried out and the duration of the activity. As can be seen in Section 6 above, the scheduled duration of an activity is determined by the methods the contractor elects to adopt and the resource levels he determines to deploy. The available float is also determined by the movement of non critical activity start dates made as a result of a resource leveling exercise, necessary to achieve the optimum efficiency of resources.




As can been seen above, many of the decisions made concerning durations, methods and sequences are the contractor’s best assessments of a number of factors at the time of compiling his programme. Invariably a number of his decisions will be erroneous to some degree and will be subject to adjustment during the execution of the contract. This will impact float periods for many of the activities in a programme. Even if some activities are individually proceeding according to plan they may suffer from the knock on effect of delays to other activities. If a client tries to use the contractor’s float to compensate for his own delays he is imposing restrictions on the contractor by reducing the floats available to the contractor, which were not a part of the original contract conditions. He will therefore be in breech of contract. It is the author’s view, therefore that if the client wishes to use a contractor’s float to cover his own delays he must be prepared to give this float back to the contractor if the contractor ultimately requires it. It is not a contractual requirement, nor an event subject to penalty, for a contractor to work strictly to his own programme. He should endeavour to do so, but cannot be penalized for slippages unless they cause delay to a contractual milestone. It is also the author’s view that even if a project has been completed early, but the actual completion has been delayed by client changes, the contractor has sound grounds for claiming additional costs for the delays caused by the client. The contractor should however also remember that he is contractually bound to use every effort to mitigate any delays from whatever cause, and would be prejudicing his own position if he deliberately slowed down his work on an area subject to client imposed delays in order to create a condition of concurrent delays with another sector where delays may be being experienced due to the contractor’s own shortcomings. The author believes however that if delays were being caused by a shortage of resources common to both sectors of work he has the right to deploy his resources in such a way as to protect his own interests as a priority. It is essential therefore to have immediate and open liaison between the client and his contractor when client imposed delays occur in order to agree a way forward and to outline to the client his options to minimize the consequences of the delay. If a client wishes to have a buffer to cover his own potential commitment failures, he can easily do so by introducing buffer zones between the completion of one phase by one contractor and the start of the follow on phase by another contractor. He can also install clauses into the follow-on contractor’s contract to impose on him the requirement for an earlier start date than that specified, providing a certain amount of notice is given. In this way the client can benefit from the timely or even early completion of a hand-over condition without violating either contractor’s contract conditions. For example :




Contractor A must complete a sector of work and hand over by Day X (Milestone) Follow on Contractor B must start his work in that sector by Day X + Y (Milestone) Contractor B must, if given ( say 30 +Z days ) notice by the client, be prepared to commence his work Z days earlier than day ( X + Y ). 13 Types of Programme Format : There are a wide variety of programme formats available and a wide range of softwares are available to deal with them. The programme formats vary from sophisticated softwares to simple lists of tasks to be carried out, and the choice of what to use for any particular purpose will depend on the range of activities it covers and the discipline and grades of the personnel who will work with it. Examples are as follows : (i) Top Level Master Programmes : The most sophisticate formats are needed to formulate a comprehensive master programme which will be created (under the direction of the construction manager) by an experienced programmer. It should encompass all aspects of a project, including design work, order placing, local authority requirements, off site manufacturing and commissioning and handover as well as the construction activities. This programmer should be made responsible for regularly statusing progress against it and for preparing reports for management review. The programmer should highlight areas of concern and activities which although not yet due to commence could be jeopardised by delays to current activities. He should also indicate potential remedial measures than could be taken to mitigate forthcoming delays, and measures to take full advantage of any gains that are being accomplished against the programme. Decisions can then be taken by appropriate levels of management to deal with any current situation. This programme when statused can also be used as a progress reporting tool and can be issued in various levels of detail to appropriate levels of management. Once the status of progress against a programme has been complicated by multiple gains or losses against it, the programme will become increasingly meaningless and should be revised incorporating current or anticipated productivity or production levels, and any remedial measures that are to be introduced. Forecasts of the achievability of milestones can then be reviewed. (ii) Second Level Programmes : A second level of programming will concentrate on specific activities within the master programme, be it design work, procurement or sections of the main construction programme.




