Introducing Our Scheduling Department, Andrew Cole

The teams I predominantly work with right now are superintendents with a secondary focus on project managers. We are trying to get foremen, assistant superintendents more involved as well. A project team is the most cohesive and works best when we can all cross-check one another. If we can have everyone on our field teams to the same level of knowledge, I've done my job well.

My goal is to educate our teams with hands-on training to accomplish the department's mission of building world-class schedulers. We currently offer three tiers of scheduling training. All are welcome to take the intermediate to advanced courses. In addition to training, the scheduling department provides teams with a comprehensive assessment of schedule health, ensuring that the project is buildable and has sound logic.

Tier 1 Getting Started: This scheduling introductory training covers the concept of scheduling and sequencing. I will go over how we break down a job into its constituent parts: what's involved in preconstruction, what is involved in the construction phase, and how we do it logically. This two-hour in-person course is available to anyone who wants to join.

Tier 2 MS Project Fundamentals: We will dive deep into the software during the intermediate level. There are four sessions in this tier. The first session is in-person, with the last three virtual sessions. You will receive a set of prints for a fake project, spend some time at home creating a schedule, and finish with my feedback on your work. By the end of this training, you will come out as a fairly polished scheduler.

Tier 3 MS Project Advanced: This training will cover advanced user features. We will review running reports for active schedules, understand how to figure out the variance of schedules and check how to handle the complicated tasks of managing a schedule.

By giving our clients visibility to where the project is going and how we plan to get there, we can provide a sense of comfort that the best value will be delivered, even in the face of changes or issues.

We are looking into creating a dashboard for our teams and clients to provide information and transparency in their schedules. This dashboard will provide at-a-glance information on project health from a logic standpoint and allow the teams to focus on how the project gets built. We are also looking into AI capabilities to help improve our processes.

I have a degree in fisheries biology with an emphasis on freshwater systems. I was obsessed with fishing and still am, and I wanted to pursue that as a career. However, once I received my degree, the fisheries job market heavily leaned on unpaid internships and was considered more of a learning experience. I started working in the entertainment industry as a theater technician to make money. This opportunity exposed me to the ins and outs of being a carpenter, electrician, and running crew.

When I started working as a superintendent, I quickly realized that I needed to learn how to schedule to improve within my role. I spent the next month diving into what goes into scheduling by leaning on other superintendents and schedulers at the company. As I expanded my experiences, I never let go of my curiosity and desire to learn and build my skills. Approaching tasks with interest rather than judgment has allowed me to stay humble and has opened opportunities to learn from trade partners and colleagues. Coming from the superintendent world, I always carry a field perspective into my schedule reviews to ensure they will be successful from all angles of the project.