Project Planning and Control: Key Strategies for Success Assignment Sample

1.0 Introduction - Optimizing Resource Allocation and Schedule Management

The entire project is focused on planning and control of the project that will ultimately lead to the delivery of a product. This mainly includes schedule management, resource allocation, and cost estimation of the entire tasks of the project. Proper planning of the project will result in the delivery of the project within the timeline and prevent cost overrun. The increase in the duration of the project will incur more costs of the project. Different tools of project management are used for the proper planning of the entire project.

2.0 Discussion

Part A: Individual Work

Figure 1: Gantt chart

Figure 2: Resource and cost allocation

The excavator is required to perform activities E and A at the cost of £1000 per week.

So, the cost acquired is £1000 *13 = £13000.

A crane is required at a daily rate of £350 per day for activities D, F, G, and I. So, the project's critical path is “A - B- D- G- H- I- J- K- L-M- N– O- P”.

The end time of the project is 15 Dec 2023. The total duration of the project is 16 months or 63 weeks.

• The total cost of the project is £ 901230.
• Additional cost: Excavator cost = £1000 *13 = £13000.

1. Crane cost = £350 *189 = £ 66150.
2. Overall project cost = Rs. 980380.

When the resources of the project are overloaded that leads to the occurrence of unnecessary stress to the personnel, which leads to delays in the completion of the various activities of the project. Deliverable quality also suffers as a result of this.

Working Time and constraints

• In case the work stops every Friday at 4 pm. Then the duration of the project will be shifted by 3 extra days due to the gap of extra 64 hours in the entire project duration. So, the new end date of the project will be 18 Dec 2023.
• Christmas holidays are provided on 26 Dec 2022 and holidays also on 3 Jan 2023. This will extend the work by 2 more days (Yuliarty, 2021). So, the new end date will be 20 Dec 2023.
• Trade’s holiday was from 8 to 12 August 2022. This will extend the duration by 5 more days. So, the new end date of the project work will be 25 Dec 2023.
• The resource W cannot work for a period of 19 Dec 2022 up to including 3rd Jan 2023. So, the duration of the project is extended by 14 more days (Abdelmegid et al. 2021). So, the new end date of the project work will be 8 Jan 2024.
• Unavailability of resource X for the one-week duration at the time of October holidays from 3 Monday till 7 Oct 2022, Friday. So, the duration of the project is extended by 5 more days. So, the new end date of the project work will be 13 Jan 2024.
• Easter break is provided on 7th April, Friday up to and including 10 April 2023, Monday. So, the duration of the project is extended by 2 more days as the rest 2 days are weekends which will not affect the duration of the project (Bortolini et al. 2019). So, the new end date of the project work will be 15 Jan 2024.
• “Aberdeen public holidays” is provided on 26th September 2022, 20 April 2023, 10th July 2023, and also on 25th September 2023. So, the duration of the project is extended by 4 more days. So, the new end date of the project work will be 19 Jan 2024.
• The critical path of the project is the longest path required for the completion of the entire project. The analysis of the critical path identifies tasks that are dependent on one another for the purpose of timely completion of the project (Ogundari and Otuyemi, 2019). It basically helps to understand the project dependency between different tasks that helps in setting the deadline of the project.

Critical Path

The inclusion of holidays in the project may change the critical path of the project. Some of the activities will take a longer time to complete than usual due to the holidays included (Kiran, 2019). But in this particular case, the critical path of the project will remain the same. So, the project's critical path is “A - B- D- G- H- I- J- K- L-M- N– O- P”.

So, the project will end on 19 Jan 2024. The total project duration will be extended by 35 more days. So, approx. 18 months will be taken or 67 weeks for the overall completion of the project and its various tasks involved which will lead to the successful delivery of the project (Schimanski et al. 2021).

There is no overload of resources this is due to the reason that the manager of the project has taken the work to the extent that they are capable to complete within the given time frame.

Project Overload

However, overloading of the project hampers the project deadline.
The project can be managed in other ways which will not cause a delay in the project timeline. The workload of the project can be decreased by the following method as follows:

• Project reassign or non-project works are provided to other people.
• The work is contracted out.
• The activities of low priority are delayed or eliminated which will not affect the entire outcome of the project (Zhang et al. 2019).
• The start of some of the selected activities is delayed.

