CIVE 601 Project Management

Repetitive (Linear) Scheduling

CHARACTERISTICS OF REPETETIVE CONSTRUCTION

1. Network schedules assume activities can be divided into number of relatively small, discrete activities sequenced in order of their performance. 2. On some projects, same activities performed by same crew progress continuously for duration of project.

CHARACTERISTICS OF REPETETIVE CONSTRUCTION

Example Highway construction same operations repeated section by section Linear nature since one operation (crew) follows another sequentially Clearing, grubbing, grading, subbase, base course, paving Each activity repeated by same crew from one end of project to the other Rate of progress distinguishes between activities

CHARACTERISTICS OF REPETETIVE CONSTRUCTION

3. Network scheduling techniques for repetitive activities result in either very small schedule (if activity durations are large) or very repetitious schedule (if activity durations are subdivided by physical location). 4. Bar charts Only relate activities to time scale and do not indicate activity interdependence Can not indicate variations in rate of progress for linear-type projects

CHARACTERISTICS OF REPETETIVE CONSTRUCTION

5. Line of Balance technique (LOB) and Linear Scheduling Method (LSM) developed for repetitive activities Origins in manufacturing industry for evaluating production-line flow rate Also called vertical production method (VPM) applied to high rise construction (typical floors in a high-rise building) Applied to airport runways, pipelines, mass transit, precasting or fabrication, tunnels

CHARACTERISTICS OF REPETETIVE CONSTRUCTION

6. LOB and LSM can be used to schedule entire project or to evaluate interrelationships among few select activities from larger group in network schedule Network schedules can not distinguish rates of progress among activities

Activity duration on network schedule is total

time, without showing number of units completed within any period of duration (nor variations in rate of progress of a given activity)

CHARACTERISTICS OF REPETETIVE CONSTRUCTION

LOB and LSM display number of units that will be completed within any period of activitys duration displayed in velocity diagram (shows rates of progress) Even if project scheduled by network methods, LOB and LSM can be used to examine rate of progress among few interrelated activities

Evaluate activities to adjust, slow, or speed

progress among interrelated activities

LOGIC OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Each activity has 2 predecessors: 1. Technological predecessor based on sequence of construction e.g. drive piles must be complete before construct pile caps can begin.

LOGIC OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

2. Resource (crew) predecessor if using single crew, crew must have completed work on previous section before moving to next section e.g. A1 must be complete before A2 begins if using same crew to drive piles. 3. In some cases, technological predecessor of previous section (similar to crew/resource predecessor) e.g. cantilevering sections of a bridge span (followed by paving, barricading, line marking, etc. on section). Section A2 can not be put in place until section A1 is in place.

LOGIC OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

When performing CPM calculations, ES of activity =

latest EF of all 3 types of predecessors LF of activity = earliest LS of all its successors

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

1. Matrix Schedules Fairly common on high-rise buildings with successive floors repeating same plan Fairly narrow application but effective for documenting and communicating a plan

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Horizontal rows = floors Vertical columns = operations performed on each floor Chronological order is left to right

Buildings schedule proceeds from lower left corner

to upper right corner Each operation at a given location scheduled in box as shown Can colour boxes as completed or if delayed gives visual status of progress

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Advantages in communication: Vertical correlation of floors to rows obvious less confusing than arrow and circle notation of CPM Chronological Left to Right flow of operations shows logical interrelationships among operations more obviously than in bar chart Vertical columns can be made to corresponds to specialty subcontractors Subcontractors can clearly see all his/her operations in few adjacent columns rather than sorting through maze of activities, and can see relationship to other subcontractors work

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

2. Horse Blanket Variation on matrix schedule, used on some major rail-rapid transit systems Figure 12-11 shows section of transit system intended to go on-line as a unit (all at same date) for revenue service Section contracted for design and construction in several different segments Horizontal axis = line and contractual subdivision Vertical axis = major phases for each contractual section (chronologically from bottom up)

