Common Scheduling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Common Scheduling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
In the construction world time is a precious commodity. With so much work and only a limited amount of time, accurate scheduling is essential to project success. Below I will discuss 6 common scheduling mistakes that, when avoided, can improve your company’s productivity and success.
Table of Contents
Unrealistic resource pool
Every company has a different resource pool and should, therefore, plan accordingly. When schedules are made without considering your limited amount of resources, you are setting yourself up for failure. If you go into a project and don’t address the actual amount of resources you will have, you will likely end up waiting for resources, and your project will be delayed. Resource allocation mistakes can be avoided easily by taking the time in the beginning stages to draw out what resources you have and what you need. By keeping in mind a realistic resource pool, you ensure you are prepared and prevent project delays.
Overlooking procurement of critical materials
Another common mistake when evaluating resources is overlooking the procurement of critical materials. In the beginning stages of scheduling, you need to carefully evaluate what materials you will need to obtain to successfully complete your project.
Failure to consider weather restraints
In the construction world, you face weather restraints on a daily basis. Weather is unpredictable and unfortunately can significantly impact your project’s success. Because it is almost impossible to predict exactly what kind of weather you will deal with, it is important to factor in possible delays when scheduling. For instance, if you are going to be working on a project in the winter, it is smart to anticipate more delays from rain, ice, and snow. This ensures that you are prepared for any potential weather delays, and if the weather doesn’t end up impacting your project, you will have the advantage of extra time. Projects often get behind when managers fail to factor in these weather restraints, so make sure you take the time to consider weather problems!
Unrealistic productivity or durations
When creating a schedule, you have to be realistic regarding productivity and duration. If you only have 20 workers, you can’t give them the workload of 30 workers and expect them to finish in the same amount of time. To help avoid this, it is key that you calculate the number of hours a task will take and what your worker’s availability is before you create your project timeline. If workers are only available 50% of the time, it will take you twice as long unless you hire double the number of workers. So make sure you don’t overcommit your resources!
Lack of detail
Failing to provide in-depth details for specific tasks can often lead to schedule delays. When you are scheduling, you need to make sure that you adequately describe the work that will go into each task so that the tasks are completed accordingly. Adding details to your plan as the project is being completed will help keep your schedule on track.
Lack of documentation
Keeping careful documentation is paramount for keeping your project on budget, and on schedule. You need to ensure that you have a well-organized system of documents throughout the entire construction project cycle. Keeping this careful documentation helps keep everyone in the loop, which prevents any delays from happening. Implementing a cloud-based construction scheduling software is one way that you can improve the accuracy and consistency of your documentation. The software allows you to have all of your documentation in one place and also makes it easier to communicate with everyone on the team.
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