After the pandemic, businesses across many industries are still adjusting their models to prepare for any potential hiccups, or even further global disasters. Garrett Harley, director at Oracle Construction explains why the construction industry is no exception
Never has it been more crucial to modernise and streamline operations, especially with ongoing supply chain disruption and material shortages. As construction organisations look for ways to do so, we’re starting to see a change in culturally entrenched attitudes towards project management.
One area, particularly in need of a make-over, is the construction schedule. A long-entrenched process, it’s previously been the expertise of the scheduler that dictates the quality of the schedule. Now, organisations are focused on uniting the needs of the field with the office to become a more connected and coordinated project delivery team. That means the collective team will be working together to manage the planning and scheduling process.
Connect the dots
Today, a schedule should be multi-dimensional. It should consider the summary of activities found in the scope of work of the contract, as well as the field level production details based on the guiderails in these summaries.
Great scheduling combines the needs of the field and the front and back office. And as the complexity and duration of construction projects continue to increase, so do the number of specialised team members involved on a project – and the intricacies of a schedule. The more members that are added to the project team, the more mature the schedule should become, adding depth and creating a more thorough plan for all teams.
Incorporating metrics around milestones, deliverables, and productivity can coordinate and optimise labour, equipment, and material resources both within and across all projects of an organisation. Given today’s supply shortages and material delays, being able to account for hiccups in the schedule in near real-time becomes even more essential.
The construction industry pivoted quickly since the pandemic began to remotely manage many aspects of a job (safety, control, risk, etc.), and as the adoption of mobility solutions has grown, so has the number of project delivery team members that are involved in the execution process.
As organisations in the industry continue to reimagine the workspace and analyse how they can assemble and mobilise staff quickly, they are also considering how they can effectively digitise more of the workforce while adapting to more mobile and remote working approaches. The schedule needs to be able to quickly account for scaling up and down this more diversified team and ensuring everyone is informed and aligned and working towards the common project goal.
A blended approach
A more coordinated and collaborative schedule blends the approaches of how work is both planned and managed. It is inclusive of all team members, and unites the critical path (in the CPM schedule) with field task and risk management. It provides a view that businesses need to efficiently plan, schedule and control programmes, and individual projects.
One development helping to identify potential risks and inefficiencies early in the project schedule is through the use of AI. Organisations who analyse their companies’ existing historical project data, and combine it with their internal knowledge base, can generate an improved quality of schedule by using AI to evaluate scenarios in real-time. They can determine the best project plans and mitigate risks, as well as optimise resources across project teams and track progress.
The schedule will remain the blueprint for successful project delivery. However, the process must be transformed to unite and collaborate office and field staff. The project delivery team must be fully coordinated, while implementing any tools available to ensure efficiency and execute the project as perfectly as possible.
Garrett Harley
Director of product marketing
Oracle Construction and Engineering