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Amount of leeway at top of various sections gives management good idea of which parts most critical to projects scheduled start-up Schedule is at milestone level

Best for policy-level planning (higher levels of

management)

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

3. Velocity Diagrams/Line of Balance (LOB) Used for scheduling linear or repetitive operations e.g. tunnels, pipelines, highways, high-rise buildings LOB (Vertical Production Method VPM) uses velocity diagrams to find required resources for each stage or operation so that following stages not interfered with and target output achieved Concepts borrowed from industrial engineering for optimizing output on manufacturing production lines

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Vertical axis plots cumulative progress or percent completed for different systems of project, e.g. structural, electrical, mechanical, other trade subcontractors on high-rise Horizontal axis plots time Sloping lines represent rate of production, e.g. trade subcontractors moving up from one floor to another or clearing, excavation, stringing, welding, etc. on pipeline

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

As long as slopes are either equal or decreasing as move to right, project proceeds satisfactorily If early scheduling shows one operation proceeding too rapidly, with high slope compared to those preceding it, time and location conflicts become apparent Example: Figure 12-12 Backfill conflicts with pipe laying when each is at 70% complete

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

4. Linear Scheduling Method (LSM) LSM diagram used to plan and record progress on multiple activities performed continually over duration of entire project Horizontal axis plots time, vertical axis plots location or distance along length of project Individual activities plotted separately, resulting in series of diagonal lines

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Slopes of lines show planned rate of progress at any location along length of project (can vary at different locations) Location can be measured in many ways e.g. high-rise floors Housing subdivisions, apartments Transportation distance (stations 100 ft, km, miles) Time measured in workdays, or hours, weeks, months

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Change in location over time is a measure of activity progress Activity durations estimated in same way as for network schedules Completion time for each activity function of rate of progress and amount of work to be accomplished Initial determination of rate of progress should be based on minimum direct unit cost of completing activity

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

To compress schedule, increase rate of progress Generally, either increasing or decreasing rate of progress will increase direct unit cost and therefore completion cost for activity Indirect costs may cause shift in optimum rate of progress must do cost comparison and tradeoff between direct costs and indirect costs Rate of progress may vary due to location or time

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

At beginning of activity, craft productivity lower due to learning curve Individual production on activity vary with conditions e.g. production rates for clearing and grubbing vary with density of forestation Known progress variations can be shown on LSM schedule at appropriate location e.g. Figure 7-7 variation in clear and grub and in earthmoving

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Progress can be affected by interference from other activities e.g. equipment maintenance, material restrictions indicated on LSM schedule by restraints Figure 7-9: restraint caused by equipment restriction (slip-form paver) Paving must be completed on one street before paving can begin on another Restraint drawn as dashed line

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Some spacing on interrelated activities may be required spacing serves as buffer to prevent one activity form interfering with another or to accommodate differences in unit rates e.g. excavation for new highway may take longer to perform than installation and compaction of subbase material

Subbase delayed from starting until excavation

sufficiently ahead to permit subbase work to be performed continuously alternatively, progress rate slowed of subbase to avoid interference or interruption

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Activity interference between excavation and subbase work can be avoided by use of buffers

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Buffers can indicate required distance or time between activities drawn as solid lines
* Can not travel back in time crew moves down in location *

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Buffers also used to indentify critical activities Critical activity in LSM schedule has minimum buffer at both start and finish of activity

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Minimum (or zero) buffers at either end of activities indicate them to be critical

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING REPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION

Different ways of showing activity intervals (time between start and finish of activity at any location)

TECHNIQUES FOR SCHEDULING OF REPETITIVE (LINEAR) CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Difference Between LOB and LSM LOB (Line of Balance) deals with repetitive construction without non-typical durations in sections or non-typical activities LSM (Linear Scheduling Method) designed to incorporate variations in production rates/durations at different sections and non-typical activities

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Example: Construction of a Jetty Drive piles Construct pile cap Fix deck Three activities repeated 10 times.

