Resource Allocation and Resource Leveling - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 146

assigned 0% because it represents 0% completion. The next 10 increments
represent 10%, 20%, … , 100% completion. For example, increments of 0,
1, 3, 8, 15, 23, 23, 15, 8, 3, and 1 represent a bell-shaped curve. Note that
the 11 increments must total 100%. With such a tool, you can concentrate
the resources at the beginning, middle, or end of the duration of the activity.
In the bell-shaped curve, the resources are concentrated in the middle. The
contractor may use this feature to concentrate the budget at the beginning of
the activity ( front-end loading the cost ).
Resource Leveling from the General Contractor's Perspective
For the past few decades, subcontracting has increased to the point that many general
contractors subcontract everything in a project and perform nothing with their own
workforce, if they have any. Yet, the general contractor is still responsible for main-
taining the project schedule for the owner. In this case, resource leveling no longer
becomes a concern to the general contractor because the resources are not directly
managed by him or her. Instead, the general contractor must manage the overall work
of the subcontractors. However, the general contractor may still be concerned with
the following four issues:
1. Keeping up with the subcontractors' schedules and the number of workers
each subcontractor has, each day. The general contractor must make sure that
the site is not congested to the point of impeding work or causing safety issues.
The general contractor must also be convinced that the subcontractors have
sufficient resources in order to make adequate progress.
2. If the owner's purchased equipment and materials are to be used, the general
contractor must be in full coordination with the relevant subcontractor with
regard to the time and method of delivery.
3. When the general contractor is providing equipment such as a crane to the
subcontractors, the general contractor must coordinate the use of this equip-
ment and prioritize the subcontractors' needs, using the concept of resource
leveling.
4. For project control, the general contractor must enter the budget of each activ-
ity into the computer program and then record and verify the progress of that
activity so that the subcontractor is paid in a timely and accurate manner.
In such cases, each subcontractor may do his or her own resource leveling, with
one important difference: the subcontractor's schedule is part of the general contrac-
tor's master schedule . As is typical of any critical path method (CPM) schedule, each
subschedule may contain a range of dates for noncritical activities (i.e., early start, early
finish, late start, and late finish). In many cases, the general contractor requires “sched-
uled dates” for certain activities (i.e., a single set of dates chosen between the early and