Time is Money: How Proper Project Scheduling Can Help your Bottom Line

Too often, building pros can fall back on informal, back-of-an-envelope schedules that make progress tracking impossible—and can make delays almost inevitable. A strategy built on realistic estimates and software-based tracking can help put an end to late project delivery, and help ensure customer satisfaction.

Shawn McCadden, a Groton, Mass.-based independent consultant to builders and remodelers, says planning success can begin in the estimating process. He suggests builders and remodelers adopt critical-path estimating practices, which base an estimate in the order a job will be completed rather than on a series of industry-defined phases.

Such an estimate, he says, can account for a remodeling effort planned around homeowner occupancy needs or other unique project requirements. Manpower and material needs are defined in the order they’re actually required, providing the foundation for a realistic project plan.

“If you have estimated in critical-path order, you’ve already done most of the work for your schedule,” he says.

Construction educator Tim Faller, owner of Westerly, R.I.-based Field Training Services, suggests breaking large project tasks down into smaller units when outlining your plan. So, instead of calling out a large two-week block for framing, identify shorter, two- to three-day goals. Both you and your employees will then have a better handle on actual progress once work begins.

“If you break those longer-term sections into shorter goals, you’ll create motivation and drive,” Faller says.

One proven approach both McCadden and Faller support is to add some extra time to your plan to account for weather-related delays, unforeseen building issues or subcontractor no-shows. For a two-month project, McCadden suggests adding a week or two to cover such potential schedule-breakers.

However, that extra “padding” shouldn’t be seen as an excuse to be passive about possible delays. Tracking project progress against the plan should be a daily task once work begins, Faller says.

“Whoever is running the job ought to be running the schedule every day,” he says. “If you’re off, the question needs to be, ‘What do we do to get back on the schedule?’ rather than just pushing the schedule out.”

Builders and remodelers have a number of available solutions for bringing a slipping project plan back into line. Faller suggests working a little overtime as one obvious catch-up tactic. Or, he says, it might be worth it to subcontract a clearly defined task—such as deck building—to an outside team to free up your own employees for more important work.

McCadden says builders also might want to identify tasks within the same job that don’t rest on another job being completed before they can be started. These “floater projects” can be used to keep your workers productive if subcontractor delays or other issues are holding up their work on other tasks.

Both agree that maintaining a plan is a critical component in a builder’s efforts to remain profitable in today’s tough economy. Once timelines slip, profit margins can begin to fall. Getting your workers on board with staying on schedule is key to keeping your company successful.

“It has to be a company culture,” Faller says. “My least favorite expression is, ‘It is what it is.’ Anytime you just let it roll, you’re never going to stay on schedule.”

And, he adds, gaining a word-of-mouth reputation as a contractor who wraps up a project on time will make all the extra effort worth it.

“If you can be known as the people who always finish on schedule,” he says, “you’ll never go hungry.”