Plan On / Plan Off:

Managing Resources for Complex Projects

Brent Burklund, Sr. Project Controls Mgr.

Black & Veatch
September, 2019
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Introduction
The techniques and issues related to those
techniques used to level resources for complex
industrial projects vary based on company, culture
and individual philosophy of the project controls
professional developing CPM-based schedules.
There has been considerable debate over which
method is the best and the following is meant to
provide support and understanding of the
technique that has been utilized for years by me
and others at Black & Veatch for planning of power
plant projects. It will seem unorthodox for those
not familiar with its use, but has proven to be
successful in setting plan dates, especially when
pure logic doesn’t provide enough structure to
establish plan dates that align with labor executing
the work. For the purposes of this paper, the
descriptions and examples will be based on an EPC scope of work for a highly complex, industrial
facility. The engineering hours required to execute will exceed 100,000 work hours, the
construction labor will exceed 1 million work hours, and the total project value will be in the
hundreds of millions of dollars. It is in these most difficult projects to execute where the most
benefit will be realized by the techniques to follow.

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Contents

Introduction ...................... 1
Contents............................ 2
Problem ............................ 3
Solution ............................. 6
Conclusion....................... 10

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Problem
The main issue with CPM-based schedule development is the complexity of the logic and the
resources required to be allocated to task activities to support that detailed logic in the
schedule. Utilizing only the early or late dates that scheduling software calculates based upon
pure logic does not, without adding an overwhelming amount of logic, constraints, or activities,
support development of a plan that the team can set and manage. This paper will give examples
for each phase of the work and the focus/complexity associated with each for the planning of
the work.

Examples of Results from Pure Logic Resource Analysis are below. It can clearly be seen that per
the early dates, everything is due at the same time and utilizing the late dates a similar peak
occurred creating a worse problem.

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Engineering
The sequences for developing engineering deliverables are aligned with processes for the
engineering phase of the work. There is considerable debate on the best way to manage the
engineering drawings and deliverables, but identifying a deliverable required by the project
scope and creating milestones without the supporting sequence leading up to that issue date
rarely works to plan a complex project. Dates will be missed and the team will have a myriad of
issues/delays/excuses why dates weren’t met. Some of the excuses will be valid and some
won’t, but all will have a better chance for mitigation if the impact is known earlier in the
project timeline. Adding more detail to the engineering effort tends to help accomplish that
early identification. In addition, there are significant quality and team reviews that have to be
planned in addition to codes and other industry best practices/requirements to inform your
design activities. The work will be broken down by discipline and by individual groups within
that discipline. There also will be several ties that take place between the different disciplines
so that one must complete a design sequence so that the next discipline can begin their work
building upon that design

Civil Structural Engineering

The sequences for developing engineering deliverables are aligned with processes for the
foundations and structural components of the project. This results in many independent
foundations that have to be designed and many independent structures.

Mechanical and Chemical Engineering

The sequences for developing engineering deliverables are aligned with processes for process
diagram development and design and for the physical locations of equipment, piping, and
miscellaneous mechanical materials that make up the facility. Typical deliverables will be P&IDs,
Plant Arrangements, Isometrics, and piping support details.

Electrical and Control/Instrument Engineering

The sequences for developing engineering deliverables are aligned with processes for auxiliary
power design, raceway and cable support systems, control design including logics for
programming, cable routing, schematic design, and circuit list development.

Procurement
The sequences for procurement of equipment and materials are aligned with internal processes
related to technical specification development, financial budgeting for scope associated, and
commercial terms as they exist in the prime agreement as well as insurance and payment
procedures for each. Keys are tech specification development, awards, and delivery of materials
and equipment. The key issue is that many of these equipment or material sequences can be
undertaken concurrently and pure logic requires unlimited resources to on the early

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dates(forward pass) or the late dates(backward pass). This means that planning with either date
is not effective for execution of this phase of the work.

