Planning, Scheduling and Productivity
What to know
Planning questions test whether you can translate a schedule into a daily and weekly work plan. Understand the critical path - the longest chain of dependent activities, where any delay pushes completion. Know the difference between float (slack) and lag, between a milestone and a task, and between a baseline schedule and an updated one. Be able to build a simple look-ahead: identify activities starting in the next three weeks, confirm materials, permits, inspections, and crew availability, and flag constraints early.
Productivity fundamentals
Productivity is output per labor hour. It improves through reducing non-productive time: waiting for materials, rework, tool downtime, and poor sequencing. Track installed quantities against planned quantities, not just hours worked. A crew that works long hours but installs less than planned is losing productivity, not gaining it.
Traps
- Confusing "busy" with "productive"; hours are not output.
- Compressing the schedule by adding hours indefinitely; fatigue reduces output and raises incident risk.
- Ignoring a non-critical activity until its float is consumed and it becomes critical.
- Starting work without confirming the predecessor is complete and inspected.
Worked example
A crew of five is planned to install 200 linear feet per day. After three days they have installed 480 feet, using 120 labor hours. Planned output was 600 feet. Actual productivity is 480 ÷ 120 = 4.0 feet per labor hour; planned was 600 ÷ 120 = 5.0. The crew is running at 80 percent of plan. The foreperson should investigate the cause - material delivery, layout errors, or crew mix - rather than simply adding hours.
Rule of thumb
Measure installed quantity against planned quantity every day; a two-day lag is a trend, not an accident.