This research is concerned with improving the planning process in large construction
projects where the management and planning of the preconstruction planning process
itself is a significant and complex task. Preconstruction planning in the construction
sector has become a complex task requiring substantial collaboration, with ad-hoc
teams (especially from design and construction) created to bring all the project resources involved together in a timely manner, to ensure a construction project is
completed effectively and efficiently. This, combined with the iterative nature of the
planning process, has challenged even the best companies in the industry.
Three major weaknesses in current practice were identified in the research: first, the
planning preconstruction planning process is heavily reliant on a planner's experience
(i.e. a planner develops a new programme of a preconstruction planning through
personal determination of the planning tasks and their precedence, starting afresh at
the beginning of each project). For large projects this is not only time consuming but
subject to the limitations ohhe planner's knowledge and experience, often resulting in
simplistic programmes in which many of the dependencies are ignored. Secondly,
guesses (i.e. estimates) are frequently made in the planning process, which neither the
initial planner nor the downstream planner will later check. They are usually ignored
and left until the execution of the plan, when the problems reveal themselves. Finally,
the current techniques for the management of preconstruction planning, such as the
critical path method and bar charts, cannot account for the iterative nature of the
planning process that requires estimations to be made and work to be redone until a
satisfactory so lution is developed. As a result, it may be said that preconstruction
planning is currently managed poorly. It can be. argued that if preconstruction
planning is to be undertaken effectively, it must be better managed and planned...