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Daily Schedule Key Benefits

• Prompts superintendent to plan for tomorrow's tasks today
• Establishes a daily routing for Superintendent to identify, communicate, and receive commitments the day before
• Identify tomorrow's activities from project schedule
• Prioritizes critical tasks each day
• Communicate tomorrow's job site activities to each foreman
• Know each day if each foreman is committed to accomplishing tomorrow's critical tasks
• know each morning that the critical tasks are being accomplished
• Know if your project accomplished the critical tasks needed to stay on schedule each day
• Produces Daily Report to plan with instead of reacting to daily activities
• Daily Report automatically updates project schedule daily
• Calculates a daily score for the Project Superintendent

Project Assistant is software that is based on work processes developed by Time Saver Technologies llc, to establish a planning environment for a Project Superintendent.  It helps a Project Superintendent identify and communicate game plans, and get commitments from all team members to accomplish the game plan.  Project Assistant promotes a team atmosphere by prompting subcontractors to plan ahead and resolve problems by communicating game plans and getting commitments.

Plan for Tomorrow Today

Most Project Superintendents spend most of their time reacting to the problems of the day, and "fighting fires".  They should be spending their time dealing with the problems of tomorrow.   Superintendents should spend their afternoons planning tomorrow's game plan, and solving any problems that are identified by the Subcontractor's foreman, a Project Superintendent will minimize or even eliminate the amount of immediate fires that they must fight each day.  Project Assistant organizes the scheduling information so that a Project Superintendent can use it as a daily planning tool to control the project's job costs and become a more productive Project Team Leader.

Superintendent's Daily Routine

A Project Superintendent's daily routine has 4 critical steps that need to be accomplished at specific times during the day.  Step 1, a Superintendent needs to identify a game plan that they want to accomplish.  Step 2, they need to communicate that game plan.  Step 3, they need to get a commitment from everyone involved that they will accomplish the game plan.  Step 4, they then need to evaluate the progress on the game plan.   

Most Superintendents don't do these 4 steps.  If they do, they try to accomplish these steps the same day they need a task accomplished.  This does not leave time for them to correct any problems that are identified by the Subcontractor's foreman.  Project Superintendents find themselves identifying a game plan communicating that game plan and receiving a commitment to accomplish that game plan at the beginning of each day.  This does not give them time to correct any items that have not been included in their game plan.  They are constantly changing their daily game plan due to unforeseeable circumstances that can't be resolved in a moments notice.  By completing these steps the day before, any circumstances that will keep someone from accomplishing the items on the game plan, that are identified during the communication process of the daily routine, will be incorporated into the game plan.  These problems can be resolved prior to tomorrow so that tomorrow's game plan doesn't change.  By accomplishing that daily game plan a Project Superintendent will keep a project on schedule by fighting tomorrow's fires today.   Project Assistant's Daily Schedule incorporates the 4 daily procedures into a daily routine for the Project Superintendent. 

The Project Superintendent should be applying each of these four daily procedures to each of the tasks on the Daily Schedule.  The Daily Schedule has columns that are associated with the procedures on the daily routine.  The Project Superintendent should mark the column next to each task when each procedure is accomplished for that task.  This helps the Project Superintendent know which procedures he has completed and which ones are still left to accomplish.  The Daily Schedule is programmed with reminders to prompt you when you should be working on each procedure. It automatically opens and shows the appropriate columns and the Daily Schedule at each of the times in the Daily Routine.  Project Assistant gives the Project Superintendent the tools he needs to become an organized, efficient and productive Project Team Leader.

Identify Tomorrow's Daily Activities from the Project Schedule

A Project Superintendent should have a daily list of activities that they want to accomplish on their project.  Most of them either try to remember them or write them down on a piece of paper.  Project Assistant's Daily Schedule will extract a daily list of tasks from the project schedule for the Project Superintendent.  It puts this list into a Pocket PC for the Project Superintendent to access each day. 

Prioritize Critical Path

Project Assistant's Daily Schedule helps organize information so that a person will make an educated decision on where to prioritize their time.   On most projects, Project Superintendents find themselves reacting to the daily crisis instead of planning their daily activities around the project's critical tasks.  At the end of each day, the Project Superintendent has accomplished several things, and put out several fires.  He feels that he has accomplished enough to keep the project from getting off track.  Most, however don't know if they have accomplished the daily priorities that must be accomplished to keep a project on track.  Also, they may not have had time to accomplish the daily priorities, because they were reacting to the crisis of the time.   It is difficult for a Project Superintendent to say, "I don't have time to react to your problems right now, I need to work on this critical tasks and then I will work on your problem."  On most projects, the Project Superintendent is constantly saying, "If I would have known about it yesterday, I could have taken care of it yesterday, and today would have gone much easier".  Reacting to the daily "fires" will not control the critical path.  Project Assistant's Daily Schedule is designed to prioritize the daily list of tasks in the project schedule by listing the critical activities first.  This gives the Project Superintendent the information they need to take control of their project's daily priorities, and plan for tomorrow's activities, instead of reacting to today's fires.  The details of any project change daily.  Due to these changes, the details of the critical path need to be controlled on a daily basis by the Project Superintendent.   Knowing what the critical path is and which daily details should have priority over the other is a very difficult decision to make.   Daily Schedule identifies which of the daily tasks should have priority over other non-critical tasks.  This enables a Project Superintendent to lead the team members to accomplish the projects daily priorities.  Project Assistant's Daily Schedule provides the information needed to prioritize a Project Superintendent's day around the critical tasks of the day. 

