CPM Scheduling
Critical Path Method Scheduling
CPM stands for Critical Path Method, a project controls process that identifies all the discrete bits of work that go into the full body of work for whatever is being planned, and organizes those bits of work into their logical sequences, creating the Plan”. RPMI likes the phrase “Plan the Work, Work the Plan”, as it encapsulates the objective of CPM scheduling.
CPM scheduling can be applied to any process – RPMI have scheduled design, software development, and the legal process (not the delay claim, but the management of the delay claim). In the classroom we work with an example of boiling an egg, where the unit of time used is one minute. In the context of RPMI, however, CPM is applied to the planning and management of the development, design, construction, occupancy, mediation, and/or litigation of construction projects
Twenty-eight Years of Experience
RPMI has been scheduling complex projects for over twenty-eight years. RPMI’s method of producing and updating cost- and resource-loaded CPM schedules is a product of extensive failed-project research as part of its delay analysis and expert witness services for owners, designers and contractors in project delay litigation.
Through this experience, RPMI understands how an effective, updated schedule can leverage both an owner and a contractor away from the need for litigation by providing the means to immediately identify delays, present solutions, and predict the results of remedial efforts.
RPMI has PM-level CPM schedulers experienced in all areas of construction who understand project planning and control.
For more information on the principles of CPM Scheduling read our article “CPM and Resource Loading“. To learn about some of the common misconceptions in building a Project Master Plan, read our article, “Master Plan Myths“.
Litigation and Delay claim Avoidance
RPMI has an excellent record on the projects it schedules and maintains for builders – there are no delay claims at the end of the project. This is not to say these projects do not have delays, every project does somewhere along the line. The difference is that in the normal course of schedule management, RPMI identify, quantify, and bring focus to issues that present schedule risk, regardless of ownership. RPMI respects, and causes its clients to respect, the obligation to mitigate damages to all parties, and leverages the CPM schedule to accomplish this, on a cyclic (typically monthly) basis, as a normal course of action. We have some great stories to tell about this process and our track record.