Applying Hard Constraints to a Schedule in Primavera P6

When do you apply hard or soft constraints in Primavera P6? This is a question I had recently while working with a client and while there are no hard and fast rules as project specific circumstances can differ, here are some guidelines that may help. Many times the project schedule is influenced by certain constraints on the project. These constraints can be contractual, external, or internal.

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BIM Implementation and Project Controls

As current regulations require BIM implementation for every public sector construction and infrastructure project from 2016 onwards[1]designers, contractors and supply chains in the industry wil l need to move on fast from their current ways of working and adapt to achieve compliance with the upcoming legislation. The policy is however, not a punitive one for the industry. It is a progressive plan to significantly improve industry efficiency, from the project management stage in design and construction to the subsequent operational management of the asset during its lifetime.

What is BIM?

Read more on  http://www.planningplanet.com/

Export Resources without Cost Data

The purpose of exporting Primavera P6 files in “XER” format is to transmit all of the project data to another database. In many cases we are not looking to exclude any data. So how do we avoid sharing sensitive cost data with other parties? Contractors may not want owners, subcontractors and other parties to have access to this proprietary information.

There are two options for not sharing cost data. One option is to delete resource assignments altogether. We do this by copying the schedule inside Primavera P6 and un-checking the “Resource & Role Assignments box, as seen below:

While this option works perfectly well, the recipient will see no resources or roles in the schedule. What if we want the recipient of this file to be able to see the resource units but not the unit prices? This requires a different approach. Option 2 involves creating a new user and associated user profile who is not allowed to view cost data. When this user exports the file the resource rates will disappear but the resource assignments and units will remain intact.

First, we create a new user and label that person in such a way that we remember why this user was created in the first place. Go to Admin → Users. Below, I have added a new user with the name “Export User”:

Note that I have given this new user access to every project in my database by assigning this user to the highest level in the Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS). This is not absolutely necessary but it does make it easier to export any project without cost data.

Second, we need to assign the new user a Project Profile that excludes the ability to “View Project Costs/Financials”. Go to Admin → Security Profiles and select Project Profiles. In the screenshot below I have added a new Project Profile, “No Costs Exported”:

Also, I gave this new user no ability to modify schedules because the only purpose of this user is to export projects sans cost data. As soon as the project has been exported I will log back in using my normal user name.

Now we are ready to export a project with cost data. Keep in mind that you will need to log in as the new user first!

From Bill Peppon

Export Resources without Cost Data

The purpose of exporting Primavera P6 files in “XER” format is to transmit all of the project data to another database. In many cases we are not looking to exclude any data. So how do we avoid sharing sensitive cost data with other parties? Contractors may not want owners, subcontractors and other parties to have access to this proprietary information.

There are two options for not sharing cost data. One option is to delete resource assignments altogether. We do this by copying the schedule inside Primavera P6 and un-checking the “Resource & Role Assignments box, as seen below:

While this option works perfectly well, the recipient will see no resources or roles in the schedule. What if we want the recipient of this file to be able to see the resource units but not the unit prices? This requires a different approach. Option 2 involves creating a new user and associated user profile who is not allowed to view cost data. When this user exports the file the resource rates will disappear but the resource assignments and units will remain intact.

First, we create a new user and label that person in such a way that we remember why this user was created in the first place. Go to Admin → Users. Below, I have added a new user with the name “Export User”:

Note that I have given this new user access to every project in my database by assigning this user to the highest level in the Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS). This is not absolutely necessary but it does make it easier to export any project without cost data.

Second, we need to assign the new user a Project Profile that excludes the ability to “View Project Costs/Financials”. Go to Admin → Security Profiles and select Project Profiles. In the screenshot below I have added a new Project Profile, “No Costs Exported”:

Also, I gave this new user no ability to modify schedules because the only purpose of this user is to export projects sans cost data. As soon as the project has been exported I will log back in using my normal user name.

Now we are ready to export a project with cost data. Keep in mind that you will need to log in as the new user first!

From Bill Peppon

Level of Effort Activities

I’m including three tutorials over the use of Level of Effort Activities on Primavera P6.

Setting Up LOEs and Resource Loading Them
Use of Level of Effort (LOE) activities to resource load a schedule.

Level of Effort and Percent Complete
Used primarily to resource-load an ongoing support activity in Primavera P6 schedule.

Use A Level Of Effort To Add Work Stoppage Info To A Project and Still Track To Your Primavera Baseline
When we develop a schedule we assume that an activity can be finished uninterrupted once it has commenced. But, sometime events occur which force the work on the activity to stop.

Be proactive.

Percent Complete Type

The activity percent complete type is one of "Duration", "Units", or "Physical". The percent complete type controls whether the Activity % Complete is tied to the Duration % Complete, the Units % Complete, or the Physical % Complete for the activity. Set the percent complete type to "Duration" for activities which are duration driven, for example, administration tasks and training classes. Set the percent complete type to "Physical" for activities which are work-product driven, for example, creating a document or a product. Set the percent complete type to "Units" for activities which are work effort driven, for example, providing a consulting service.

Activity Percent Complete Fields

Physical % Complete

The activity physical percent complete. The physical percent complete reflects the actual progress made on the activity's work products so far. Physical percent complete can be manually entered by people familiar with the status of the activity's work products or it can be based on the completion of assigned Steps. Always in the range 0 to 100.

