"Plan the work and work the plan," contractors often say, but the strategy is often easier said than carried out. To improve productivity, some owners, engineers and contractors in the industrial sector are rethinking established planning concepts to remove constraints from the field, improve predictability and better enable crews to "work the plan." Through early alignment of engineering and construction planning, these firms carry better certainty from design through project execution, helping crews spend less time on non-productive tasks.
During the past three years, the Construction Industry Institute and the Construction Owners Association of Alberta have partnered to review case studies, collect best practices and standardize a model for implementing early planning techniques. Under the title "Advanced Work Packaging: Design Through Workface Execution," CII published its findings in late 2013 and showed how implementing its AWP model could yield remarkable results. Teams using AWP techniques have realized a 25% improvement in productivity, a 10% reduction in total installed cost and better safety performance on projects. Teams have claimed improvements in quality and better predictability of schedule and cost.