On large projects these programmes may well also demand the use of sophisticated software and experienced programmers and can be simply abstracts from the master programme. However more usually they can be separate and perhaps more detailed programmes which can be managed by most computer literate engineers and managers using simpler software. They should be monitored and statused on a more frequent basis than the master programme and where necessary can trigger corrective action sooner than would be appropriate for the master programme. Liaison and consultation with, and input from subcontractors and others may well be necessary in both monitoring and in deciding corrective action. (iii) Short Term Look – Ahead Programmes : These programmes may be abstracts from either the master programme or from the second level programmes, and depending on the contract size and duration and will provide a look-ahead window of events planned for the next month, or two to three months. Again these can be abstracts from the master programme or alternatively be taken from the second level programme. They can incorporate “catch up “ measures to bring slippages back on schedule so that the master programme remains intact, or they may highlight adjustments that need to be incorporated into a re-issued master programme if slippage recovery is not achievable. Close monitoring of these programmes is essential to check that any measures being put into place to achieve recovery are being effective. If it becomes evident that things are not going according to plan additional fresh measures will need to be implemented, and the look-ahead programme will need to be re-issued before its term of surveillance is expired, in order to monitor the effectiveness of these new measures. (iv) “Mickey Mouse“ Programmes : Not a formal terminology, but these programmes are those that can be produced with the most basic of computer skills (usually using Excel) or from hand drawn charts. They can be used to plan small sections of work and are a good communication tool for outlining plans to trades foremen and supervisors who would be intimidated by more sophisticated programme formats. These programmes should comply with the overall programme or catch-up programmes, and can be easily statused, by hand if necessary, and used for daily or weekly reviews with the supervisors or foremen concerned. The advantage of these programmes is that they are simple, easily understood and of limited scope and bring programme awareness to the front line personnel involved in executing the work. (v) Weekly and Daily Schedules :




As the name implies these programmes cover the work to be carried out in the forthcoming week or day. They are different from other programmes in that they allocate resources to areas of work, rather than programme activities. They are particularly useful in prioritising the activities of key resources such as craneage where several groups of resources who may not otherwise be coordinating with each other have to communicate their needs to the overall supervisor and book their requirements. They can also be used to prioritise the activities of groups of key workers or resources. Clearly a work activity will not be executed unless there are resources deployed to it. These schedules will ensure that, where resources are limited or inadequate, those that are available will be allocated to progress the most urgent activities at the expense if need be of less urgent items. They can be produced by hand on standard printed formats by a supervisor or subcontractor for approval each day or week by the overall supervisor.

Progress achieved against these schedules can be marked up the following week or day and will serve a very useful additional site progress record, and trigger investigations as to why a certain task was not achieved. (vi) Check Lists : Although perhaps not regarded as programmes, checklists do serve the purpose of planning and monitoring activities, particularly in the close out stages of a contract or section of work, and especially if target completion dates are put against each item. Progress against them can be reviewed at regular intervals and serve as a site record. (vii) Hourly Schedules : These are used to plan short term possessions or specific critical activities. In these cases a responsible controller needs to be put in charge of monitoring activities against the timetable while the task is being carried out. Contingency arrangements and standbys should be incorporated wherever possible to cope with unforeseen circumstances which invariably seem to arise during these events. 14 Summary : The purpose of this paper has been to assist those who may not have had direct involvement in construction to better understand the many difficulties that those responsible for the execution of construction works have to face. The planning of a project is a complex process with many decisions to make ( most of which will be inaccurate to some degree and all of which need monitoring ) and the blind application of previous production parameters will invariably lead to problems and potentially major errors or delays.




The contract programme is a living document which needs constant scrutiny and adjustment to make it usable throughout the duration of the construction process. There are complex contractual and legal issues associated with the acceptance or rejection of the contractor’s programmes and of the effect on these programmes of changes and or delays arising from factors which are the client’s responsibility. It is hoped that this paper has provided to those involved in dispute resolution a better insight and understanding of the complexity of the planning and programming of a project. It has highlighted some of the potential limitations of the initial issue of a programme and the need for progressive modifications and corrections that are required in order to keep the programme meaningful and accurate as a management tool. It has also indicated the sources of valuable information that should be examined by those tasked with adjudicating disputes, to enable them able to make more accurate judgements.

15 Outstanding Questions :

A number of issues have been raised in this paper but have not been answered, as most of the final resolutions will depend on the individual circumstances of the issue rather than the application of general principles. Among these are the following :

• The rights of a contractor to impose his own milestones into a programme

• The implications of a client’s rejection of a contractor’s programme.

