Mar 28, 2024  
2020-2021 Undergraduate Academic Catalog 
    
2020-2021 Undergraduate Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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CM 3210 - Construction Scheduling

3 lecture hours 2 lab hours 4 credits
Course Description
Course imparts a working knowledge of construction project scheduling techniques, especially the critical path method for network analysis, to enable determination of dates and durations of project activities. Includes exercises in network logic and constraints, forward and backward passes, critical path and float, cost crashing, resource leveling, and PERT. Concept of a work breakdown structure is integrated. Study begins with manual techniques but shifts to gain skill with common scheduling software. (prereq: CM 3250 )
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  • Without reference, the student can describe at least one advantage and disadvantage for each of the following: the Gantt chart, CPM AoA, CPM AoN, CPM PDM, linear activity schedule, and PERT
  • Given the contract documents for a building construction project of moderate scope ($3 to $5 million), as well as a detailed (Level 4) copy of the CSI UniFormat and MasterFormat, the student can disaggregate the work to define an appropriate set of activities that includes pre-construction tasks
  • Given an array of appropriate construction project activities, the student can logically constrain and sequence the activities to create a coherent project network
  • Given an array of appropriate construction project activities, the student can estimate their respective durations, based on available resources and work quantity takeoffs
  • Given a logic network of construction activities, their respective durations, and the unconstrained resources to be applied against each activity, the student can perform a forward and backward pass to establish the project duration, determine the critical path(s), and schedule the early start of each activity all without additional references
  • Given a construction project early start schedule prepared with unconstrained resources, without additional references, the student can level the schedule if any resources become constrained
  • Given necessary crash-cost curves, the student can optimize the resources to be applied, in order to deliver the project at least total cost
  • Given a logic network and the activities, shortest expected, most probable, and longest expected durations, students can perform a PERT analysis with only normal probability tables and the variance formula as references
  • Given the contract documents for a building construction project of moderate scope ($3 to $5 million), as well as a task list with assigned resources, durations, and precedences, students can correctly load a standard scheduling software package to obtain an accurate activity schedule and typical reports

Prerequisites by Topic
  • Some course topics related to scheduling are briefly introduced in CM 3011, and pre-construction activities are introduced, as well. Calculation of activity durations relies on knowledge of detailed production estimating.

Course Topics
  • Construction planning vs. scheduling
  • Types of construction schedules (Gantt, CPM, AoA, AoN, PDM, PERT)
  • Event time calculations
  • Logic types
  • Dummy activities
  • Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
  • Activity duration determination
  • Time vs. cost
  • Forward and backward passes
  • Critical path and its significance
  • Float or slack
  • Resource leveling
  • AoN networks
  • PDM networks and lag
  • Scheduling pre-construction activities
  • Linear activity scheduling
  • Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
  • Project control issues (linked to CM 3013 )

Laboratory Topics
  • Gantt chart preparation
  • AoA network preparation
  • Early start schedule preparation and resource summary
  • AoN network preparation
  • Scheduling software capabilities and applications

Coordinator
Dr. Jera Sullivan



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