Even More Schedule for Sale | Book Excerpts

Introduction

AWP-introduction

Let’s start with the CII surfboards, I find that occasionally academics are very good at explaining complex issues in very simple terms, this is certainly the case with these surfboards.

The process is shown here as two overlapping processes that show preparation and execution based on the development of plans (EWPs, CWPs, and IWPs)

While the entire process is referenced as Advanced Work Packaging (an enhanced level of project planning) the front end preparation (the blue surfboard) is also commonly referenced specifically as Advanced Work Packaging (it happens first). For the purpose of this book, AWP covers the activities on the blue surfboard.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 – Why Change
Chapter 2 – What is AWP, IM & WFP?
Chapter 3 – Return on Investment & Benefits
Chapter 4 – AWP Quick Start Guide
Chapter 5 – Advanced Work packaging
Chapter 6 – Information Management
Chapter 7 – Workface Planning
Chapter 8 – Productivity Management
Chapter 9 – AWP Testimonies
Chapter 10 – The Future
Summary and Links

Why Change?

Take a few moments and imagine the world of construction in the future. First, think of what it will be like in 10 years, then 20 years……… and now 50 years……….

Changes driven by technology are probably a big part of what you imagined. If you stop to think about the changes that we have seen in our lifetime and then think about how it has impacted your world and habits, you will see that we truly are living in a paradigm shift.

Just think about the way that you get your news now. The newspaper in the morning and the television in the evening were the sole source of information for me as a young man. Now my phone pings with real-time text and video based on which global news stream I have subscribed to. I haven’t picked up a newspaper in many years and I think that my television only broadcasts sports now. That is a paradigm shift in our ability to process data when you consider my grandfather who looked forward to reading a weekly newspaper and going to the pictures once a month.

And the pace of acceleration will only get faster.

What is AWP. IM & WFP

So what is:

  • Advanced Work Packaging (AWP)
  • Information Management (IM)
  • Workface Planning (WFP)

In the introduction, we used the CII surfboards to map out the high-level structure of AWP, IM, and WFP. In this chapter, we will go one step deeper and explore the actual components of each area and discuss the flow between them. Then in the following chapters, we will get into the details of who does what.

If you haven’t already viewed the AWP infographic from YouTube or our website this would be a good time to do it. The infographic video will take you through the flowchart and give you a high-level review of how all the parts contribute to the final product.

Return on Investment & Benefits

If you read through the literature from The Construction Owner’s Association of Alberta (COAA) or the Construction Industry Institute (CII) you will see that they have both identified that you can reduce the Total Installed Cost (TIC) of projects by 10% by applying AWP. This is a result of improving the productivity of direct labor by 25%.

Sounds like big numbers and a little bold to be throwing out ‘pie in the sky’ figures like this, but the truth is that if they published the real numbers then absolutely nobody would believe them. Which is both exciting and a little sad. It means that the average project is so far in the ditch right now that any measure of organisation can flip a 25% productivity improvement. The exciting part is that there is lots on the table.

AWP Quick Start Guide

We have now had glimpses of what Total Information Management might look like, thanks to several well-organized projects where WorkFace Planning Software was applied.
The early adaptations of WorkFace Planning Software through Fluor (InVision), KBR (P6) and Jacobs (ConstructSim) have all shown us that the right information in the right hands can bring extraordinary results. These three software applications and the ones in development by Intergraph and Aveva are all based on the logic that the 3D model can be used to facilitate the process of WorkFace Planning and then visualize the information.

Advanced Work Packaging

  • AWP Champion
  • Information Manager
  • Procedures
  • Work Breakdown Structure
  • Path of Construction
  • Level 3 schedule
  • Work packages for Engineering, Procurement and Construction

Advanced: progressive, forward-thinking, unconventional, cutting-edge, innovative, radical

Work: Composition, design, creation, opus, masterpiece, product, handiwork, oeuvre

Packaging: Wrapping, parceling, boxing, bundling, enveloping, inclosing, tie together, presenting.

As discussed earlier in the book the term Advanced Work Packaging is a bit of a play on words that suggests that the process is both forward thinking and at the beginning of a project. Developed by the CII Research Team 272, the term is a good description of the ground work that needs to take place at the beginning of a project to fully facilitate the execution of Workface Planning. Having said that I also think that it could have a sub title that would then describe what it means.

  • Project execution by work packages
  • How to align E & P with C
  • The foundation for Workface Planning
  • Fast track execution in series
  • The language of work packages
  • Work packages for fast-track projects.
  • The rules of work packaging.
  • How to align Engineering with Procurement so that Construction can build in sequence, be productive, finish on time and cost the least amount, while also optimizing safety and quality.

The skinny on AWP is that it is the groundwork that establishes a model for the ideal way for Construction to receive drawings, modules, and materials so that they can effectively implement WFP.

Information Management

It is not always easy to see ourselves as being the pivotal players in a revolution, but that is where we are. We have the history of cavalier construction behind us and the age of agile, lean, professionally planned, predictable project execution ahead of us. The spark for this revolution is the need for change, the gasoline on this smoldering kindling is free flowing information and the technology to do something with it.

Welcome to the age of information management for construction.

Most of our construction people live Jekyll and Hyde lives right now, where their ‘normal’ persona is the typical construction worker, who stands around waiting for scraps of information that allow them to get small amounts of work done. Then in the evening their ultra-ego is released and they become information junkies, communicating with the world, surfing the web, consuming news at the speed of internet (much faster than the speed of light).

I have often been frustrated when caught in this cycle, where you know that the information you need for construction is out there, but you cannot access it because the handlers don’t know how to post it, or even that somebody else would like to get it.

At any given time on our projects somebody knows the current state of where every piece of material is, how to get the latest revision of each document, what has been installed, what we should be installing, which resources are available, what our internal customers need from us and how much time and effort we are using to get stuff done, but we don’t have this information in a managed environment. It’s like we are each writing chapters of a mystery novel that we are not sharing with each other, the parts make sense individually but nobody knows the whole story.

Workface Planning

I often get asked at the start of projects, after I have explained the process and outcome to the project management team and they have agreed to march down this path, “is there anything that I need from them” (before we get started). The answer that I am using more often now is that I need the project management team and our sponsor to ‘watch our back’. That usually draws a raised eyebrow and quizzical look. Then I let them know that there will come a time on the project where we have a successfully delayed engineering by demanding EWPs that support CWPs, driven up the cost of procurement through contracts that prioritize sequence over volume and created chaos in the construction office by only letting them start work that can be finished, all without producing any tangible results. It is then that we need the project to have the confidence to ‘stay the course’ and please don’t fire us.

The start of construction is that time, and it will get worse before it gets better.

It helps if you can disguise any doubts that you have and make sure that you don’t emit the smell of fear, put your best foot forward and make it look like you have done this a hundred times.

  • Also available as: Perfect Bound SoftcoverE-Book
  • Published: August 2017
  • Format: Perfect Bound Softcover(Color)
  • Pages: 132
  • Size: 8.5×11
  • ISBN: 9781546204305

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