A Windows based Time Chainage application for Planning, Progress monitoring and Presentation
Also known as Line of Balance, it is a method of showing planned, forecast or actual progress in chart form using distance (or chainage) on the horizontal axis and time on the vertical axis. Unlike bar charts (Gantt Charts), time chainage charts show location and 'rates' of progress in addition to start and end dates. This makes time chainage charts extremely useful when planning or analyzing a construction project.
TimeChg2000 has been specifically designed to help you to carry out three main functions:-
Unlike bar chart style project management software, 'TimeChg' will calculate the duration of activities based on length and progress rates. The user inputs from and to chainages, peak rate, availability and downtime. 'TimeChg' will then calculate average rate and duration. This allows for rapid planning and presentation of projects.
Like most other project management software, it allows logic linking using predecessors and lags, caters for start constraints and performs network analysis. It caters for user-defined calendars with differing work patterns. Uniquely, for this kind of software, 'TimeChg' takes full account of weekends and holidays, showing true progress rates.
Activities can be grouped into user defined Main Tasks which provides a logical and convenient way to plan and display your project.
'TimeChg' can be used for all your planning requirements or in conjunction with bar chart applications as a complementary tool.
Tracking actual progress on a time chainage chart can be extremely useful. Actual progress is plotted on top of the planned programme and actual 'rates' of production can be compared visually with planned rates.
As time chainage charts are 2 dimensional, they show more information than a bar chart. Relative progress rates can be easily seen, problem areas are easily identified and completion dates can be forecast rapidly based on actual progress rates.
Charts included in TimeChg are:
Having planned and actual progress data in one location clearly has advantages for record keeping and progress analysis.
For appropriate types of project, the time chainage chart provides a clearer more easily understood picture of a project than a bar chart because it has a more graphical structure. Because of its 2 dimensional nature (time and distance), progress rates are shown and can be compared with different areas or between planned and actual.
Activities can be shown as either lines, bars or boxes and can be shown in any colour.
Very complex projects can be displayed on a single chart and still provide a clear picture of what is going on.
Charts can be plotted any size dependant on your printer/plotter capabilities. They can be zoomed to show specific areas of interest and filtered to show only specific work elements.
Annotation can be added to the charts, holidays and time now can also be shown. In addition, schematics can be plotted across the top of the chart.
Tabulated reports showing planning data can be printed to provide hard copy records
Interested in using this product?
If so, contact me at pbclarke@btopenworld.com for a free demonstration pack