How can Gantt charts be useful in General Construction process and achieve construction project costs effectively?

How can Gantt charts be useful in General Construction process and achieve construction project costs effectively?

Overview

The construction industry after the advent of digital technologies such as BIM ServicesPoint Cloud to BIM Services, Scanners and VR has changed the scenario of conventional construction methods. Scheduling, Cost Estimation, Material planning and supplies are all critical for the commenced of a successful project.

Gantt chart is a popular tool for project management wherein a bar chart represents the tasks scheduled on the given time and who is responsible for the tasks allocated. It works in many industries such as education, marketing, IT and construction. It is a visual method which shows the breakdown of individual functions within a time period. It gets represented by colored bar chart which gets easy to understand and conduct analysis.

The axis on the horizontal line of the Gantt chart shows a time sequence while the vertical line on the axis shows the tasks that need to be accomplished by team member allocation. Project managers, construction managers and other top-level authorities use this Gantt chart to adjust tasks relationships, manage task period, update progress, assign resources to team and generate cost reports, etc.

Time and task management are vital in the construction management projects and to manage task relationships what would work best is the construction Gantt charts. All the critical information can be gathered such as task sequence, a priority level of each task, dependencies of tasks, duration of tasks and completion of tasks, etc. Gantt chart provides logical progression towards the success of a project in the construction industry.

Advantages of Gantt chart in the Construction Industry

  • It creates a clear picture of Complex projects or ideas through a Bar chart presentation of the project.
  • It organizes your thoughts through Gantt chart representation.
  • It helps to monitor the tasks what you are assigned and are doing so that can be accumulated in numbers of the tasks performed by you in the project at the end.
  • It will help you to set a realistic time frame for task completion.
  • It is a visual method, so the tasks allocated and time frame set can be highly visible.

Disadvantages of Gantt chart in the Construction Industry

  • It cannot work precisely with small and medium enterprises where the resources i.e., the project manager allotted to the construction project is limited and needs to be highly qualified to handle any issues within complex projects.
  • The size of the bar of the chart will not indicate the amount of work done over a period of time, but it can depend on other factors as well.
  • Always the Gantt chart needs to be updated; it must have the ability to be scanned and change frequently.
  • It can be challenging to view on one sheet of paper the Gantt chart.

Types of construction Management Gantt Charts

A construction project may vary depending upon the complexity of the project, and general categories are as follows:-

Public and Civil Government Building Construction Gantt chart: – In this construction forte comes public works and government building such as agricultural facilities, economical buildings, public water supply channels, governmental buildings, hospitals, museums, seaports and more. The Gantt chart helps to understand how the construction task will be scheduled, and in what time frame will the task be accomplished.

Residential Construction Gantt chart: – Construction Gantt chart in residential projects is handy to accumulate all the tasks related to home buildings, houses, or an apartment.

Commercial Construction Gantt chart: – Gantt chart in the commercial space is useful to track the projects that lay within the scope of commerce, trade, shopping mail, private banks, office buildings, etc.

How is a Gantt chart useful in General Construction Process?

Construction project whether complex or simple is based upon following steps to create accurate construction Gantt chart as below:-

  • Pre-Construction Process: – In this stage, it involves project approvals, planning and formulation of existing facilities, capital, schedules, scope and budgets. It covers the design process of elements of the project and the bidding process of the construction project.
  • Construction Process: – It is the most important part of an overall project. A project manager or team leader would look into the implementation of the project as per contract documents. Other issues and activities are budget management, regular meetings between parties, follow-up notification of all the project milestone achieved, certain utilities drop-down, clearance of materials, etc.
  • Post-Construction Process: – it is the final step of the construction project where the contractor has done all the remaining items and has completed all the final invoice of the project. Owners with team leaders can often review the construction Gantt chart to check the whole project for unfurnished items.

How to estimate effective construction project cost with Gantt charts?

Estimated cost and budget of the construction project can influence the finishing date and profitability of your Architectural BIM Services project. By developing your database of costs and pricing based on resources of subcontractors to specified tasks.

Cost of the construction project is calculated on the base of unit price for a certain period of time. This method works for multiple teams. Potential influencing factors such as complex site conditions, delay in specific tasks, and other difficulties faced during a construction project. Review and compare data in the construction projects monthly or yearly.

Conclusion

Gantt chart is useful to all the industries, but especially to construction, it can help to schedule tasks within a given time frame. Project managers and contractors can know within a construction project that tasks allotted to team members can be scheduled with set time and who is responsible for given tasks.

It can also help to effectively manage construction costs and budget for material supply and allocation as scheduled tasks can optimize it. It can improve the project’s productivity and enhances accuracy and coordination among the team members within the construction projects.

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