Unit-1

Estimating Resource Requirements for Work Activities:

Duration of activity and resources required are interlinked. Ex: Placing concrete in foundation for large building Manually or using crane and bucket system or pumping by concrete pumps or transporting by conveyor. Time and cost for each method varies considerably. Resource required for an activity hence depends on Method of production Time available. Preliminary assessment of men, machinery and materials required for execution of activity within stipulated time. Preliminary assessment made by using planning norms. Planning norms includes Workers output norms Plant and machinery output norms

 Material quantity estimation and wastage norms.

where Rkij are the resources of type k required by activity ij, Dij is the duration of activity ij, Nij is the number of standard crews allocated to activity ij, and Ukij is the amount of resource type k used per standard crew. For example, if an activity required eight hours with two crews assigned and each crew required three workers, the effort would be R = 8*2*3 = 48 labor-hours. Pouring Concrete Slabs:For large concrete pours on horizontal slabs, it is important to plan the activity so that the slab for a full block can be completed continuously in a single day. Resources required for pouring the concrete depend upon the technology used. For example, a standard crew for pumping concrete to the slab might include a foreman, five laborers, one finisher, and one equipment operator. Related equipment would be vibrators and the concrete pump itself. For delivering concrete with a chute directly from the delivery truck, the standard crew might consist of a foreman, four laborers and a finisher. The number of crews would be chosen to insure that the desired amount of concrete could be placed in a single day. In addition to the resources involved in the actual placement, it would also be necessary to insure a sufficient number of delivery trucks and availability of the concrete itself. ESTIMATING ACTIVITY DURATION:

 Duration Expected economical transaction time required to perform an activity according to specified execution method. Duration is transaction time: Time taken to change from one state to other within the system. Time delay incurred in moving from one event to its succeeding event. Smaller the level of activity details, better the assessment of duration. Duration is assessed based on Specified execution method: Method of execution of activity depends on: Past experience Market availability of resources Cost benefit analysis of various mtds of execution. Resources earmarked: Duration of activity depends on Volume of resources Nature of resources Men, machinery and materials required for execution of activity. Methods used for assessment of duration are One time estimate Three time estimate. Non linear distribution estimate. Duration is estimated in terms of predetermined units of time: Units of time : Month, week, day, hour. Project summary schedule Months or weeks Project master schedule Weeks Detailed work programme days or hours. All activities in a network or schedule uses same unit of time. Duration estimation is based on work carried out in normal prevailing site condition. Duration estimation methods presuppose that activity is performed in an organised manner. Duration is assessed preferably by person responsible for its performance.

One time estimate: Based on Planning data Past experience on execution of similar projects Average time assessed by group of executives. Three time PERT Estimate: When exact duration of activity is uncertain, three time estimate can be used. Te = (To+4Tm+Tp )/6. Te expected completion time. To optimistic time, assuming everything goes well Tm most likely time, assuming normal time. Tp - pessimistic time, assuming everything goes wrong. Non Linear Distribution Estimate: Used in projects which involves high degree of risk. Statistics Normal Beta (PERT) Triangular Uniform

Expected value or mean Variance

(a+b)/2

(a+4m-b)/6

(a+b+m)/3

a+(b-a)/2

(b-a)2 / 36

(b-a)2 / 36

[(b-a)2 + (m-a)*(b-(b3 - a3)/[3*(b-a)] (b-a)2 m)]/18 /4 (variance)0.5 (variance)0.5

Standard deviation

(b-a)/6

(b-a)/6

a optimistic value b pessimistic value m most likely value v variance Duration Estimation Procedure: Decide the method of execution

 Estimate quantity of work involved. Identify the resources required. Assess effective employment of resources. Estimate activity completion period Completion period = Quantity/ (output per unit x resource earmarked) Rounding off completion period to nearest value. Use Three time estimate or non linear estimate to predict activity duration. An activity duration might be assumed to be distributed as a normal or a beta distributed random variable as illustrated in Figure 9-9. This figure shows the probability or chance of experiencing a particular activity duration based on a probabilistic distribution. The beta distribution is often used to characterize activity durations, since it can have an absolute minimum and an absolute maximum of possible duration times. The normal distribution is a good approximation to the beta distribution in the center of the distribution and is easy to work with, so it is often used as an approximation.

DEFINING WORK TASk: Important step in planning process Represent framework of scheduling of construction activity Estimate resource required by individual work task Precedence or sequence among the tasks. For example, the problem of placing concrete on site would have sub-activities associated with placing forms, installing reinforcing steel, pouring concrete, finishing the concrete, removing forms and others. Even more specifically, sub-tasks such as removal and cleaning of forms after

concrete placement can be defined. Even further, the sub-task "clean concrete forms" could be subdivided into the various operations:

Transport forms from on-site storage and unload onto the cleaning station. Position forms on the cleaning station. Wash forms with water. Clean concrete debris from the form's surface. Coat the form surface with an oil release agent for the next use. Unload the form from the cleaning station and transport to the storage location.

Example of work task model:

JARGONS: Time required to perform an activity Duration Beginning and end of activity sign spots or milestones. Work tasks represented in the form of hierarchy. Hierarchical approach (WBS): 1. Decompose the work activity into component parts in the form of tree. 2. Large activities sub divided into more specific sub tasks. 3. Higher level in tree- decision nodes or summary activity.

4. Branches in tree smaller components or work activities. Example Large activity: Placing concrete on site Sub tasks: Placing forms, installing reinforcement steel, pouring concrete, finishing concrete, removing forms. Task definition serve as basis for Scheduling Communicating the plan Construction monitoring. Separate work task to be defined for Activities which has different resources Activities which doesnt require continuous performance. Ex: Road Building Project

All Activity Precedence Relationships for a Nine-Activity Project Direct Successor Predecessor Activity Activities A B C D E F G H I C,D E,F E,F G,H G,H I I ----All Successor Activities E,F,G,H,I G,H,I G,H,I I I --------All Predecessor Activities ----A A A,B,C A,B,C A,B,C,D,E A,B,C,D,E A,B,C,D,E,F,G