Construction and Commissioning

Construction
The sequences for construction phase are the most subjective and fluid of all the sequences that
will be included in the CPM schedule. Some ties will always be required as in setting a piece of
equipment subsequent to the foundation or supporting structure being installed prior to
installing pipe or equipment at elevation. This inherent flow is the reason that many develop a
plan by simply tying the sequences together and working to the early dates. This is problematic
as dates are always being missed and construction will show behind plan without real impact to
completion date of the project. However, very often craft levels on a complex project peak to a
level that makes management of that many people on one site impossible. This is caused by the
‘snowplow’ effect of early date planning. The project is fine until enough work is pushed out too
late to manage and the project end date is now in jeopardy.

Commissioning

By this phase of the job, managing excess float is a rare occurrence and pure logic is a good
method for managing resources provided that the turnovers from construction have been setup
properly to not overload the end of the project. Key to management of resources in
commissioning is to understand that construction must not turnover all work packages to the
startup team at once. The turnover packages must also be broken down into smaller,
manageable pieces so that walk downs, check out of systems, and punch list development for
each does not take weeks to occur.

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Solution
Plan on / Plan off
Plan on/Plan off is a method of resource leveling that allows the scheduling effort for the project
to maintain pure logic and still level out the workload to align with the staffing of those doing
the work. Essentially, the scheduler would develop the schedule detail for each phase of the
work E, P, and C, tie them together, and then once the sequence and float paths have been
validated by the project team, put in the plan on/plan off structure. This structure works best in
a backward pass scenario where late dates are utilized, so they don’t move around during
execution, and those late dates are moved earlier using the lag values of the milestones in the
structure.

The structure consists of additional milestones and lags that are developed for each phase of
the project and for each deliverable type differentiated by the type of individual required to
perform the work. See figure 1-1 for a visual representation of the structure.

The functionality provided by the structure allows the user to pull the lag from in-between a
milestone and the overall end of the project to turn the plan ‘off’ and allow free float to drive
the critical path analysis. In each subsequent phase of the work, more detail on how to break
down the individual completion dates for scopes of work, deliveries, or deliverables, etc. to
manage the project’s resources.

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Engineering
For the engineering phase of the work, the easiest way to break down the work is to generate
groups of like deliverables and create individual milestones within the plan on/plan off network
representing each group of each deliverable type. The example below illustrates the
foundations broken down into groups and their corresponding lags to calculate the ‘planned
date’ for issuance of those foundation drawings for construction. The example shown is for
foundation drawings is a good one for a couple of rea

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Procurement
Generally, the key to success for planning of procurement activities on a complex project is too
space out the Awards to align with not only the engineers specifying the work, but also the
commercial staff required to negotiate terms and conditions, research insurance, and pull
together the overall specification to conform and execute the agreement .

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Construction
In the majority of cases for the construction phase of the work, early dates are used to establish
a plan for the job. This mentality is the simplest and quickest way to baseline a schedule, but
does not provide margin against the plan and puts this phase of the work in a reactive position
to stay on ‘plan’. Using a plan on/plan off backwards pass approach, the team can still utilize
the early dates for taking advantage of opportunities while not being penalized for being unable
to stay on the early curve. The below is an example of sitework and foundation structures as
this portion of the work is more subjective and has the most flexibility for installation
preference.

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Conclusion
Plan on/plan off is a proven method to level resources while maintaining the purest of logic
within your complex project schedule. Very often, preferential logic or Primavera calculated
resource leveling is used to manage resources. Both fall short of expectations due to limitations
that each possess. Preferential logic ties things that are not related and makes float analysis
more difficult. It can also create uncertainty amongst the team members and loss of faith in the
most important planning tool on the project. Once the team is no longer supporting the
schedule, the value is lost. Using Primavera calculated plan dates creates a schedule that
doesn’t have team involvement. The team needs to set plan dates and own the plan for their
work. If buy-in and ownership don’t exist from the ones doing the work, then no plan exists.
The schedule becomes a reporting tool only and not for its intended purpose, to manage the
project and help mitigate and overcome challenges that are also part of complex project
execution.

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