Project Updates

The percentage of work completed till now is only about 35%.

The duration variance of the project is the difference between the task baseline duration and the total duration. The schedule is taking time as per the project planning (Pellerin and Perrier, 2019).

The schedule variance of activity C is 5%. C is expected to complete 50% of the assigned work by this time but he has completed about 45%. The schedule variance of activity D is 8%. He has completed the work before the scheduled time of completion. Some of the resources are overloaded like 1X and 1Z (Kabirifar and Mojtahedi, 2019). This will affect the end date of the project by almost about 6 days. So, the final end date for project completion will be 25 Jan 2024.

Conclusion

From the study it can be concluded that the entire project is focused on planning and project control. Planning the project is crucial that will allow effective management of all the activities of the project within the given timeframe. Time and cost are the major factors that is required to be mange. For this purpose schedule management and cost estimation and resource allocation for the project are obtained. This will help to finish the entire project tasks within the given timeline along with achieving the various requirements of the project. Project planning also eliminates the unnecessary tasks of the project which will help to reduce the extra work and costs involved with the project.

Reference List

Journals

Abdelmegid, M.A., González, V.A., O’Sullivan, M., Walker, C.G., Poshdar, M. and Alarcón, L.F., 2021. Exploring the links between simulation modelling and construction production planning and control: a case study on the last planner system. Production Planning & Control, pp.1-18.

Babalola, O., Ibem, E.O. and Ezema, I.C., 2019. Implementation of lean practices in the construction industry: A systematic review. Building and environment, 148, pp.34-43.

Bortolini, R., Formoso, C.T. and Viana, D.D., 2019. Site logistics planning and control for engineer-to-order prefabricated building systems using BIM 4D modeling. Automation in Construction, 98, pp.248-264.

Bortolini, R., Formoso, C.T. and Viana, D.D., 2019. Site logistics planning and control for engineer-to-order prefabricated building systems using BIM 4D modeling. Automation in Construction, 98, pp.248-264.

Heigermoser, D., de Soto, B.G., Abbott, E.L.S. and Chua, D.K.H., 2019. BIM-based Last Planner System tool for improving construction project management. Automation in Construction, 104, pp.246-254.

Janné, M. and Rudberg, M., 2022. Effects of employing third-party logistics arrangements in construction projects. Production planning & control, 33(1), pp.71-83.

Kabirifar, K. and Mojtahedi, M., 2019. The impact of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phases on project performance: a case of large-scale residential construction project. Buildings, 9(1), p.15.

Kiran, D.R., 2019. Production planning and control: A comprehensive approach. Butterworth-heinemann.

Muute, N.C. and James, R., 2019. Project planning practices and performance of construction projects in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Unpublished Masters Dissertation), Kenyatta University, Kenya.

Ogundari, I.O. and Otuyemi, F.A., 2019. Project planning and monitoring analysis for sustainable environment and power infrastructure project development in Lagos State, Nigeria. International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 15(1), pp.24-45.

Pellerin, R. and Perrier, N., 2019. A review of methods, techniques and tools for project planning and control. International Journal of Production Research, 57(7), pp.2160-2178.

Schimanski, C.P., Pasetti Monizza, G., Marcher, C. and Matt, D.T., 2021. Development of a BIM-based production planning and control system for Lean Construction through advancement and integration of existing management techniques. Frontiers of engineering management, 8, pp.429-441.

Vincent, D., Ojo, S. and Omeje, H., 2020. Assessing the Utilization of Building Information Modelling Software for Project Planning in Construction Industries in Ondo State. Journal of Advanced Research in Economics and Administrative Sciences, 1(2), pp.134-140.

Yuliarty, P., 2021. Construction Service Project Scheduling Analysis Using Critical Path Method (CPM), Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). work, 10, p.F1.

Zhang, J., Xie, H., Schmidt, K., Xia, B., Li, H. and Skitmore, M., 2019. Integrated experiential learning–based framework to facilitate project planning in civil engineering and construction management courses. Journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 145(4), p.05019005.