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Schedule, critical path, Gantt and look-ahead

Plan the building as linked activities by place, with durations in working days. Schedule works out the dates, the float and the critical path, and a baseline shows every slip. The daily site report moves progress on, and the look-ahead shows the next three weeks.

PLANSFrom Growth

Compare plans How it works

The problem it solves

The programme sits in the planner's file, and the site works from a printout that went out of date the week after the pour.
When the third floor slab slips, nobody can say which finishes and handover dates move with it.
The client asks how late you are against the agreed programme, and the original dates were overwritten.
Dates fall on Sundays and festival holidays because the plan counts calendar days.

How it works

Under Construction > Projects > Planning > Schedule > Schedule, add activities. Give the code, name, place (tower, floor, flat), duration in days, Not Before date, the person responsible and the subcontractor. Put activities under a summary to break the work down.
On each activity's Comes After tab, link the activities before it. Use Finish to Start, Start to Start, Finish to Finish or Start to Finish, with a lag in days (a minus number overlaps).
Set the project's Weekly Off and add Site Holidays, such as a public holiday or a rainy-season shutdown. A Construction Manager presses Schedule on the project: dates, float and critical path are worked out in working days.
Press Set Baseline when the programme is agreed. Each activity then shows Late By, the days against the baseline.
On site, each Work Done line of the daily site report can name its activity. When the report is submitted, the activity's % done, actual start and actual finish follow.
The site opens Site Work > Look-ahead for the activities of the next three weeks. Managers open the Gantt to see bars, the baseline, links and the critical path in red, and run Schedule again as work moves.

Everything it does

Activities

Code, name, place of the project, duration in days, Not Before, responsible person, subcontractor, notes
Under: a summary activity; summaries take their dates from the activities inside and their % done weighted by days
Planned start and finish, latest start and finish, float in days, critical
Baseline start and finish, actual start and finish, % done (a bar you can drag), Late By (days)
Status from the dates and % done: Not Started, Under Way, Done
Every change kept in the activity's history

Schedule and working days

Schedule and Set Baseline are for Construction Managers, on the project or from the Gantt
Earliest dates forward from the project's start, the Not Before dates and the links; latest dates back from the finish. Float is worked out. An activity is critical when there is no float and it is not done
Actual dates are kept; the rest moves
Weekly Off per project: None (the default), Sunday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, or Friday and Saturday
Site Holidays: one day or a closure of several days, for one project or every project of the entity
Each run posts the number of activities and the finish date on the project

Progress from the site

A Work Done line of the daily site report names its activity (on the web); the place fills from it
On submit: actual start is the report date if earlier, % done rises to the report's figure, and 100 % sets the actual finish
With unit sales: a sales milestone tied to an activity is reached when the activity gets its actual finish, and its demands go out
With the cash flow plan: planned amounts are spread over the months by the activities' days in each month

Look-ahead and lists

Look-ahead: activities not done that run between today and three weeks ahead, without summaries, grouped by project, as a list or calendar
Schedule list: critical activities in red, summaries in bold, done ones greyed; also a month calendar
Filters: Critical, Late against Baseline, Not Done, Next 3 Weeks, Activities (No Summaries); group by project, summary or status
Projects Dashboard: Critical activities open

The Gantt

Construction > Projects > Planning > Schedule > Gantt, or Gantt on the project; only Construction projects are listed
Bars from planned or actual dates, the baseline under each bar, % done, link arrows, the critical path in red and a line for today
Zoom by days, weeks or months; fold summaries; show the critical path only
Click a bar to open the activity; dates change on the activity, not by dragging bars

Who uses it

Planning engineer or Construction ManagerBuilds the programme, runs Schedule, sets the baseline and keeps Site Holidays.

Site engineerNames the activity on each Work Done line of the daily report and works from the look-ahead.

Project managerReads the Gantt, the critical activities and Late By against the baseline.

Managing directorSees open critical activities on the Projects Dashboard.

Where you use it

Web: Construction > Projects > Planning (Schedule, Gantt, Site Holidays). Also Construction > Site > Site Work > Look-ahead; Gantt, Schedule and Set Baseline on the project
Weekly Off: on the project form, in the address section
Not in the SmartMy Construction app: progress reaches the schedule through the daily report
Not on the client portal: clients see progress through site updates, not the Gantt

What you control

Settings

Weekly Off per project: None to start with
Site Holidays for one project or every project of the entity
Link kind per link: Finish to Start to start with; lag 0

Questions

Can the site update progress without opening the schedule?

Yes. Name the activity on a Work Done line of the daily site report. When the report is submitted, the activity's % done and actual dates follow by themselves.

What is in the look-ahead?

Every activity, not a summary, that is not done and runs at some point between today and three weeks from today, grouped by project. It opens as a list or a calendar.

Can I drag a bar on the Gantt to move an activity?

Not today. Change the duration, a link or the Not Before date on the activity and press Schedule; the bars follow.

Does the schedule leave out Sundays and festivals?

Yes, once you set the project's Weekly Off and add Site Holidays. With Weekly Off None and no holidays, days are calendar days.

Is resource levelling or earned value included?

No. The schedule plans dates, float and the critical path. Labour and plant are not loaded onto activities, and SPI and CPI are not worked out.

Can we bring in the programme from Primavera or MS Project?

Yes, on the Scale plan: Import Schedule reads Primavera P6 XER and Microsoft Project XML files, and Export to MS Project writes the programme back.

Related features

PLANT, SCHEDULE, QUALITY, SAFETYMS Project and Primavera P6 import and exportBring the programme in from Microsoft Project (XML) or Primavera P6 (XER) with its work breakdown, dates, progress and links. Keep it up to date from the site, and send it back to the client or main contractor as a Microsoft Project file.SITEDaily site report with auto-submitThe site enters the day once: work done by place, labour, material, plant, weather, issues and photos. A report still in draft at the project's cut-off is submitted by itself, so the company and client updates go out on time.PROJECTS AND SET-UPKey events: slab casting, handoverBhoomi pooja, foundation pour, slab casting, topping out and handover run as key events. Each has readiness checks counted back from the day, bookings for ready-mix and pump, and invitations the client answers from a link. Curing and cube results follow by themselves.MONEYCash flow planA month-by-month plan of money in and out for each project, filled from the budget, schedule, bills, wages and loans. Actual figures sit beside it, with the most money the project will need and when.PROJECTS AND SET-UPStages you leave only when the checks passEvery job moves through your stages, from Planning and Approvals to the Defects Period. A stage lets go only when its checks pass, such as the key events done or the client's stage payment received. Passing anyway takes an approval with the reason on record.PROJECTS AND SET-UPDashboards: Site, Projects, QualityReady dashboards open first in Construction: Site for every site engineer, Projects and Quality for managers, and Sales for the sales team. Every number counts only what the viewer may open, and a click shows the records behind it.

See your next site report on it.

Tell us what you build, how many sites you run and how your client hears about progress today. We will set up a project with you and send your first daily update.

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