Cost and Schedule Control

From the cost information, cost engineers can update their estimates so that future estimates will be more reliable. The planners can similarly update their time estimates. Even though this costs money, it is the best way a company can improve its predictive ability for future projects, as well as maintaining control over the current job. 

Estimated Activity Requirements for Process Plant Constmction 

Source Cosinuke, W. Critical Path Technique, monograph published by Catalytical Construction 

Philadelphia 1961. (I have been informed that since 1961 the number of activities listed above has increased. This is in part due to additional requirements imposed by clients, state and federal agencies, and labor unions, as well as an upgrading of the planning criteria). 

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Project control entails quality, cost, and schedule controls. 

Note Quality, defined as conformance to established requirements must be monitored by process and specialist engineers with minimal direct participation from the Project Manager. Consequently this chapter addresses only cost and schedule control. 

Bent, J. A. Applied Cost and Schedule Control. Marcel Dekker, New York, 1982. 

As each project task is completed, record the actual time and actual cost. Calculate variances and carry the cumulative total forward. This technique can easily be put into a spreadsheet format on your personal computer. Some large projects may be able to create this format for a report that uses cost and schedule data that is routinely captured by the company s computerized accounting system. Figure 51.10 illustrates a typical project control chart. 

Recommendation 9. The Army should develop an earned value system to maintain a comprehensive multiyear cost and schedule for the construction, operation, and closure of each chemical agent disposal facility. The system should be used to control and report the effect on cost and schedule from changes such as permit modifications, proposals for engineering changes, and the phaseout of security for surety material. 

To facilitate cost control, a total project technical baseline should be established at the earliest possible time from this, a cost and schedule baseline can be developed and maintained throughout the project. 

Other procedures and activities are directed to controlling project quality, cost and schedule. They must be included, at least in essence, in the protocol of all projects. 

The Owner s project control system need not be as sophisticated as the contractor s. It is intended mainly to check the accuracy of the contractor s progress reports and cost and schedule projections or to control small in-house projects. A simple manual system judiciously used should be sufficient to meet the Owner s requirements. 

Whether the formal step approach, or the trending approach with snapshots is used, it is essential that a control estimate be created to be used during construction to control the cost of the constructed project. The result of shortchanging the estimating and cost control effort are a noncurrent cost reality and unhappy surprises as to final cost and schedule. 

The new construction and in-service Platform Program Managers are responsible for the cost, schedule, and quality of the ships under their control. To ensure that safety is not traded off under cost and schedule pressures, the Program Managers can only select from a set of acceptable design options. The Independent Technical Authority has the responsibility to approve those acceptable options. 

The enterprise manages the tasks and activities of the SEP to control data generated, configuration of the design solutions, interfaces, risks, and technical progress. The enterprise needs to maintain the correct staffing, facilities, equipment, and tools manage costs and schedules replan development activities, as required ... 

Field welding of connections and several configurations of bolted sphce coimections were considered. Based on advantages with safety, ease of fabrication, constructabihty in field, quality assurance and quahty control (QA/QC) measures, cost and schedule, the two-side flange was chosen as the final sphce configuration (Figure 4). 

One of the primary considerations in shaft projects is, of course, safety, cost and schedule—i that order. Safety is paramount in any construction project or mining operation, and as such, the capacity that the rock mass to be self-supported following an excavation, with the use of standard ground control measures, is a key element of the design. 

It can be difficult to correctly assess an older hoist and keep the refurbishment cost and schedule under control. Comments such as the general overall condition is good... most major... 

The management of process plant engineering resource costs and schedule durations is frequently problematical and occasionally disastrous. Often the problems stem from a technical error, or series of errors, which are discovered too late and require remedial action. Equally often, however, the problems stem from management failure, that is, from failure to plan the work and control its execution according to the plan. The plan may be unachievable because the project team is not sufficiently competent to meet the challenge, or because irresistible (or insufficiently resisted) external factors dictated an over-optimistic commitment. 

The project manager needs to control the balance of effort to create the most effective and efficient project. The project manager balances resources, effort, energy, cost, and schedule. The project manager establishes the graded environment that maintains compliance and meets the objectives of the project, but also balances the requirements with the cost and schedule constraints. 

Operations personnel injured or killed due to loss of control of loading or lifting hardware. Major hardware damage forces shutdown of operations and major cost and schedule effects. 

Trade-offs on schedule, cost, and technical risk must be made at a high level in the management chain. In my business, the failure of a two-cent part can cause the loss of a billion-dollar mission. You don t want lower management levels controlling cost and schedule by increasing risk. 

The PP is the mental or first creation. PMI (2008) defines a PP as A formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses... are to document planning assumptions and decisions, to facilitate communication among stakeholders, and to document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines. The PP is the documented roadmap of the project prepared before the project gets underway. And recall, for purposes of this chapter and book, that project is broadly defined. 

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