SERVICES

The Critical Path Method (CPM) has been relied on as the main scheduling method since the 1960’s. Having a well prepared schedule is crucial to monitoring and managing the progress. Additionally, without properly prepared baseline schedules and updates, any delay dispute becomes very challenging to argue.

Why use our scheduling service? We are different because our construction experience, outlined in this website, gives us an edge over traditional schedulers. Our insight and knowledge of construction projects’ day to day activities contributes to the quality of the schedules that we generate. It allows us to discuss your project with your staff on a well-informed level. It takes more than knowledge of scheduling principles to build a good schedule.

We view scheduling as an art backed by the strength of our construction experience. We use the term “art” because a scheduler is like a story book author. The scheduler is trying to tell the story of the project, how it starts, what happens next, in what sequence and find the best format to present it in so that the reader, or schedule user, can get the full picture.

Before we start, we would like to meet with you to listen and understand your scheduling goals, phasing plans and other information about the project.  We can help you:

• Plan a schedule
• Build the base line schedule
• Provide updates
• Assist in management decisions considering alternate construction sequence
• What if Scenarios
• Recovery schedules
• Time impact and delay analysis

We take pride in our schedules. Please call us for a free initial consultation to see if we are the right scheduling outfit for you. We look forward to hearing from you.

We strongly believe in the importance of the 5 P’s of construction. “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.”

This principle applies to scheduling planning as much as it applies to other aspects of the project. We’ve seen several projects turn bad simply because of lack of proper planning.

Whether you are at the early stages of planning your project or in the middle of it, we can help develop the right plan.

If you are an Owner or an Architect, some of the main planning topics relevant to the project’s schedule are:

• Assess and allocate an adequate duration for the overall project.
• Plan a practical phasing plan addressing the Owner’s goals, the facilities operations, temporary relocation of staff and other relevant factors.
• Develop a common sense process to monitor and manage the schedule.
• Develop a practical set of requirements for the contractor’s schedules.

Schedule updates and management is as important and requires the same level of skills and construction knowledge.  Using our extensive experience in construction plus our scheduling knowledge will provide you an excellent service. Please call us for a free initial meeting to discuss your project.

Have you ever asked the following questions?

• What is the impact of a certain problem on the schedule?
• What if a particular additional work item was not required, what would the completion date be?
• What if we do the following change; what’s the impact on the schedule?

Questions like this play an important role in the process of managing a schedule. They are also important if you are involved in a delay dispute.  Conducting such analysis requires more than just knowledge of scheduling, it requires deep insight into the construction process.  We can have an educated discussion with your project’s team to get to the bottom of the relevant issues.

Our preference is to be involved in the scheduling process from day one, but we can still help if the project is in progress. We can also assist if the analysis is needed forensically after the fact.  Please call us for a free initial meeting to discuss your project.

So, the project had some problems and got off the planned track. The project’s team needs to figure out what schedule adjustments are needed to get back to the planned completion date.

Our construction experienced schedulers can participate in this discussion with your team and produce the required recovery schedule.

Most contracts require such a schedule when the parties detect potential schedule slippage or deviation from the planned sequence.

Preparing a recovery schedule is as important as preparing the baseline schedule because once approved, this recovery schedule acts like the new base line for the following phases of the project.

Please call us as soon as such a problem occurs. The longer you wait the more complicated a recovery plan becomes. We look forward to hearing from you.

Time impact and delay analysis are one of the most complicated in construction claims. It is a forensic art where the analyst researches the documented facts to determine the causes and effects of the delays, the responsible parties and assist in evaluating the financial impact.

It requires an analyst with extensive knowledge of construction projects, means and methods, scheduling and the ability to develop a sound methodology to conduct the analysis. Most of the delay claims reach the analyst after the completion of the project. This results in a detail intensive research of the documents to verify schedules, events, sequence of work, changes during construction and the delay impact.

There are several industry standard methods of conducting the analysis. The most commonly used are:

• As-Planned vs. As-Built method
• Impacted As-Planned method
• Collapsed As-built or “But for” method
• Window analysis method
• As-Built method
• Contemporaneous method

The analyst may select one of the above methods, a hybrid of several methods or another approach to best conduct the analysis. This is a judgment call by the analyst based on the particulars of the case, the available documents, the quality of the prepared schedules or the lack of and other factors.

The analysis is much more than inserting dates in a schedule and reading where the completion date end up at. If the analysis is part of an ongoing claim, you need to have the right analyst since the other parties will have an expert that will spend good effort examining all the assumptions and judgments taken by your analysis.

The first step is for us to meet so that we can listen to the story of the project and learn about the issues. The more we get familiar with the issues the better we can help.

We can go over the technical aspects of delay analysis at great depth; however, we’ll stop at the above summary. Please call us for a free initial consultation so that we can advise you how we can help.  We look forward to hearing from you.