Duration % Complete

The percent complete of the activity duration. Computed as ((Planned Duration - Remain Duration) / Planned Duration) * 100. Always in the range 0 to 100. The planned duration is taken from the current plan, not from the current baseline.

Duration % of Planned

The activity actual duration percent of planned. Computed as (Actual Duration / BL Duration) * 100. The value can exceed 100. The BL Duration is the activity's at complete duration from the current baseline.

Activity % Complete

The activity percent complete. This value is tied to the activity Duration % Complete, Units % Complete, or Physical % Complete, depending on the setting for the activity's Percent Complete Type, which is one of "Duration", "Units", or "Physical". Always in the range 0 to 100.

Schedule % Complete

The Schedule % Complete specifies how much of the activity's baseline duration has been completed so far. Computed based on where the current data date falls between the activity' s baseline start and finish dates. If the data date is earlier than the BL Start, the Schedule % Complete is 0. If the data date is later than the BL Finish, the Schedule % Complete is 100. The Schedule % Complete indicates how much of the activity duration should be currently completed, relative to the selected baseline.

Note: Summary Schedule percent complete when displayed on an organize band, will ALWAYS be calculated as (BCWS* 100) / BAC, regardless of what earned value technique i. s selected for the activity's WBS.

Performance % Complete

Performance percent complete is used to compute earned value and may be based on the Activity % Complete, on the 0/100 rule, on the 50/50 rule, etc., depending on the technique for computing earned-value percent complete for the activity's WBS. The Performance % Complete specifies what percentage of the activity's planned worth has been earned so far.

Note: Summary Performance percent complete when displayed on an organize band, will ALWAYS be calculated as (BCWP * 100) / BAC, regardless of what earned value technique is selected for the activity's WBS.

Why EPC Contracts are bound to be delayed

As the most common form of Contract for an industrial facility is an EPC Contract, we refer to EPC contractors, isn’it?

This is a little misleading I believe… and offers an opportunity to unveil what I believe to be a systemic cause to EPC Project delays.

One could imagine an EPC contractor to be a company covering the whole range of activities for the execution of a Project, from the drawing board to the pipe erection at Site.

Such integrated model existed, up to the eighties, but has disappeared, Engineering companies having first cut their construction labour and equipment then their construction supervision.

The EPC Contractor one will find today is typically an association of two companies, one doing Engineering and Procurement (E&P) and the other one the Construction (C).

There are 3 types of associations between these two companies: a JV, a consortium or a sub-contract. The most frequent is the last one, the Construction contractor being sub-contractor to the Engineering Company, to which is awarded the EPC Contract.

Let’s look at the pro’s and con’s of each type of association to understand the paradigm leading to systemic delays in EPC contracts execution:

The Joint Venture seems the ideal: both parties share a common profit or loss. There is no conflict of interests.

The issue lies with how one party controls the costs charged by the other party. It is very difficult for an Engineering Company to control the manhours of manpower and equipment charged by a Construction contractor. The Construction contractor is likely to inflate the latter to make its own profit on these charges, regardless of the profit it could get from the JV.

The consortium has each party responsible for its scope, expenses and profit. This provides an incentive for each party to minimize its costs. There is a non recourse clause in the consortium agreement that prevents one party to claim to the other.

The issue lies with the impact that could be suffered by the Construction partner due to the delays in drawings and materials deliveries from the Engineering company. These delays will typically result in idle manpower and equipment. The Construction contractor will not be able to claim the resulting extra cost from the Engineering company. Knowing this, it will include such costs in its bid which will affect the price competitiveness of the consortium bid.

Finally, the most commonly found type of association is the sub-contract. The Engineering company sub-contracts construction activities to a construction sub-contractor.

The construction contractor is commonly paid applying unit rates to installed quantities, e.g. so much for a cubic meter of concrete cast, so much for a ton of pipe erected etc. This means that the construction contractor will be paid a fixed amount for a given amount of work done whatever its actual consumption of resources (manpower, equipment) is. In other words, the construction contractor bears its productivity risks.

The productivity of the sub-contractor is however highly dependent on timely deliveries of drawings and materials by the Engineering company. In case drawings and material deliveries are delayed, idle time of manpower and equipment will be suffered by sub-contractor, as sub-contractor will still be paid the same amount for each erected ton of steel and the manpower and equipment will require to be mobilized over a longer period.

In theory the sub-contractor could claim for such extension of time and related costs. Such claims are indeed made possible by the sub-contract type of association, contrary to the consortium.

In practice, the sub-contract usually contains difficult to match conditions to such claims. The claim might, for instance, be eligible only of there is a proven overall – not local – lack of workfront. The sub-contractor might also be required to prove that the delay impacts the schedule critical path etc.

As engineering and material deliveries are always subject to out-of-sequence and delayed deliveries, and the above claims are difficult to make, the sub-contractor will be careful not to mobilize too early. The sub-contractor will rather aim to always be a little under mobilized to achieve the best productivity.

On the other hand, the EPC contractor will not be fully transparent with expected engineering and material delivery slippage as its interest is construction progress rather than productivity.

Here, I believe, lies the systemic factor that leads to delays of EPC Projects organized under such contractual schemes.

As such scheme is the norm, one deducts that the owner is more concerned with price than schedule and has accounted float in its overall schedule for delay in the execution of the EPC Contract.

The scheme still entices the EPC contractor to complete as early as possible to avoid both Liquidated Damages and extra costs of prolonged presence at Site.