micro and macro planning techniques

Question 1

What is planning?

Answer 1

The process by which managers anticipate the probable effects of events before they change objectives and activities.

Question 2

What are the factors needed for a plan?

Answer 2

• What is the objective
• Find all relevant facts and analyze them
• Consider future trends and outside influences
• Consider work already in hand or plans being prepared

Question 3

What are the characteristics of a good plan?

Answer 3

• Be simple
• Be flexible
• Clearly define objectives
• Continuity of work
• Provide balance of work
• Provide easy control by establishing standards
• Be orderly
• Exploit existing resources before new obtained
• Made in consultation with those concerned and have approval
• Incorporate all old and new plans
• Consists of one master plan

Question 4

What factors affect the choice of planning technique?

Answer 4

• Expertise of management team
• Complexity of job
• Degree of job
• Degree of experience on similar jobs
• Attitude of management to planning techniques
• Time period between award of contract and commencement of site operations

Question 5

What are different programme planning techniques?

Answer 5

• Bar chart
• Linked bar chart
• Arrow diagram
• Precedence diagram
• Line of balance diagrams

Question 6

What is a linked bar chart?

Answer 6

A Gantt chart with links to show dependencies.

Question 7

What should be considered when creating a plan for activity and duration?

Answer 7

• Drawings
• Activity duration resource chart
• Arrow diagram (critical path)
• Finish diagrams to find earliest/latest start time for each object of the job
• Complete result table: activity number, duration, earliest/latest, total float
• Precedence diagrams

Question 8

What does a precedence diagram consist of?

Answer 8

Boxes interlinked by lines, where the box represents the activity and the linking arrow represents the relationship between activities.

Question 9

What does a line of balance display ideally show?

Answer 9

All the balance lines running parallel to each other.

Question 10

What are the advantages of a line of balance?

Answer 10

• Visual display of rate of working across projects
• Enables decisions to be made in relation to labour
• Allows planner to forecast rates per week and labour resources to achieve it

Question 11

What are the disadvantages of a line of balance?

Answer 11

• Rarely understood
• Used by companies whose policies are to do so
• Only really applicable to repetitive operations on refurb and housing projects