Six early warnings that a construction schedule is slipping

A missed opening date is never the first sign of a schedule problem. It is the last one. By the time the date moves on paper, the job has usually been drifting for a month or more, and the signs were there for anyone standing on the site with the schedule in hand. We watch for six of them on our own jobs, and we tell owners to watch for the same six on anyone's.

The updates lose their nouns

A healthy job produces updates full of specifics: the underground plumbing passed Wednesday, the roofers finish Friday, the storefront ships on the fourth. A drifting job produces updates full of adjectives. Progress is good, the crews are working hard, we are handling a few issues. When the nouns disappear from the weekly report, something is being managed out of view. Ask what finished this week and what starts next week and expect two dates in the answer. The related warning is the milestone that keeps being next week. Every schedule has a next milestone, and it should change every week. If the rough-in inspection or the start of drywall has been described as next week three updates in a row, the schedule is stuck and the report has not caught up.

Changes arrive with a price but no date

A change order is a change to the scope, the cost and the calendar, and it should say all three even when one of them is zero. A pattern of changes that show a dollar amount and nothing about time is either a contractor who is not tracking the schedule or one who knows the answer and is not sharing it. We write the schedule effect on every change we issue, and we advise owners to send back any change that does not carry one.

The site is quieter than the schedule says

Walk the job on an ordinary Tuesday and count the trades. A schedule with work stacked back to back assumes each trade arrives when the one before it finishes. Empty days between them, a site with materials but no people, or one crew waiting on another that has not shown up are sequencing failures that will not appear in a report until they have already cost a week. Because framing, drywall, tile, paint, millwork and stone are our own crews, the gap between those trades on our jobs is a phone call, not a wait for another company's calendar to open up.

Inspections repeat

One failed or rescheduled inspection is ordinary. The same inspection failing twice, or several inspections sliding in a row, means either the work is not ready when it is called in or the quality is not there. Both cost days that compound, because every inspection sits in front of the next trade. Ask why the inspection failed and what changed before it was recalled. A clear answer is a good sign. A vague one is the last warning arriving early.

The contractor goes quiet

The clearest sign is a change in how bad news travels. A contractor who is in control of the job calls before you have to ask, tells you what happened, what it does to the opening date and what the recovery plan is. A contractor who has lost control waits to be asked, then explains. On our jobs a principal of the company walks the site every week and makes that call the day something moves, because an uncomfortable conversation in week three is far cheaper than an apology in week twelve.

One sign is a bad week. Two at once is a direct conversation. Ask for a reissued schedule with real dates, the list of what is on the critical path, and a recovery plan for anything that moved. A contractor who can hand that over is still running the job. One who cannot has told you what you need to know.

We build every schedule backward from the day the doors open, and the owner of the company is on site each week holding it to that date. Send over your plans, or your current schedule if the job is already drifting, and we will tell you where it really stands.