Gannt Charts in Project Management

Indirectly, a construction company failed and then ultimately died because Gantt charts were never maintained for its project. The company was hit with big penalties and charges and gradually had to shut down construction, which was already behind schedule by fifteen months.

I have mentioned in my earlier article about the usefulness of Gantt Charts as a tool to aid better management. However, they do not give all answers to your problems. I emphasized that the absence of such a chart could be disastrous: recently one company fell into receivership, partially on account of not maintaining a Gantt chart showing the critical paths of an important project.

Penalty Charges
The contract failed to reflect a time schedule plan for a project explaining the various procedures involved in the construction of the apartment block. Some alterations were introduced by the client which were a deviation from the original plan. In the absence of the time schedule plan, a revised plan could not be produced specifying as to how the alteration would affect the timely completion of the project. This culminated in a delay in handing over by good 15 months from the original date agreed upon, leading to avoidable penalty.

The company needed to prove it was not responsible for the project delay and therefore avoid fines by the customer. It had to demonstrate the following:
1-It was on schedule to meet the original expectation as detailed in the contract
2-The delays were caused by customer initiated specification changes that resulted in additional work and expense.

They just had a few spreadsheets giving out the tasks undertaken: with each change, a new spreadsheet was added. The differences from the original plan were not shown on the spreadsheets, nor was the impact on the end date on account of such changes shown.

Would A Gantt Chart Have Helped?
A Gantt Chart would have performed as a gauge for keeping track of the progress if one had been established at the contract phase. The additional jobs which needed to be completed by the company could have been factored in and the length of the existing jobs could have been altered if and when the client asked for changes in the provisions; the slippage in the surrender date would have been plainly evidenced by this. The client might have been asked to consent to an adjusted finish date and then sign a revision to the existing contract.

The company did not have these project management tools in place, and so was not able to show that that the delays didn't result from their own inefficiency. It could, though, be argued that not having adequate software for project management does, in fact, show that the company was inefficient.

When called upon to supervise a time-bound project on behalf of a customer, there is a need to use of appropriate tools such and Gantt and other charts to monitor the progress and plan out the effect of changes in circumstances will have on the work, and inform all concerned about such changes.

The failure to maintain any Gantt tables for a planned job was an indirect factor in a construction firm's lack of success and premature collapse. With operations running almost 15 months late, it had also been assessed heavy penalties and ultimately needed to shut down its business.

Steve Wilheir is a management and marketing consultant. Consult these resources to learn more about Gantt Charts, Pert Charting, and Project Management Software.

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