• The contractor’s right to change his methods and programmes from those included in his tender submission.

• The rights of a contractor to change his critical path by varying his deployment of resources.

• Ownership of float __________________________________________________________________

Changes of sequences and or methods and or resource levels are all corrective measures available to the contractor should delays occur to activities on his critical path, and are usually the most economical solutions for getting himself out of trouble.




A favourite and frequently used attempted escape method used by contractors when they suffer delays, however, is to simply increase working hours. This has very limited value. Research has shown that hourly productivity can drop to as low as 65% of normal levels when working hours are extended beyond 12 hours, 6 days a week on an ongoing basis – and the payment of overtime rates makes the costs prohibitive. Productivity in terms of value of work done per dollar spent can fall well below 50%. Safety standards are also compromised by the adoption of these solutions. It is far better and far more cost effective to deploy completely additional resources with additional supervisors, although with MYE restrictions in Singpore this can be difficult to implement. Another very effective solution is to introduce an incentive scheme to reward increased productivity. On one project the author obtained double productivity at about 20% increased hourly cost by the introduction of such a scheme. Another solution is to see if arrangements can be made to move any of the items off the critical path that are currently on it. This may involve some expense due to out of sequence working but is an option well worth considering. This same solution can be considered when client induced changes impact the critical path. Cost options should be offered to the client to allow him to make appropriate decisions.

In most Conditions of Contract the Clauses relating to programmes are vague and almost meaningless. Under the SIA conditions a contractor is required to submit his programme 14 days before commencing work. The Architect is not limited by any time period to approve the programme, but the contractor can start work anyway 14 days after his submission. In approving the programme the Architect merely signifies his agreement with the sequence of work and very little else. The programme can be taken into account in resolving disputes arising from the reasonableness or otherwise of the time taken for the Architect to supply any outstanding information, but approval does not relieve either party of any of their contractual obligations. Disapproval does not prevent the contractor from commencing work after 14 days but could prejudice




any claim he may make for the late issue of information by the Architect. A programme showing early completion does not, without the Employer’s agreement, advance the Architect’s obligations to provide information or bring forward the contract completion date. Some consultants and clients add clauses to the standard clause relating to programming, demanding full details of float, soft copies to track dependencies and logic, maximum durations for any one item in order to ensure the correct level of detail etc. However unless the consultant or client has personnel who are available and can operate the software the use of this information would be restricted to assisting in claims settlements – assuming the claims adjudicators have the required competence.

This should start with an overall strategic plan with periods allocated for :

� Conception planning � Authority and corporate approvals in principle. � Scope finalisation – which should include “freeze” dates � Dates for Go or No Go decisions � Enquiry document preparation periods to facilitate designer and other

support company selections � Designer and other support company appointment dead lines � Procurement assessment periods – major long lead equipment items

which may have to be contracted out in advance. � Tender stage design periods � Draft construction schedule deadline � Tender document preparation periods � Tender return, evaluation and appointments of contractors dates � Final designs deadlines � Construction and commissioning periods � Take over schedule

The programme style or format will vary according to the purpose it is designed to serve. Each level of management will require different levels of detail. Some programme formats can be condensed from a fully detailed activity programme down to be one presented as an overview programme. This can be opened up in sections as required to various levels of detail for management to examine the specific status of particular critical sections of the overall programme. Not all programming software has this facility however, so the management information needs for a project needs to be reviewed before the selection of software is made. Generally these more sophisticated softwares require skilled and experienced planners to run them and are generally beyond the capability of most field engineers to operate. They are also relatively tamper proof. These programmes can and should be fully detailed and resourced. They should be subject to adjustments that will level each of the principle resource requirements to optimum levels that will be required to enable them to complete their tasks within their overall permitted period. This will mean that some of the float, that could be




available if all activities were started at the earliest start dates, will be eroded. (Example ) Simpler softwares are available that are well within the capability of most computer literate engineers to produce and / or operate and are useful for producing work schedules that can be easily read and understood by site engineers and site supervisors. These generally cover the finer detail of small sections of the work on a one week to one month look ahead basis. The simplest form of programme is a daily (or even hourly) work schedule which allocates the available resources of a small group of workers to their tasks for that day.

Documents

Programming in Construction-Anthony Clifford.pdf