Primavera P6 R8 is a software release by oracle. The projects planners and schedulers use it to improve the predictability of projects, programs and portfolios to minimize the risks and to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) (Tan 4).
Planning a project includes dedicating roles and responsibilities to qualified and experienced individuals to measure the progress and assess the performance of work. This is important for quality results to be realized. When developing a schedule, the planner assigns responsibility/role to each activity in the schedule. Primavera P6, accomplishes this by use of an Activity Code as responsibility. Responsibility Activity Code allows the planner to categorize his or her work and know who is responsible for a particular work as this help one to be accountable for anyone outcome of the project (Tan 16). This is also important because it influences all the planners to have good conduct and maintain professional ethics. Using filters and layout, an individual looks at a report of work progress and plan for those activities that need to actions first.
A sample chart of Primavera P6 R8.2 showing the resources/individuals assigned different activities, time schedules and the budget.
The Gantt chart view renders a summarized project dates on a timeline. To compare the current dates and the baseline dates by displaying the multiple bars. Timescales shown in either years, semis, quarters, months, days, weeks or even hours for granular work (Tan 8).
A Gantt chart view showing the work breakdown structure and timescales
Project: Two floor, 6000 square foot (brick veneer) house.
A final report
Base lining the Project Plan
After planning the project, it is important to store all the values such as the scheduled dates, hours, and costs agreed in form of a baseline. A baseline is a set of values that are stored. A baseline contains the dates of starting and finishing the project as scheduled, the work effort, budgeted cost and/or revenue as planned. The following is a sample of a project plan baseline.
Mitigating the Project Plan
In any project, there are risks associated from either the uncertain factors or certain factors. Mitigation Action Plan describes the monitoring and mitigation actions the contractor must implement during the design, construction, and demonstration of the Project. Mitigating the project plan involves brainstorm the possible risks throughout the project, assign a High/Medium/Low value for each risk and then developing a suitable mitigation strategy/solution to curb the risk. Classification of risks is based on the likelihood of the risk occurring and the potential impact it may have on the project.
Table showing the identification, classification and development of risks and the appropriate mitigation plan or strategy
Reporting Performance
The project supervisors’ mandates include reporting the performance on a daily basis to ensure that the project is completed within the period. Supervisors draw a day’s target and at the end of every day, they assess the target against the actual work done. They then give the day’s comment whether to improve the following day or to maintain. At the end of every milestone set, the targeted work against the actual work comparisons checked to see the match.
The overall report at the end of the project sums up all the daily and milestones reports. The sections below provide the performance report.
Executive Summary
This report prepared by the NJ Construction Services Company guides the successful completion of the two-floor, 6000 square foot (brick veneer) house project. The project takes 10 months starting from 5 June 2013. In this contract, the owner gave the company the contract to build the house. All the terms and conditions for the work are negotiated before the work commences as discussed below.
Overview
The writer discusses the major dates in the project, the major milestones, the critical path and the near critical path, equipment, calendars, work area restraints, labor, room construction, major equipment installations and the utilities. At the end, the writer gives recommendation and alternations to the project.
Major Dates
In this project, there are the major dates noted by the contractor because they mark or show the performance. The major dates includes but not limited to the following.
Start date
The project starts by this date. Prior to this date, the designer hands over the contractor with the plan. The owner and the contractor agree on the terms of payment and other important consideration throughout the entire project.
The proposed start date is on 5 June 2013
Finish date
This is the date by which the project must have been completed and ready for commissioning and official opening. By this date, the contractor should have done all the finishing and refurbishment of the two-floor house. Upon the approval of the completion, the owner pays the contractor the remaining amount of money as the agreement states.
The proposed finishing date for the project is on 16 April 2014.
Major Milestones
NJ construction services define a starting milestone and a finishing milestone for every part of the work within the project. A start milestone defines a notice to proceed or start an activity whereas a finish milestone defines a substantial completion of an activity.
Critical Path (Longest)
Critical path refers to those activities in a project, which takes the longest duration of time. It helps the scheduler in knowing the shortest time the project can take to be completed. In the event of any critical path activity delay, it leads to the overall project delay and the planned completion date not met accordingly. In the two-floor, 6000 square foot (brick veneer) house, the critical paths (longest) encompasses the following set of activities.
The planning and the laying down of the foundation activities form the critical path. The contractor schedules the longest duration of time, labor and cost to these activities because this may lead to the entire project failure. In a storey house, the foundation form the pillar of the house and a strong foundation guarantees that the other parts of the house are constructed faster and easily. This forms a critical path also because; the builders should not rush for the house to be firm.
In this project, another critical path is the finishing and the refurbishment of the house. The contractor dedicates a lot of time, labor and money because it determines the aesthetic value of the house. It should not be carried out in a rush manner because it may lead to the total mess of the entire house. The owner forms a picture of how the house should be back in his mind. Finishing and refurbishment determines the final output and the customer’s extent of satisfaction.
Near Critical Paths
A project may have several near critical paths that are parallel. Those activities not categorized as the critical path activities in the schedule but their Total Float are near to zero are called Near Critical. In this project, the following set of activities form a near critical path.
During the foundation stage, the laying down of the slab forms a near critical path. These activities are sequential and there is a limit set for one working day. The activities that run in parallel here are the mixing of the mortar, leveling of the mixture and ensuring that water is enough to make it stronger.
Walls construction forms the near critical paths. The bricks arranged carefully as they are connected using the mortar and ensuring that they are in a very good level. These set of activities run in parallel and they account to the total beauty of the house.
