JCA are currently involved with a collaborative study between Curtin University, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and CRC.

JCA has been selected to provide input to this study on Disputes in construction. Through JCA’s considerable experience consulting in time planning, JCA has been able to provide insight to the study team on the how, what, why and when delay disputes occur, and how best to deal with these dispute in relataion to Time Delays, with a view to avoidance.

JCA is proud to be involved in this important national study, and looks forward to the published results in due course.

Well…another work years end is closing.

We trust your year was good for your business and your staff.

We have seen over the last few years more and more software applications going collaborative and web based.

ie instead of the user implementing (buying, installing) software on their server/PC’s…the system is opened, used and shared over the web. The software manufacturer hosts, runs and secures the software and all your data.

Document Control is a good example where this has occured. Systems like Acconex and Project Centre are available to it’s users via a web browser.

Although Planning/Scheduling software like Primavera’s P6 and Microsoft’s Enterprise Project, have made it possible to update, share and change schedules over the internet, the onus to implement, host, process and secure the application (and it’s upgrades is ultimately still something that the end user needs to arrange.

But there are changes on the horizon.

This year a new style of planning application has arrived. Like the Acconex model, a product called LiquidPlanner (which still is in Beta testing mode) is paving a way for a new way of implementing planning/scheduling systems.

We’re not saying that this product is ready to complete against the established software big boys in terms of raw sheduling, resource/cost loading, reporting etc… but I guess (and only a fool wouldn’t see it coming) that the big boys will be watching this with interest (and probably already doing something about it), with a view to developing their own REAL web based planning software.

This would mark a completly new way of rolling out planning applications accross larger organisations.

With some interest, JCA have attended the myPrimavera Conference in Perth this year. The conference winds up today with a further series of seminars

Held at the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre, the conference has seen delegates from all over Australia and overseas converge on JCA’s doorstep. Some are here the for junket and some here to hear and see some excellent technical and commercial seminars.

The vibe on opening night was upbeat and full of interest, with many networking opportunities taking place.

The seminars (mostly held on day two) were very well attended, informative and a good opportunity for like minded planners, engineers and project managers to discuss relevant ideas and experiences.

The Mystery Gala evening at the end of day two was spectacular. Delegates and partners were wisked off to Fremantle prison where they were greated by world war 1 military clad agitators who channelled the unsuspecting prisoners through the war-zone perimeter of the prison grounds. With bombs dropping around us, helicopters landing, machine gun fire and sirens blazing. Well at least the fake smoke, speakers, and pyrotechnics made it seem half real, while a light drizzle of rain (no doubt specially booked by Primavera Australia for the evening) topped off the scene.

Well done to Jim Fairchild and the Primavera Australia team for putting together such a good conference.

JCA have calculated that works in progress currently being Planned by JCA is valued at approximately $4.74 billion dollars.

This project value includes works that are in develop-ment (ie under construction, or design / documentation, or in commissioning phase).

This total has in particular been boosted by a couple of major projects that JCA have been appointed to Plan from inception to completion, being:

• the $1.6b Fiona Stanley Hospital, and
• the $2b Sundance resources Mbalam Project in Camerooon
  

These major projects require JCA to assign teams of Planners and Planning support to these projects. With JCA’s existing staff numbers plus some recent valuable additions, JCA are well placed to successfully carry out these and all our other projects.

Somewhat of a different blog this week.

More of a discussion in planning methodology. In particular Work Breakdown Structures and what level should activities sit in the WBS for multiple rise buildings.

I start this blog by explaining that there are different ways and reasons for sorting activities within a WBS, and understand that others may disagree with JCA’s methodology, but I will explain JCA’s methodology and reasons for and let others make their mind.

Example - the activities for forming, construction and pouring a slab should go in the level of the building that it describes. eg:

• Basement “Slab on Grade” should be in the WBS heading called Basement,
• Ground Suspended Slab should be in the WBS heading called Ground Level (or sometimes refered as Podium Level),
• Level 1 suspended slab activities should be in the WBS heading called Level 1,

Not all planners see it this way (for what reasonable reasoning alludes us). ie We know of some planners and builders who put Level 1 suspended slab activities under the heading of Ground Level…Although the props and framework for forms are indeed temporarily in the Ground to Level 1 Zone (and ultimately hold up the Ground Level fitout works) we beleive stongly that those activities surrounding the construction of the permanent designed element should be listed in the WBS code of that Level, in this case Level 1.

Therefore slab for level 1 and associated props etc should be listed under level 1.

OK glad to get that off my chest now..and of course happy to receive comments on this.

Well it’s Busy in JCA’s Project Planning office currently.

With only 7 days into the month, We have had a number of projects already come through the door to action.

The following are those recent awarded assignments JCA have just started or about to commence planning on.

These of course are in addition to other assignments already in progress.

Over the last few months it has become increasingly apparent that some builders in Perth’s booming construction market are not spending the time and effort to produce quality construction programmes.

We believe that incompetant “planners” are being employed to produce rubbish and non-sensical programmes.

As the premier Project Planning consultants in Perth, JCA is being appointed by clients to review these poor programmes, and we have increasingly found that what has been submitted to those clients is rubbish, unusable (both for Client and the builder themselves), and we report back accordingly. The builder then has to engage a competant planner to fix up the stuff ups (which many times means JCA gets called in).

It is true that some of the builders are using their untrained inhouse staff to produce these programmes, just because they know how to turn on Microsoft Project. With no training on critical path methodologies, or ability to produce a reasonable, realistic and detailed programme of works, the result is a useless bar chart of no meaning.

Unfortunately there are some one man band “consultant” planners in Perth who are also preparing such rubbish for the builders. They have no excuse, and should not be practising.

We say take a look at what you are preparing for the builder and ask yourself if you would be prepared to accept that to build the project yourself.

We have had some interesting discussions with clients recently who have taken initial poor advice from Quantity Surveyors and other non-Time Planning consultants on how long construction projects will take.

As all skilled and experienced Project Time Planners/Schedulers would know, we never give advice on the cost of projects, because that’s not our role, and not what we practice day in and day out.

Some Non-Time Planning consultants seem to be using rules of thumb guesstimates based on value of works to arrive at a meaningless guess of duration for a project. Unfortunately this sort of practice is very much fraught with error, and ultimately means the consultant and/or client gets egg on their face when a real Time Planner tells them the real story.

Time Planning is not an art of rule of thumbs…

it is a methodological process of calculating durations for broken down pieces of the project and logically sequencing these together with due respect for buildability, available resources and external constraints.

Next time you Hear a Quantity Surveyor, Cost Consultant, Structural Engineer or other non-Planning Consultant giving a client TIME Planning advice, tell them to pull their head in and stick to their area of expertise.

As we all gear up for another busy new year fueled by the rampaging beast called the “boom”, JCA hopes that you have been able to reflect on what was a challenging year for many, and thought out appropriate strategies for the begining of this year.

JCA has been able to recently add new key staff to it’s Planning and Resourcing divisions, with most of them ready for action during January 2008.

We suspect that finding appropriate professional engineering and construction resources this year will be as hard, if not harder than last year. The Western Australian Government has recently approached the Federal Government to mitigate the ridiculously long times taking to process 457 Visa’s. We won’t wait with baited breath on things being improved that much.

WA have indicated that it will need 400,000 extra skilled workers over the next ten years (unpreceedented population growth). We assume their figures are sound projections, and if true will mean the pressure on finding resources to run projects (new or maintenance) will be be huge.