What is a schedule?
A schedule is a document used to track tasks, events, or actions that happen over a period of time. Businesses utilize schedules to coordinate resources to meet deadlines and to ensure jobs are completed on time.
Construction scheduling is the process of listing tasks, activities, and milestones with a planned start and finish date. It becomes the road map to success for a construction project and a way to ensure things are getting done in a timely manner.
Why is scheduling important in residential construction?
Scheduling keeps a whole project on track. Accurate schedules make sure things are getting done on time and if not, they clearly identify which projects need extra focus. Without a proper schedule, builders and remodelers could miss deadlines and lose money.
How do builders + remodelers schedule construction projects?
- Manual Methods
Some builders may write their schedule out on post-its or in notebooks. This can be convenient to the builder, but can be messy and makes it hard to communicate valuable information to trades and clients.
- Using Excel or online calendars
Building out a schedule in excel or using a shared online calendar can solve some communication issues and centralize tasks and deadlines. However, this opens up potential issues with clients or trade partners potentially having too much visibility into the schedule. A single schedule view for everyone gives insight into all upcoming tasks but can inundate clients and trade partners with too much unnecessary information and can quickly become overwhelming.
- Integrated Construction Management Tools
An integrated construction management tool allows builders and remodelers to track project financials, communicate with their teams and subcontractors, and build schedules all in one program. These tools are a step above generic project management and communication software. Using a tool like CoConstruct can help manage schedules and with one touch edits if you make any changes it’s updated throughout the project. It also allows builders to communicate with their customers and updates them to any changes that may occur.