Labor
NJ Construction Services Company employs skilled and experienced personnel to guarantee the quality work. In the construction of a two-floor, 6000 square foot (brick veneer) house, the company forms the contractor. The following laborers works with the contractor either on a permanent basis or on temporary basis as defined.
Three supervisors who are the company’s permanent employees are the fore men in the project. They spearhead all the activities going on throughout the project. They are certified construction engineers. The company upon the successful completion of the project pays them. Apart from this payment, the contractor pays the daily travelling and lunch allowances to the supervisors.
The company has a designer who designs and comes up with the plan of the house. The owner of the house explains the specific requirements to the designer who will translate the requirements to a drawn plan, checked by the owner before submitting to the supervisors. In this project, the designer did his work and forwarded the plan to works engineers.
The company has an interior house designer and the painters. They were involved in the finishing and the refurbishment of the house.
During this project, the company employed fifteen casuals paid on weekly basis. The work for the casuals depends on the availability and the load of the work. All of them were involved in the foundation stage.
Equipment
In this project, the owner of the house provided a few equipments. NJ Construction Services Company uses the following tools and equipments during the construction of the two-floor, 6000 square foot (brick veneer) house.
Masonry equipments category used includes the cement mixers, leveling machine, trowels, metal floats, shovel, loaders, markers and pencils among others. Roofing Equipment category used includes roof saws and ladder equipment. Painting and decorative equipments used include the brushes. Other General Construction Equipment used includes Water Pumps, Heaters, wheelbarrows, water pipes, among others. Other equipments are the electrical and the plumbing equipments.
Calendars
For the success of the project and the time achievement, the following table drawn shows the scheduling of the major activities together with the timelines.
Work Area Restraints
Restraints are the conditions or measures that control the limits within which something operates. The work area restraints therefore, are the conditions that controls or affects the area through the construction work operates.
In this project, the major work area restraints are the climatic and weather conditions. At the proposed site, they experience heavy rains during the day. The season at which the construction work goes on is rainy and extremely cold. Rainwater fills the ditches forcing the workers to fetch water every day. The heavy rainfall during the day interrupts the construction work. This however, is covered because the calendar has extra time to cover up the lost times.
The electricity used by the electric machines used in construction is far from the construction site. The contractor therefore uses extra electric wires to draw the power from the nearby shopping centers.
Room Construction
The two-floor house contains several rooms at the ground and the first floor. Rooms partitioned differently depending on what the customer wants. Some rooms have in house toilets while others do not have. The total cost of constructing one single room estimates 3,000 US dollars.
Partitioning of the rooms is done using the bricks while others done using the chipboards. The ones partitioned using the bricks are done as the walls are being constructed while the ones for the chipboards are done during the finishing stage of construction. The walls and the floors of all the toilets are constructed using the wall and the floor tiles respectively.
Major Equipment Installations
In this project, the major equipments to be installed are the electricity, water cycling, and network cabling and disaster management equipments.
The NJ Construction Services Company does electricity installation. The contract awarded to them covers up to the electric installation. The owner procures the electric tools and equipments as specified by the company’s electrician. The company’s electrician guides the engineers on the pathways of the electric wires to guarantee the safety of the people and the house. Wires, bulb holders, meter boxes are installed as the construction continues. The electrician will come and finish on the remaining parts after the house has been completed before commissioning.
To ensure that water, circulates in the entire two-floor house, NJ Construction Services Company employs their own plumber. The plumber guides the construction engineers on the water pathways. The agreement between the owner and the contractor covers up to the plumbing costs. At the end of the construction, the plumber ensures that all the pipes and taps are functional. The owner of the house buys (not included in the agreement) the plumping materials such as the pipes and the water taps.
Disaster management tools and equipments are necessary in every house. Equipments to be installed in this two-floor house include the fire alarming systems, the fire gas containers, the smoke detectors and the lightning arrestors. This safeguards the house against the effects of fire and lightning. The agreement between the owner and the contractor do not cover disaster management equipments installation but the designer recommended that it should be installed. This is done after the completion of the house because it is not part of the contractor’s work.
Network cabling structures forms part of the recommendations made by the designer. Just like the disaster management installations, this is not covered in the agreement too. This is done after the completion of the house. The proposed installations are the wireless access points and the Local Area Network Cabling structures. The owner will contract the telecommunication companies to do this.
Recommendation and Alternatives
In this report, the writer recommends the following,
It is recommended that for quality and effective work, the construction companies should have the whole package of construction. This means that, a good contractor should have all the necessary tools, equipment and machines for construction. Within the company also, there should be expertise from all the fields related to construction. The related fields include the decoration, painting, disaster management, telecommunication, electrical, plumbing, transport, art and design among others. This is important as it ensures quality work because the owner of a particular work will negotiate once for all the services and ultimately quality work.
During the contract signing, it is paramount for the contractor to consider all the responsibilities before accepting a certain deadline. In addition, he should schedule all the activities in form of a chart to project the future activities, time needed to accomplish, the cost and the number of workers needed. There has to be an allowance of some time to cover the time lost by uncertainties such as harsh weather conditions, illness and deaths.
An agreement between the owner of a property and the contractor should allow for the in between the work check of the requirements. Requirements might not be well understood by the designer or misinterpreted by the engineers. This may lead to the customer’s dissatisfaction. The two should allow milestones checking such that the owner will see and comment for a work in bits such that corrections are done early in case of any misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
Reference
Tan, Kristy. Release Content Document: Oracle Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management. Oklahoma: Oracle University, 2010. Print.