Is your planner a monkey?

It’s not surprising that time management on construction projects is so poor: contractors are employing people who have no idea about planning to produce construction programmes.

This is the verdict of Keith Pickavance, MD of Hill International’s Hong Kong office and president-in-waiting, who is researching the extent of this problem with a view to setting up training through the CIOB for planners and programmers.

‘The guys who used to do it in the old days used to work things out by hand and draw by hand. To do that, you need to understand it,’ says Pickavance. ‘Now we have got a sophisticated calculator in the form of software. We have people who can operate calculators, but have very little or no idea of what the answer should be.’

To compound the problem, architects and engineers often don’t understand the software, and the contractors just provide print-outs. ‘Nobody is checking things to make sure they are meaningful until things go wrong and they are sent to someone like me and we see a complete load of junk,’ says Pickavance.

Pickavance makes the distinction between planners and programmes. Planning is an art form, he says, whereas programming is part art, part technical as the programmer translates the planner’s thoughts into the software.

The problem has been growing since 1998 when the development of the Pentium chip meant that programmes could be redrawn instantaneously. Technology has advanced immeasurably, those using it haven’t, claims Pickavance.

The big problem for contractors is a shortage of good planners. ‘They’re like hen’s teeth,’ says Pickavance.

CIOB is sending out a survey to chief executives this month to assess whether firms are struggling with overruns, what sort of time risk management systems they have in place and whether they would send employees on relevant training were the CIOB to provide it.

For a copy of the questionnaire, contact Michael Brown, CIOB deputy chief executive, at mbrown@ciob.org.uk