Assignment 2: Project Schedule Changes You Have Kicked Off

Assignment 2: Project Schedule Changes You have kicked off the District

You have initiated the District 4 Production Warehouse Move project. Your contractors are currently working on obtaining the necessary building permits, which were initially expected to take 2 weeks. However, contractors now inform you that the permit process will take 3 weeks. You need to incorporate this additional week into your project schedule. Additionally, framing and drywall contractors have indicated delays due to other commitments; they can only release half their crews, effectively doubling their schedules. You must reflect this by doubling the installation timelines for both framing and drywall in your schedule.

Your project plan should be updated to include the new 3-week permit timeline and extended work durations. The original project timeline was designed to be completed within 4 months, but these delays extend the schedule beyond this window. To meet the 4-month deadline, you need to evaluate options for reducing the project duration. One option is to hire additional contractors to assist with framing and drywall work, which would incur an extra cost of $200,000.

You are tasked with determining the best strategy to bring the project within the 4-month timeframe. This involves updating your project plan to reflect your recommended course of action. Additionally, prepare a 5-6 slide PowerPoint presentation for senior management, proposing your solution for schedule recovery and requesting approval to proceed with the plan.

Paper For Above instruction

Effective project schedule management is crucial in ensuring that construction projects meet their deadlines despite unforeseen delays. In the case of the District 4 Production Warehouse Move project, recent developments require revisiting the original schedule and evaluating options to maintain the four-month completion timeline. This paper discusses the steps to update the project plan considering recent delays, analyzes potential solutions, and recommends the most appropriate course of action supported by project management principles.

Assessing the Schedule Delays

The first step involves incorporating the extended permit acquisition time into the schedule. Originally planned for two weeks, the permit process now takes three weeks, necessitating an adjustment of one additional week. This delay impacts the critical path because permits are prerequisite to subsequent construction activities. Any further setbacks could compound project delays.

Another significant delay involves the framing and drywall works. Contractors have reported resource constraints—they can only allocate half their crews, which doubles the duration of their tasks. For instance, if framing was initially scheduled for two weeks, this now extends to four weeks; similarly, drywall installation doubles from a planned two weeks to four weeks. These adjustments must be integrated into the project schedule, affecting overall completion dates.

Strategies for Schedule Compression

Given the extended timelines, the project team must explore methods to compress the schedule within the strict four-month deadline. Common schedule compression techniques include crashing and fast-tracking. Crashing involves adding resources or contractors to accelerate tasks, often at increased costs, while fast-tracking entails overlapping activities that were initially planned sequentially. Both strategies have benefits and risks that need careful consideration.

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Contracting Additional Resources

One viable option is hiring additional contractors specialized in framing and drywall. This approach would mitigate the delays caused by limited labor resources, effectively reducing the potential schedule extension. The associated cost for hiring additional contractors is estimated at $200,000. The decision hinges on whether this expense is justified by the benefits of meeting the project deadline and avoiding penalties or reputation damage due to delays.

Another approach involves negotiating with existing contractors to expedite their work through overtime or increased shifts, which might cost less but still requires resource modeling to validate efficiency gains.

Recommended Course of Action

Considering the project constraints and the critical need to adhere to the four-month deadline, the most effective strategy appears to be augmenting labor resources by engaging additional contractors. Although this incurs higher costs, it provides a tangible means of reducing the schedule, mainly by accelerating the delayed framing and drywall activities. The increased budget of $200,000 is justified if the alternative is project delay, which could lead to higher costs, contractual penalties, or reputational harm.

The project plan should be updated to reflect this new resource allocation, with adjusted timelines and budgets. Critical Path Method (CPM) analysis can demonstrate the impact of additional resources in compressing the schedule and minimizing delays.

Creating the Presentation

The PowerPoint presentation for senior management should outline the following key points:

• The original project schedule and the impact of recent delays.
• The proposed schedule adjustments, including new permit timelines and extended activity durations.
• The analysis of options to meet the four-month deadline, including hiring additional contractors versus other schedule compression techniques.
• The recommended plan to proceed with additional contractors, including the cost estimate and expected benefits.
• A summary of the updated project plan and the projected timeline to ensure project completion within the deadline.

This presentation should be clear, concise, and supported by data, including updated Gantt charts and critical path analyses, to facilitate informed decision-making by senior management.

Conclusion

Managing project schedule changes requires a systematic approach to updating plans, analyzing options, and communicating effectively with stakeholders. In this case, hiring additional contractors appears to be the most practical solution to ensure on-time delivery of the district warehouse move, given the current delays. Accurate schedule adjustments, combined with strategic resource allocation, will help the project team meet the four-month deadline, thus securing stakeholder confidence and project success.

References

• Kerzner, H. (2017). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. Wiley.
• Pugh, R. (2016). Building construction delayed: Causes and mitigation. Journal of Construction Engineering.
• Project Management Institute. (2017). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). PMI.
• Lock, D. (2013). Project Management. Gower Publishing, Ltd.
• Meredith, J. R., & Mantel, S. J. (2014). Project Management: A Managerial Approach. Wiley.
• Lewis, J. P. (2014). Project Planning, Scheduling & Control. Wiley.
• Leach, L. P. (2014). Critical Chain Project Management. Artech House.
• Frame, J. D. (2014). Managing Projects in Organizations. Jossey-Bass.
• Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2016). Earned Value Project Management. Project Management Institute.
• Gido, J., & Clements, J. (2018). Successful Project Management. Cengage Learning.