WBS
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Andy CadmanMember for 20 years 9 months
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Just wondered if somebody could help me. I am new to planning in the M&E/Rail industry and my company has a contract to install/supply site facilities in a new build control centre. How should I go about building the WBS? Should it be based upon the following:
Control Room
Equipment Room
Plant Room
Offices
Gatehouse
Etc
To do this, I figure that I would also need top-level elements such as Inspection & Testing, Commissioning etc
Or, should it be based upon what has to be done in terms of work? i.e.:
Electrical Installation
Mechanical Installation
Plumbing Installation
Testing & Commissioning
One of the project Managers has already pointed out that the first option does not naturally fall into the way the job will be done. For example, when the ductwork for the ventilation system is installed, it will be done throughout the whole building and not on a room by room basis. I have pointed out however, that the WBS does not segregate the work but helps to identify the scope of work to be done and the sequence of the activities will be in terms of the individual predecessors/successors. He doesn’t seem to accept this but I don’t think he is very experienced with planning anyway.
What I feel could be done to the first option is to add another top-level element called ‘Main building Services’. Even though the other rooms are inside the main building it would enable activities like the ductwork example above to be included no problem.
Would be grateful for any help from you experts on this.
Andy
Control Room
Equipment Room
Plant Room
Offices
Gatehouse
Etc
To do this, I figure that I would also need top-level elements such as Inspection & Testing, Commissioning etc
Or, should it be based upon what has to be done in terms of work? i.e.:
Electrical Installation
Mechanical Installation
Plumbing Installation
Testing & Commissioning
One of the project Managers has already pointed out that the first option does not naturally fall into the way the job will be done. For example, when the ductwork for the ventilation system is installed, it will be done throughout the whole building and not on a room by room basis. I have pointed out however, that the WBS does not segregate the work but helps to identify the scope of work to be done and the sequence of the activities will be in terms of the individual predecessors/successors. He doesn’t seem to accept this but I don’t think he is very experienced with planning anyway.
What I feel could be done to the first option is to add another top-level element called ‘Main building Services’. Even though the other rooms are inside the main building it would enable activities like the ductwork example above to be included no problem.
Would be grateful for any help from you experts on this.
Andy
5 replies
Oldest first- 0David Kelly ·My rule of thumb is this. P3’s activity codes can be used to create dictioneries for say,
Location:
Control Room
Equipment Room
Plant Room
Offices
Gatehouse
And Worktype:
Electrical Installation
Mechanical Installation
Plumbing Installation
Testing & Commissioning
And the real power of P3 is revealed when you "Format Organise" by these dictioneries.
What I want to use the WBS for is maintaining syncronisation with other departments, e.g. estimating (BoQ stuff) Costing or Finance. I like to use WBS as the coding structure that lets these departments segment work the same way. So the WBS would idealy be created by a committee of people from these different departments.
- 0Charleston-Joseph Orbe ·Hi Andy,
The basic of WBS is understanding the three letter: W - Work, B - Breakdown, S - Structure.
Then the next step is to understand the question: How to Breakdown the Work.
It is very important to know the Project Scope of Work in this way it will give you an understanding on How to breakdown the Work into Hierarchy. Take note of the word: Heirachy.
The above is only the basic of WBS. In my experienced, I always used the above guideline and explained my position using the above principle.
Cheers and Happy Planning (you only just begun),
Charlie
- 0Jose Frade ·Hello Andy,
Please remember that WBS is not the only way you can organize the project.
Very often I use for WBS:
10 Engineering
10.10 Basic
10.20 Detail Design
10.20.10 Civil
10.20.10.10 Building A
10.20.10.20 Building B
10.20.10.20.10 Achitectural
10.20.10.20.20 Etc.
10.20.20 Mechanical
10.20.30 ETC
20 Procurement
30 Manufacturing/Transport
40 Erection
50 Testing/Commissioning
-------------------------------
And then in the Databse structure I create codes to make the sort by places:
Ex: Units, Buildings, Level, Room, Coordinator, Phase(Eng, Procurement, Contruction, Test), Discipline(Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, piping,) , Etc.
This allows you to present the activities on a location basis and basically is used to plan/report to people directly involved in the field.
Brief: You have to find a compromise between your need to controle the project and the way to comunicate with the other people (one without the other=failure)
I hope it could be any help.
BR
JMFrade
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