By Dr. Awad Hanna, PE, FASCE, NAC

Pre-construction planning is defined as a set of comprehensive activities initiated after project award that should be completed before mobilizing to construction. Research done by this writer showed that projects that used a formalized pre-construction planning process identical or close to the model developed by this writer had an average profit margin of 23%, while projects that did not use a process like the one developed had an average profit margin of -3%. The full scope of the pre-construction planning process can be found at http://www.hannaconsultinginc.com/books-publications/productivity-management/.

Regardless of the planning used, there are common key strategies for successful implementation of any pre-construction process. Provided below are several strategies for successfully implementing a pre-construction planning process as a standard procedure on all of your projects.

• Top managers must reinforce their commitment to a standardized planning process and must ensure planning is performed on every project.
• The model planning process will need to be tailored to each project based on its individual characteristics. For example, a small project might spend only five minutes on some of the activities, whereas a large project might spend several hours or days on those same activities.
• The benefits of implementing a standardized planning process are demonstrated by a system for tracking the success of projects that are well-planned and follow the model planning process. This will have a powerful impact on your employees at your annual state-of-the-company address.
• In addition to implementing the model planning process, consider implementing a “double-check” system, where the supervisor double checks the planning that was performed by the project manager. This will ensure the planning is performed consistently across the company.
• Ensure that excellent planning effort is applied to those activities that are identified as “critical,” such as: turnover meeting, material handling, and scope review, among others. These are the activities that have the greatest potential for impacting the outcome of the project. If you have a very short time between the notification of pending award and when you need to begin working on the jobsite, perform the critical activities first, then perform the important activities after completing the critical activities.
• The early involvement of the field supervisor in the planning process has been shown to improve the chances for a successful project. Therefore, consider selecting and involving your field supervisor during the bidding stage or in the early part of the post-award stage.
• The planning kickoff meeting alerts all involved team members that the planning process is officially underway, and it allows the project manager to establish deadlines for completion of activities. Likewise, the construction execution kickoff meeting brings the team members back together to review the progress of the planning and ensures that all tasks have been, or will be, completed by the deadline. These two meetings should be held on all projects regardless of size.
• Lessons learned and a feedback loop will be an essential part of your standardized planning process. Project Managers and field supervisors should share planning practices that worked especially or did not work well. While the model planning process identified in this document identifies the planning activities that should be performed, there are many methods to perform the activities. It is these different methods, and their subsequent results, that should be shared in your company.

Consequently, projects that are planned using the pre-construction planning process can expect to increase their chances of achieving a successful outcome; however, it must be noted that good planning alone will not guarantee the success of a project. Instead: Good planning coupled with good project management that takes into account a project’s specific characteristics will improve the likelihood of achieving successful project performance.

Therefore, good planning should be performed during the pre-construction stage, and good project management should be applied during the execution stage to maximize the chances of completing a project successfully.

Dr. Awad Hanna is Boldt Company professor and chair of the Construction Engineering and Management program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Hanna is a consultant to the construction industry and longtime provider of management training to Electrical Contractors Association of BC. He can be reached at ashanna@wisc.edu.