Simple Construction Schedule - Add Automation

If you read my two previous articles on residential scheduling, Work Items and Create a Flow Chart, you will now have a workable flow chart for your project.  The next step is to automate the process so you can plug in one date and have the entire schedule print out.  In this presentation I use Excel because it is the program I use the most but you should be able to use any spreadsheet program. 

List all your work items on the spreadsheet as they occur in your flow chart.  Add a column for work days and list the number of non overlapping work days required for each item. Do not forget to add the dates you need to order critical items such as windows, doors or other items with lead times. You also need to work backwards and add "schedule" dates. If your electrician requires a week's lead time then make sure you and an item on your schedule.  Add these items in as zero workdays.

When you get to paths on your flow chart that can be worked on concurrently create a continuous path for the longest path then come back and create a second list starting from the first time in the second path.  If you are reading this on my blog you can see the exterior schedule starts after the final clean on the chart but the time line places it after the roofing.    

            

The formulas are relatively straight forward.  The following is a view of the schedule with the formulas. You need to tie the start of the exterior portion of the schedule to the point where the shell is enclosed, in our case the completion of the roofing.

If you would like an Excel copy with working formulas drop me an email.      

You should now have a simple residential workable schedule. In our next article we will discuss how to use this schedule for multiple concurrent homes.

Related articles Create Flow Chart , Work Items

Original Content Copyright 2011 Thomas Robinson