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THE PROFESSION
R NAL PROGGRAM IN PROJECTT MANAGGEMENT
P
PRMG 02
20 THE LIN
NE OF BALANC
CE SCHEEDULING TECH
HNIQUEE
Ghozllan, Ayah
h
Sectio
on : 03 3
PRMG 030
Project Budgeting & Financial Control Dr. Tarek Saker
CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION
II. HISTORY
VIII. REFERENCES
IX. NOTES
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Project Budgeting & Financial Control Dr. Tarek Saker
INTRODUCTION
In the context of construction projects, the LOB technique offers two main
advantages:
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Project Budgeting & Financial Control Dr. Tarek Saker
HISTORY
The LOB Scheduling Technique was originated by the Goodyear
Company in the early 1940's and was developed by the U.S. Navy in the early
1950's for the programming and control of both repetitive and non‐repetitive
projects.
LOB has not been fully developed and implemented by the U.S.
construction industry because of the immense popularity of network
techniques including CPM. Even though the development of LOB
predates networks, it is safe to state that LOB was not replaced by
network techniques but only continued to be seldom used as was the
case before the advent of networks.
Today, LOB application has been further expanded, making it suitable for
a whole spectrum of activities ranging from research and development
through job‐shop and process flow operations.
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Project Budgeting & Financial Control Dr. Tarek Saker
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EXAMPLE ON
LINE OF BALANCE SCHEDULING TECHNIQUE
Fig 1
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Fig. 2 has the ‘x’ axis as time and the ‘y’ axis as the number of units.
However, a Line of Balance Chart can be produced using units of work, linear
meters, m2 and m3 or even all three on the ‘y‘ axis, each one for a different
operation. In this respect excavation can be plotted showing the planned
quantity of spoil excavated per day, piling can be plotted showing the number
of piles to be constructed per day, concrete foundations and superstructures
can be plotted showing the number of pours to be completed per week. Even
Mechanical and Electrical works can be plotted on a Line of Balance Chart by
showing the meter lengths of cable tray, pipe work and cable to be installed
per day or per week.
There are no hard and fast rules to producing a Line of Balance Chart for
a project and as with all the methods in project planning it takes practice to
develop the expertise. To produce a Line of Balance Chart a program should be
developed in the normal fashion as a CPA, then a bar chart and then coded so
that common operations can be selected as a group.
The Line of Balance Chart shown in Fig. 2 shows the ideal situation as all
of the operations listed show the rate at which work is achieved as uniform.
This usually means the resources required will also be constant and is the ideal
scenario. It is much easier to manage the different operations of a project
where there is a common and uniform output required and a steady level of
resources. However, when a number of similar activities are extracted as a
group and then converted into a Line of Balance Chart it is not unusual to see
that the rate at which the work has to be carried out is erratic. Consequently
the fluctuation in the resources required is similarly erratic. In practice this is
untenable. It is very difficult to increase and decrease resources quickly and
regularly.
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For example, the Line of Balance Chart in Fig. 3 has been updated up to
week 12 of the project. It can be seen that that the Foundations are on
schedule and almost complete but Brickwork and Roof Construction are
running behind schedule. The Internal Works have not started but the
anticipated rate of work has been plotted on the chart and by extrapolation
the first unit will be completed 3 weeks late.
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Fig 3
This delay can be corrected by increasing the output for the Brickwork
and Roof Construction and the Internal Works by either taking measures to
increase efficiency or increasing the resources committed to the operation that
is not achieving the correct output.
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GENERAL NOTES
LINE OF BALANCE SCHEDULING TECHNIQUE
There are very few projects where a Line of Balance Chart cannot be
used and be of benefit. It is only small subcontracts where the activities are
scattered across the duration of a project that a Line of Balance will not be
useful; for all important subcontracts it will assist the management of the
subcontract and the project. They are usually much easier to read than a
detailed Bar Chart and a subcontractor should always provide them as part of
their progress reports. There is also every reason why the subcontractor’s Line
of Balance Charts should be included in a progress report provided by an MC to
an Employer or CA, particularly if a subcontract is falling behind schedule.
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LECTURE NOTES
LINE OF BALANCE SCHEDULING TECHNIQUE
GENERAL NOTES:
• It’s done for Limited number of activities.
• It’s done for Repetitive activities.
• Working group is called “Team”, “Crew” or “Gang”.
• Default working week is of 5 working days per week and of 8
working hour per day.
• The Rate of Construction of an activity is the slope of the
production line and I have to keep it constant (i.e. the lines
of activities are parallel).
• In order to maintain the Rate of Construction to be constant I have
to provide the needed crews whom can achieve this construction
rate (line of balance).
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STEPS OF WORK:
• STEP 1
Determine the Logic Diagram
A B C
B
A
D
B D
E C E
• STEP 2
Determine :
1. Man Hours / Unit needed for each activity.
6. Rate Of Construction.
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LECTURE EXAMPLE
LINE OF BALANCE SCHEDULING TECHNIQUE
**Givens:
• No. of Houses: 40 units. Activity Man hrs Gang Size
**Answer:
M H R
* Duration needed to construct 1 unit =
O .G S /
U W
* No. of Gangs Needed = D
O .G S
A
* Rate Of Construction =
C
OPERATION A
240
* Duration of A = = 10 Days
3 8
No. of Gangs 4 240
* = = 8 Gangs
Needed 3 8 5
* Start of unit 1A = Project Start
= Day 0
= Day 10
D
* Start of unit 40A = Start of Unit 1 + (n‐1)* .
= Zero +39*10/8
= Day 48.75
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58.75 Days
* Check = =11.75 Weeks
5 days/week
40 Houses
* Rate = =3.75 Houses/week
11.75 Weeks
OPERATION B
160
* Duration of B = = 3.33 Days
6 8
No. of Gangs 4 160
* = = 2.67 Gangs ≅ 3 Gangs
Needed 6 8 5
Rate of
* = 4*3/2.67 = 4.49
Construction
Since that the Rate of Construction of B is greater than the predecessor A, we will
***
take the Buffer up
* Start of unit 40B = Finish of Unit 40A + Buffer
= 58.75 + 4
= Day 62.75
= Day 66.08
D
* Start of unit 1B = Start of Unit 40 ‐ (n‐1)* .
= 62.75 ‐39*33.3/3
= Day 19.46
58.75 19.46
* Check = = 9.32 Weeks
5 days/week
OPERATION C
75
* Duration of C = = 1.87 Days
5 8
No. of Gangs 4 75
* = = 1.5 Gangs ≅ 2 Gangs
Needed 5 8 5
Rate of
* = 4*2/1.5 = 5.33
Construction
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Since that the Rate of Construction of C is greater than the predecessor B, we will
***
take the Buffer up
* Start of unit 40C = Finish of Unit 40B + Buffer
= 66.08 + 4
= Day 70.06
= Day 71.93
D
* Start of unit 1C = Start of Unit 40 ‐ (n‐1)* .
= 70.06 ‐39*1.87/2
= Day 33.60
**LOB Diagram :
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REFERENCES
1. Lecture Notes.
2. http://www.iit.edu/~aliss/index.html
3. LOB Paper.
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NOTES
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