Instructor: Phil Perry

The aim of this course is to provide tools for scheduling at the Site and Crew Level. Site Management (Superintendent, General Foremen and Foremen) influence millions of dollars of construction a year. They must ensure that all resources are being used efficiently with minimal waste. Yet often, they receive very little in the way of training on how to plan and schedule field activities.

This one day Workshop will cover:

–     Planning Principles

–     Network Schedules

–     Critical Path

–     Gantt (Bar) Charts

–     Manpower Curves

–     Progressing the Work

–    Productivity and Performance Factors

–    Look-Ahead Schedules

Foremen, General Foremen, Superintendents, Field Engineers, Project Coordinators, Project Managers will benefit from the Workshop.

Instructor: Phil Perry

When it comes to cost and schedule on your construction projects, do you know where you’re at and where you’re going?

Realizing that you’re aimed at an iceberg when you’re 100 meters away isn’t helpful. It’s so much better if you notice the iceberg when you’re 10 kilometers away, so that you can do something about it! This is part of the “construction management” that owners expect from contractors.

Construction project management is a challenge in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Effective project-planning and -control approaches must often be compliant with owners’ contractual requirements. Successful project managers demand that their projects meet the contracted scope of work, and be completed on schedule and within budget. To ensure success, an effective project control system must be designed, developed, and implemented to provide management with timely and accurate information on deviations of cost and time parameters from the target objectives established during the planning cycle of the project.

Earned Value Management (EVM) is a project planning and control approach which provides cost and schedule performance measurements. It compares actual accomplishment of scheduled work and associated cost against an integrated schedule and budget plan. Its benefits include visibility into the true progress of the project work against the budget, projections of anticipated project schedule, and cost trends, and the ability to take timely corrective actions for undesired variances. EVM is one of the most powerful and productive concepts used in managing today’s complex projects in private, commercial, and government environments.

 The fundamentals of EVM will be presented in a down-to-earth, basic approach, along with hands-on exercises and examples that will allow participants to apply the concepts.

Participants will:

Obtain basic knowledge in understanding and using an effective performance management system in managing construction projects effectively.

Detect both positive and negative trends in a timely manner.

Forecast the Projected Final Cost (Estimate at Completion) using several techniques.

Confidently and quickly make project decisions concerning scope, cost, and schedule

Learn to avoid the project-management pitfalls by quickly identifying and mitigating risks

Who Should Attend:

This course is for owner, designer, contractor, and subcontractor personnel who are involved with cost and schedule management.

Instructor: Kevin Dougherty

Do you run your business, or does your business run you? Does it ever seem like there is just more to do than you can get done? In today’s world, most of us are asked to get more done in less time. This program will help you develop the basic personal and organizational skills to enhance your productivity. More than just time management, this course demonstrates the need to clearly understand leadership priorities and the ways to implement them, offering insights to supervisors, owners, managers, key employees, or anyone interested in personal and organizational productivity.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Mechanical project managers cannot rely upon the General Contractor or the Construction Manager to properly schedule the mechanical work. Scheduling your own work provides more control and better documentation when projects, which are delayed by others, are forced to accelerate to meet the original completion date. Mechanical contractors who do little project scheduling often find themselves at the mercy of unrealistic CM/GC/owners’ schedules that lack mechanical detail activities. An active presentation and class discussion will answer the following questions: What basics of CPM scheduling must be understood to comprehend the CM/GC/owner’s CPM schedule? Why must mechanical contractors schedule their own work? What type of scheduling method should you use, and when? Why is a mechanical schedule such a critical piece of project documentation? Why should a mechanical schedule be “labor-loaded” to show planned labor usage? How does mechanical scheduling reduce risk? Blake will clearly explain to attendees why a mechanical schedule is absolutely mandatory on all projects and he will vigorously emphasize his belief that “If you have no schedule, you have no plan”.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Effective managers of time who can manage multiple projects are invaluable to their firms. This session identifies the greatest time wasters and provides strategies for improving time management skills. Students will also identify and discuss the best practices required for becoming a better manager of multiple projects.

Instructor: Darya Duma

This course is for project managers, planners, schedulers or project controls staff who want to implement more effective methods for monitoring and controlling their project performance. Although scheduling software will be discussed and used, we do not teach to any specific scheduling software package.

Instructor: Darya Duma

This course is for project managers, planners or project control staff who need to learn how to create and use one of the most valuable project management tools: a project schedule. The two-day course is part one of a five-day program on project scheduling and controls. It prepares participants to create realistic schedules, and understand the baseline, critical path and float. Participants will use a “live” project to create a realistic and achievable schedule. The course links the theory with the practice, so the context of scheduling in software will be discussed but not specifically used.

Instructor: Darya Duma

This two-day course provides participants with hands-on skills to plan and manage project activities using Microsoft Project. This course is unique in that the emphasis is on good scheduling techniques not simply “how to use”. The scheduling techniques are learned through a series of progressive exercises that simulate a real project. At the beginning of each exercise, participants load a new project file that contains all the information correctly entered from the previous exercise. As a result, those with slower typing skills are not left behind. By completion, participants will have fully-defined a project from beginning to end, and will have performed project updates and reporting.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

Scheduling and Planning have an enormous impact on project productivity and profitability. When used correctly, Planning, Scheduling and Time Management skills will help the project managers and supervisor to foresee and react to the constant changes on the job site. A construction job site is a very fluid work environment, in a state of constant change.  Schedules are made to change. However, in spite of schedule changes, the plan needs to proceed. No job will finish without at least 70% change in its schedule, some planned, some unplanned. This course will teach the principles of Project Scheduling and Time Management. It will focus on: Owner & GC’s schedule breakdown, Creating the Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS), Total Job scheduling and planning: integrating short and long term schedules with a plan, Three weeks look ahead for: Labor, Material & Equipment, Tools, and Schedule of Value, Scheduling feedback and optimization of tasks. The participants will learn how to establish a useful schedule and manage project related time. They will experience simple methods and tools for scheduling and tracking that can improve visibility and knowledge of their jobs. They will learn how to identify the obstacles and correct the schedule and feedback to the GC’s milestones. The usage of correct scheduling skills will improve profits and cash flow.

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari and Heather Moore

The students will learn hands-on, the simple methods and tools that can be used to schedule their jobs and how to identify the obstacles and reduce labor waste which can improve job productivity by better than 30%. Items introduced, explained and applied within the course will include the impact of scheduling on their job productivity, tracking forms for a 3-day schedule, charting the data, and analysis and interpretation of the charts.