Communicate and Commitment the Day Before

One of the key parts of a Project Superintendent's daily routine is communication.  If he has identified a daily game plan, but failed to communicate it to all involved, then it is not very useful to them.  Starting in the afternoon the day before, it is time to communicate tomorrow's game plan to the different contractors.  You should work on discussing tomorrow's tasks with the foreman and getting a commitment from them to accomplish tomorrow's tasks.  Project Assistant prompts a Project Superintendent to communicate their game plan to every one involved.  The Daily Schedule will document this communication in the Daily Report.  There is a column for you to mark when you have a commitment from them for each task.  This helps Project Superintendents know if they have a commitment from each foreman to accomplish tomorrow's critical tasks.  During this discussion with the foreman, you should ask them if there is anything keeping them from accomplishing tomorrow's tasks. Their response to this question will help you identify other tasks that need to be added to tomorrow's tasks and coordinated into your game plan.  By inserting these tasks in the Daily Schedule and into your game plan, you will help insure that the foreman is able to accomplish the things you need him to. This also helps build a team atmosphere, instead of each contractor working on their portion of the work, they become aware of how their work affects the other contractors.  This communication and commitment is a key factor in a productive Project Superintendent's daily routine.

Evaluate Morning's Activities to Confirm Accomplishing Appropriate Tasks

Starting each morning, Project Assistant's Daily Schedule lists the tasks for that day and has a column for you to note the number of employees that are working on each task.  You should evaluate the job site and see that the individual contractors are working on the appropriate tasks.  Use the stylus in each row to move the slide bar to note the number of employees working on each task.  Daily Schedule prioritizes the critical tasks each morning and prompts a Project Superintendent to accomplish each of the tasks on the project schedule.

Input Remaining Duration to Update Schedule

The Daily Schedule prompts the Project Superintendent to evaluate progress on each of the tasks in the Daily Schedule and update their remaining duration.  It prioritizes the critical tasks and prompts the Superintendent to evaluate these tasks first.  At 1:00 PM it is time to evaluate the subcontractor's progress on the tasks on the Daily Schedule. You are prompted to update the Remaining Duration for each task. Evaluate the job site and see what progress each contractor has made on each task. Review the scheduled finish date for each task and see that the progress on the tasks confirms that the scheduled finish date is accurate.  If the finish date doesn't seem accurate, it will be necessary to discuss this with the foreman.  Each task on the daily schedule should reduce their remaining duration by one day, to keep it on schedule.  This is accomplished by changing the remaining duration of that task on the Daily Schedule.  After this is accomplished you should know if you have accomplished the critical tasks for today, and if the project is on schedule. 

Daily Report

Project Assistant generates a Daily Report on the Desktop PC.  The Daily Report includes a log of the daily activities on the project and the procedures that occur for each task.  This log also gives the company a historical reference of the activities on the project each day.  The Daily Report includes the list of scheduled tasks for each day and the # of employees working on each task. Also included on the Daily Report are Project Information, Inspections, Visitors, Comments, and Subcontractors Contacted.  

Daily Score

Project Assistant also calculates a score and includes the results on the Daily Report.  When the Pocket PC is synchronized, the program evaluates these procedures and gives the Project Superintendent a score for each procedure on the Daily Routine. The Project Superintendent should use this score to track his improvement on the procedures on the daily routine. The company's management can view this log to see how a Project Superintendent is progressing on the procedures in the Daily Routine.  By reviewing the data in the daily report, management can determine if the project critical tasks are on schedule and thus if the project is on schedule.  They can also tell what corrective action to take to correct these problems.

Project Assistant's Daily Schedule helps a Superintendent organize their day so they will lead everyone involved in the direction they need them to go, so that the project will stay on schedule and on budget.

Each project has it's own characteristics.  The size of each project will determine the resources needed to control the project.  A smaller project may be managed and supervised by one person.   A larger project could have several managers and several supervisors.  Project Assistant's Daily Schedule is easily adapted to these conditions.

Daily Routine

Each day the Project Superintendent has a Daily Routine of procedures to go through to see that he has control of the daily task.  This routine includes Identifying, Communicating, and Receiving Commitments, and Evaluate progress on the tasks in the schedule.  These processes are centered around planning tomorrows tasks the day before.

Time Saver Technologies LLC can provide consultation, training, software and services that will guide you in the successful implementation of a schedule management program.  Contact us for details.

Copyright © 2001 Time Saver Technologies llc Last modified: 05/13/04