In construction, the only thing you know for certain is that a complex project will never go as planned. As per the oft-cited research by McKinsey & Company, large projects across asset classes typically take 20 percent longer to finish than scheduled and are up to 80 percent over budget. It’s likely, therefore, that no matter how well you plan upfront, at some point, you are going to be facing a situation in which your project has run off the rails. How does this happen? And how can ALICE help you to recover your project?
Why Do Large Construction Projects Go Wrong?
Even if you’ve done an excellent job in developing your construction schedule up front, there are myriad ways in which things can go awry during the execution phase. As the boxer Mike Tyson once said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” You may be faced with a delay in the shipment of essential materials for your project, such as lumber or steel. A key project task may slip -- such as the completion of a tunnel. This, in turn, could cause other associated tasks to slip. Your construction site may be hit with severe weather, making it impossible for you to proceed until it clears. Or, you could experience a labor shortage -- a dearth of skilled framers, for example -- that could set you back. In short, there are countless opportunities for your schedule to go wrong. The smart move, therefore, is to count on this -- and to have tools at your disposal to get your project back on track.
How Can You Use ALICE to Recover Your Project Schedule?
ALICE customers regularly use our construction simulation and optimization platform during the early stages of their projects. With ALICE, they are able to test myriad different options and come up with a construction plan that best fits their business objectives.
With increasing frequency, these same customers are now using the ALICE platform during the project execution phase. ALICE Manage is designed to help contractors during the building process to analyze the impact of changes in circumstances -- such as that delay in the completion of your tunnel -- and then resequence the original construction plan to minimize the impact of these changes on the baseline schedule.
With ALICE Manage, a global contractor working on a large highway project recently was able to resequence their schedule and get their project back on track when the building of a bridge along the route took longer than originally planned. Another contractor used ALICE Manage for project recovery on the building of a large residential tower that suffered construction delays due to severe storms in the region.
If you are currently working on a project that is experiencing substantial delays, or if you want to prepare your company to manage through these delays when they inevitably occur, contact us to discuss how ALICE can help.
