Piling Programme
A programme tells you when an activity starts, the duration and end date. It also shows you how activities link with one another.
A programme is usually written by a Project Planner before works start on site.
Many softwares can be used to write programmes, some of the popular ones are ASTA Power Projects and Primavera P6.
I recommend becoming familiar with the programme for your project and analysing how long the programme allows for piling activities before they start on site.
Example Programme
The simplified example above represents what information you can find in a programme. Things to note:
The start date for an activity is where the first 'X' or start of a 'bar' is. For example, Subcontractor design starts on 14th Feb, the tender enquirystarts from 16th Jan and Piling operations start on 28th Feb.
The duration of the activity is the length of the bar. The subcontractors have five days to complete design, there are five days allowed for internal review of subcontractor returns and there are a planned total of six days piling to done on site.
The end date for an activity is where the last 'X' or end of a bar is. E.g. Piling on site is planned to finish 28th March.
Other considerations
Lead in time for rig - This is how much time in advance the piling rig must be booked. In the example, the piling rig must be ordered on 14th Feb to start piling on 28th March so the lead in time is two weeks.
Mobilisation - this is the period of time a subcontractor needs to start works once an order has been signed. If they receive an order on 13th Feb as programmed, they have a period of 3 weeks to start operations.
Some types of programme links
Links - these are represented by the black arrow and show the relationship between two activities. E.g. Main contractor review of the design drawings starts the day after subcontractor design finishes.
In the piling programme example all links shown are finish-to-start. This means the end of an activity is linked to the start of the next.
There are a number of other links possible including: Start-to-start, lagged start and finish and negative lag. There are also lagged start-to-start, finish-to-finish, must start/must finish links.
A good exercise to do would be to calculate what output of piles are expected daily. Total number of piles can be taken from the piling schedule and divide by duration allowed for.
If there are 60no. piles to be installed over a period of 6 days planned that means 10 piles must be installed a day to be on programme otherwise the contractor will finish later.
Once piling is underway it's worth keeping an up-to-date as-built piling register. Simple template below can be used.
Example of piling as-built
You may hear the term programme drop line used. This displays on the programme planned vs. actual progress.
Definitions
Project Planner - Individual responsible for scheduling out works to be carried out efficiently
Subcontractor Design - also known as Contractor Design Proposal, contractor's ideas and plans for executing certain design elements or portions of the project.
Tender Enquiry - document outlining works to be conducted. Sent out to contractors for pricing
As-built - record of what works were carried out on site. Often compared to the original plan for context.
Posts to Follow
We plan to go into more details about piling and add sections on:
· Commercial
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