Organizational aspects of planning and scheduling subsystem

A comprehensive research for defining the organizational aspects of a construction contractor's subsystems was performed to provide these contractors with benchmarks for evaluating their subsystems. This paper describes the organizational aspects of Planning and Scheduling subsystems. The objective of this research was accomplished by surveying the literature, and by communicating with twenty one construction industry experts through a comprehensively structured questionnaire. The research results define the organizational aspects of a planning and scheduling department with respect to the key functions, location in the organization, key personnel, duties of chief planning and scheduling engineer, planning and scheduling tools, planning and scheduling techniques, links with other departments and most effective practices. These organizational aspects expound the contractors with the effective subsystem for bettering project effectiveness in largely cost oriented industry. The research reveals and recommends the various aspects and practices of the planning and scheduling subsystem which helps in organizing an ideal contractor system. The paper also presents an index mentioning all the identified organizational aspects of the planning and scheduling subsystem.