PRECEDENCE NETWORKS FOR PLANNING & MANAGEMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING PROJECTS

Abstract

Scientific management of ci*` l engineering projects haveScome a long way from planning by Gantt Charts to sophi-sticated network techniques, to keep :.:pace with scientific advancements to meet the growing requirements and inflation. Precedence networks are the techniques, which are used in the serial method of production. Use of these techniques, for planning and management have been discussed here. Programmes for scheduling with these techniques are available. However to make it. an effective tool a comprehensive' progranr has been developed, which deals" with drawing of bar charts with floats, with early and late starts, also the cost status of a project and requirement of resources (steel and cement) for the project in a particular duration and stage. This also shows the effect of inflation in the form of revision of budget and cost of each activity. These monthly or weekly reports keep the executive on ground and management informed by giving comparison between performance achieved on the ground to what should have been, helping to plan the monthly requirement in the form of finances and resources. This has been elaborated with the help of a case study. Further various practical difficulties encountered where this network is used, have also been discussed. 0