Construction Scheduler

Construction Scheduler — the schedule is only worth what the field data going into it is worth

Our client is a masonry contracting firm in the US Eastern time zone, in business since 1959 and working from ten regional offices across the US Southeast, Texas and the Mid-Atlantic. The scope runs from block and brick to cast stone and stone veneer, through the envelope behind the wall face, and into repair and restoration on existing buildings.

One thing shapes this job more than anything else. The firm works as the masonry trade contractor under large general contractors, so you will not own the project master schedule. You own the masonry scope schedule, and it has to sit inside a master that moves underneath you, driven by trades you do not control. Your float is not always yours to spend, and when the job slips for a reason that is not ours, the schedule you keep is the evidence for it.

Most of your week goes on two things. Getting real progress out of a busy field team, which is a collection problem before it is a scheduling one. And watching procurement, because long lead items drive more delay on a masonry scope than the laying does. The hours sit opposite the people you support, so you need to keep moving when an answer is twelve hours away, and mark an assumption rather than quietly build on it.

Key Responsibilities

Project Scheduling

• Develop detailed baseline schedules for construction projects in accordance with contract requirements and project objectives.
• Develop activity sequences, durations, logic relationships, milestones and critical path activities.
• Coordinate schedule development with project managers, superintendents, engineers, subcontractors and other project stakeholders.
• Ensure schedules accurately reflect project scope, contract requirements and planned construction methods.
• Establish and maintain schedule coding, calendars, work breakdown structures and activity classifications.

Schedule Updates and Progress Tracking

• Update project schedules regularly based on actual field progress and information provided by the project team.
• Collect and verify progress information from field personnel, subcontractors, vendors and other stakeholders.
• Track actual start and finish dates, remaining durations, percentage complete, quantities and milestones.
• Compare planned progress against actual progress and identify variances.
• Maintain accurate records of schedule changes, revisions and project milestones.

Schedule Analysis