I need to update a schedule for a 6 MM$ project (18 months duration from engineering, procurement to construction), The project team is relatively small (1 lead engineer, 1 project engineer, 1 CAD operator, 1 purchaser/buyer). We issued the baseline last week. I am planning to update the engineering and the procurement portion of the schedule on a monthly basis and the construction phase (which hasn’t started yet) on a weekly basis. However, the project engineer wants to update the engineering portion of the schedule on a weekly basis. There was no planner/scheduler before I arrived to this group and the schedules were developed by a planner who is in the head office and sent the baselines and updates by e-mail.
I would like to ask the experienced guys what would you suggest as to how frequent should I update the different phases of the EPC schedule. Also, I would like to know –and this is more important- HOW do you this? I mean, I am planning the following:
- Send them in advance, previous to the Schedule Update Meeting, a PDF version of a 4 weeks look-ahead schedule and have them mark it up with actual start or finish dates or new forecast dates of the activities that are on this timeframe (4 weeks or 1 month)
- Collect the information on the Schedule Update Meeting, the last Friday of every month (this meeting could last between 15 to 30 minutes)
- Enter the information provided into the schedule
- Review of impacts of the new dates
- Issue the updated schedule for the time period
The information that I will collect will be: Actual Start, Actual, Finish for activities that have started and/or finished during this time period or New Forecast Date for activities that have not been completed yet. Also, I will get % Complete.
Please let me know if I am doing it the right way. I appreciate very much your comments and/or suggestions. Thank you very much in advance.