For an industry striving to be more productive, the current state of scheduling practices is wasteful. To learn how to "right-plan" our projects and achieve better results, we first must look closely at our own scheduling practices and create a dialogue within the industry about which practices are efficient and which are not.

Recently, I wrote a piece called "How to Fix a Broken Scheduling System" for Engineering-News Record's (ENR) Viewpoint. In the article, I discuss how the use of production planning--specifically Last Planner System methodology--creates a more reliable workflow.

While still valuable as a strategic roadmap, critical-path-method (CPM) scheduling systematically tries to predict daily activity years in advance. Specifications often demand wasteful and costly scheduling practices that are misused.

Production planning at the right time maximizes productivity and minimizes waste. This viewpoint is backed up by Stanford University's Center for Integrated Facility Management (CIFE) research on two large-scale DPR Construction jobs.

Click the image below to read the full article.

What do you think about current scheduling practices? Tell me in the comments below.