Plays from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) only after you press play. Privacy
Build the Schedule: What Cannot Slip
How do I build a schedule from my estimate and find which tasks cannot slip?
Under Scheduling, create a schedule and generate it from the estimate: the app builds a group per section, a task per line and the durations. Close the open ends, make framing finish-to-start after the concrete with a few days of lag for curing, and put the rough-in before the drywall. Click Critical Path to mark the longest run of tasks with zero float. In the example the finish lands about a week past the target, and the critical tasks show where to win the week back.
Build a construction schedule from an estimate in OpenConstructionERP. Using the duplex example, we connect tasks, set dependencies and lag, and check the critical path to see which delays would affect the finish date.
In this video
- Create a schedule under Scheduling and generate it from your estimate: pick the estimate, check the start and end dates, and the app fits the plan between them.
- The app builds a group for each section of your estimate, a task for each line, and works out the durations.
- Close the open ends: the finish waits for the last task of every trade, and the first task in each group starts with its group.
- Fix the order: framing after the foundations, finish to start with a few days of lag while the concrete cures; the rough-in before the drywall.
- Click Critical Path: the app finds the longest run, the tasks with no slack.
- Read the finish: about a week past your target, and you know it before the first footing is poured.
You will produce
A duplex schedule generated from the estimate, with fixed links and lag, a marked critical path, and a finish about a week past the target.
Transcript
0:00 The schedule
A schedule answers two questions: when does the job finish, and what cannot slip. Build it right and both are in front of you. This lesson builds one for the duplex. Here's the plan. First, generate the tasks from your estimate. Then fix the links, so they follow the way you build. Then find the critical path. Finally, read the finish date. The project manager builds the schedule. The superintendent puts the trades in the right order. The subs confirm their durations. And you hold the finish date. A schedule is tasks with durations, linked in order. Some can wait, they have slack. The ones that cannot wait are the critical path. Slip one of those, and the whole job slips. Open the schedule under Scheduling, and create one for the duplex. Then generate it from your estimate. Pick the estimate, check the start and end dates, and the app fits the plan between them. The app builds a group for each section of your estimate, with a task for each line, and works out the durations from the estimate. It links them too, section after section, in the order of the estimate.
1:08 Dependencies
Before you change the order, close the open ends. Right now the finish waits for just one task, and the first task in each group is not tied to its group. Open the finish, edit its predecessors, and add the last task of every trade. Then open the first task in each group, and make its group the predecessor, start to start, so the tasks move with their group. Now the order. The order of the estimate is not the order you build. Framing cannot start until the foundations are done. Open the framing group, edit its predecessors, and change the link to the concrete to finish to start, with a few days of lag while it cures. Then fix the trades that are out of order: the rough-in has to come before the drywall. Four links cover almost everything. Finish to start is the common one: this ends, that begins. Start to start runs two tasks together. Lag is the wait in between.
2:04 Critical path
With the links in, click Critical Path. The app walks the chain, finds the longest run, and marks it. Those tasks have no slack. The table shows how early and how late each task can start and finish, and its float. Float is how long a task can slip before it moves the finish. A critical task has zero. A task with float can wait, just not past its slack.
2:30 The finish
Now read the finish. It lands about a week past your target, and you know it before the first footing is poured. The critical path shows exactly which tasks hold the date, and that is where you win the week back. Protect those, and you protect the date. That is your schedule: tasks from the estimate, linked in the order you build, with the critical path telling you what cannot slip. Build the schedule for your current job and find its critical path. OpenConstructionERP is free and open source. Download it today and start working.