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Time buffer between activities

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

50 days needed to complete 1 sequence of operations Target output expressed in terms of completion rate of sequences Example: If have target* of 1 section/week (5 working days) would complete project in 19 weeks (95 working days) (see Figure 2.15) *Target completion rate imposed Use this output to identify number of crews needed to meet target output

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Can determine dates for each section Establishes LOB schedule, provided sufficient resources available to maintain production crews must be available to start at scheduled start dates on each section velocity diagram (Figure 2.16) If have 3 crews starting at time zero on activity 1 (i.e. at sections 1, 2, and 3), need to balance this production rate by having 3 crews on activity 2 and 3 in sequence experiment with different numbers of crews to keep all 3 activities in balance

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Pile Cap Needs crew of 6 to construct each pile cap in 12 days Use 2 crews of 6 each Output* is 0.83 sections/5 day week

Does not meet target of 1 section/week

*Production = 2 crews 5 days/week 12 days/section

= 0.83 sections/wk

Instead of completing 1 section/week, complete 0.83

sections/5 day week
Rate assumed in Figure 2.16 based on 5 day week

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Reason Team a starts on section 1 of Pile Cap on day 23 and finishes on day 35 (12 days) (Figure 2.16). Team b starts on section 2 on day 28 (5 days after completion of piles) and finishes on day 40. Team a can not start on section 3 until finished section 1 (on day 35), but section 3 due to start on day 33 (after piles). dates forward and delays project.

Delayed 2 days

pushes all section start

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Delay to project based on rate of 0.83 sections/week for Pile Cap

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Figure 2.18: If employ 3 teams (of 6 people each) on Pile Cap, output would be 1.25* sections/week (read off Fig. 2.18). Team a completes first section on day 35 and moves to section 4, which can not start until day 38 (due to its other predecessor Piles for section 4) *Production = 3 crews 5 days/week 12 days/section = 1.25/week

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Delay to project based on rate of 1.25 sections/week for Pile Cap

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Figure 2.18: Move production line for Cap forward so that crews have continuous work and required predecessors are complete. Cap operation is moved over on horizontal axis so does not clash (cross over) with Piles operation at higher locations. Location 1 of Cap does not start on day 23.

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SCHEDULE

Project completion date even later than original,

despite speeding up Pile Cap Pile Cap no longer in balance with its preceding and succeeding operations

Cap in 10 days or (b) increase days worked per week for pile cap to 6, so that Production = 2 crews 5 days/week = 1 section/wk 10 days/section or, Production = 2 crews 6 days/week = 1 section/wk 12 days/section

Need to (a) increase crew size to complete Pile

USE OF LSM SCHEDULES

Objective is to keep all activity progress lines as close to parallel to each other as possible, considering economics of slower or faster production

Project completion achieved as quickly as possible

Progress lines that show wide variation among themselves may be indication of insufficient manpower for activities with low slopes or over manning on activities with high slopes Assign start and finish dates to horizontal axis Combine activities with similar craftspeople to develop labour histogram

ADVANTAGES OF LSM SCHEDULES

1. Easier to prepare and use than network schedules and present more information than bar chart. 2. Show rate of progress. 3. For repetitive work, help in identifying problems and solutions. 4. Can convey detailed, repetitive work in way easy to understand by management and field staff.

ADVANTAGES OF LSM SCHEDULES

5. Ease of preparation and flexibility make them suitable for comparing scheduling alternatives of progress rates, equipment combinations, sequences. 6. Help in determining time and space buffers. 7. Can yield activity start and finish dates and labour histogram resources can be balanced by adjusting progress. 8. Can yield earnings curve by comparing number of units forecasted to be complete on any given progress payment date.

DISADVANTAGES OF LSM SCHEDULES

Less effective when activities do not need to follow each other in same order at every location, or when repetitive activities are regularly interrupted e.g. road development in city with many interruptions (traffic, utilities) Can still be used to evaluate best combination of individual progress rates for least-cost or least-time calculations