Planning a site

The organization of a construction operation is subject to numerous factors. First of all, the budget constraints force us to rationalize in order to optimize labor costs and the use of materials as judiciously as possible. This rationalization will entail in-depth reflection on the choice of construction technique, and therefore on the resources deployed: the duration of the worksite, the manpower to be assigned, the duration of the mobilization of equipment, the supply of materials, any prefabrication, cash flow requirements, and so on.

The fact remains, however, that there are so many possible combinations of these elements that it is impossible to harmonize and optimize them instinctively. An initial series of hypotheses can be used to draw up an initial schedule that will give an idea of the relevance of the choices made. Successive corrections are necessary to optimize the whole, until the solutions adopted are fully satisfactory.

Planning is the key to organizing and verifying the various hypotheses.

Today, there are many software programs dedicated to planning. These can be used to quickly reflect changes in any element, and to recalculate dates and margins. Thanks to them, you can multiply working hypotheses very quickly. However, it is important to understand how they work, and to have a good technical knowledge of how to define tasks and how they relate to each other.

Reflecting on the construction of a schedule also enables you to better perceive the delicate points. Identifying these points may lead to a complete rethink of the first choice made, in order to obtain a more satisfactory result.

Planning consists firstly in breaking down the work into elementary tasks, then in scheduling the tasks with each other using PERT or potential-task methods, before drawing up a Gantt schedule to represent the timetable for executing the tasks, and finally the manpower utilization graph to define the workforce.