In reality what does a Construction Project Planning Engineer do or made to do?

a Planning engineer is 75% of a project manager.In Absence of PM planning engineer is the lead of TEAM.All the documents lead to perform the EARNED VALUE only.THIS EVM technique is from Arabian and Indian merchants gone To Europe,then to US.WHO built the Pyramids,Taj mahal,Tanjore temple,madurai meenakshi temple,etc.even after thousand years they are alive. coming to the planning in construction site monitoring and controlling has to be done by the planning engineer in this PHASE.The necessary documents all already prepared by the head planning in planning phase itself, and in construction phase only monitoring the risks and updating itself enough.Not simply filling up the blanks, its a real analysis every word written by the planning engineer in the documents.ITS not a yes or no method, if yes means all the features related to the question are analysed the result is positive , hence yes, i.e. .the meaning.

Construction industry in India merely revolves around contracts and more contracts. The association of owners and contractors is limited to contracts and there is no focus on the values of the project.

It is high time that we Indians realize the importance of lean construction and start implementing its tools. It has been established that most of the project faliures occur because of improper planning. We invest too heavily in planning the project first and we lack alternative approaches which we may require during the execution. All construction projects are unique and then how can we use their data to plan the project comprehensively at the beginning?

Western world has taken to lean construction in a big way and is reaping its rewards. We need to implement the Last Planner System and start focussing on the entire construction process rather than only the activities. To successfully reduce cost and increase efficiency the wastes of construction process must be done away with. Comprehensive weekly plans should be developed taking inputs from the last planners (those who will actually execute the project). Failures to stick to the weekly work plans should be investigated and thus they will be prevented in the future.

Planning by defination is a desk job, hence it can only be done on paper and hence documented. So planning engineers (PE) end product generally are documents. Like all other professional who are held responsible for after effect of their job a PE is held responsible for documentation which is the end product of their job.

The quality of the document created by a PE is dependentend on the policies and stratigies of the company with which he/she is employed or some times dependent on the Project Manager who handles the project.

For example I use the inputs of my PE as a local level MIS. My PE are more involved in micro planning of activities than the macro one. Mirco goal achivement is very important. Fridays schedule of activity if finalised on Wednesday helps you asign avaiable resourse optimally so that the plan can be achived.However if you fail to achive planned progress at least you know how far you are and what should be a local level mitigation plan

Planning and Managing the Multiple projects is my current assignment since four years.

No doubt the paper work is the base of this professission bu not in enterity.

There was always interaction with the Project managers,Project engineers,client and consultants to check the effectiveness of the Main construction programs, Billing Programs, Budjet requirements,Material,Man power requirements including the drwing requirement schedules.

The bottle necks are spotted at every stage,site problems were taken care of ,Sugggestions were given to the project engineers and improvements are achieved.

Project Planning is not a simple thing. It is not just an operator who can handle MSP/Primavera. There are some responsibilities which are involved in Planning Engineers shoulder-

1. Resource Planning (includes Manpower, Tools & Plant, Machinery, Money etc)
2. Risk Analysis
3. Budget & its analysis
4. Co-ordination with Architects, Consultants, Site PM/ In charge
5. Proper scheduling, Monitoring and updating
6. Cost Controlling

Some of our friends have showed their views that, planning engineer should have in depth knowledge, I do agree with him. Another Mr. Shaju has written some valuable lines, I do also agree with him.

Over and above, the main thing is, where you are standing right now? Whether the organization has a clear knowledge of Planning Engineer’s responsibility or not?

We are all engineers may be Civil may be any other dept. but, our main motto is to serve for the organization best of our knowledge. If your organization is satisfied with your activities and they don’t ask for any analysis and keeping you for documentation only then what you will do?

Project engineers are involved in selecting the appropriate techniques and sequence of events for a particular project, liaising with the site agent and surveyor throughout the process, making adjustments to projects as necessary;

They are the one who are involved in Planning and managing the Projects as they monitoring progress throughout the construction process and comparing this with the projected schedule of work.

I am in the industry for sometime now and have worked in India, Saudi and the heaven of high rise, Dubai. I strangely find that one of the first question asked from any gentleman applying for Planning job is whether he knows the softwares or not. I dont think mere knowledge and command on softwares can make you planning engineers. A planning engineer is a person who has good knowledge of all the different components/departments of project so that he can put them together on paper. For this to happen, a person should know about the technical details of project, its specifications, the contract, BOQ etc to incorporate these in the project plan/program.

Once the plan/program is made/approved/accepted for the project, the planning engineer continously monitors it to check for any deviations and to efficiently diagnose them. This might be done by prepairing another plan ie recovery plan, in case the deviation is towards negative side. After this phase the Planning Engineers responsibility is to prepare close out reports ie to document everything that happened during the project.

I believe most of the contractors are doing it in Dubai as the clients are making them to do so for effective controlling of the project.

Please note that without proper finanical planning, the project management engineers plans of completing the given project in time, is very difficult.An Integrated approach is required for site engineers to cooperate with financial planners, who along with internal auditors, will be questioning the project engineers on various expenditure details. hence A Comprehenisve planning is required covering all functional areas of the Company.

I work in the middle east and here, the concept of having planning engineers in this part of the world is purely in its academic terms and definition that they are responsible from the creation of WBS till the closure of project. However, most of the organisation limit them with scheduling and cost related responsibilities like budgeting and cost loading leaving it to the cost controllers. But, my 8 years experience in the capacity of Planning engineers had the responisbility of creation of WBS, activity listing, coordination with the document controls in document/dreawing referencing with respect to the WBS, activity scheduling, cost breakdown. cost loading, performance monitoring and closing out.

well I dont agree that most CPWD or Govt. or Public sector Projects fail or run behind schedule. Projects planned properly can be executed as per plan. No dought some of the projects may face time overruns but cost overruns are very less. But again hindrances which occure during execution are beyond control of a Planning Engineer. Everbody is aware that most highway projects are getting delayed due to nonavailabilty of site. Hindrances of such type can not be predicted in advance. Some times market conditions become so adverse , executing agencies find it difficult to perform contracts. Like in recent yeras there has been boom in construction/infrastructure/road projects. But required manpower was not available which has resulted in slow progress of works. There is no system available in india whereby we can know what is requirement of skilled manpower in particular state in particular period of time.Even shortage of civil engineers is being  faced by projects today. Sometimes demand is generated by start of many big projects in small cities  where even construction materials in requisite quantity are not avaialable. These all factors will effect  both govt. as well as private sector projects and difficult to predict at planning stage.

site engineers are to be used for execution in time but there should be strong support from planning department so that they can achieve the goal in time.Planning engineer should make them aware of the resources , the way to do the work faster.

Yes, it is planning & Manging projects job. the person who held this job shold have depth knowledge of the project. so he can schedule and can allocate the resources. But he need to tak with all consern manager continuosly, so he can correctly plan and manage the project.

Due to vast nature of the project, some time the planner may fill that he is doing merely documentation & follow up, but he sholud be keep paitions

One man can not do complete planning & scheduling the project.

Project Planning is an abused term in our country. Any individual with operating knowledge of MSP or Primavera is termed as Planning Engineer wheras a person with experience & indepth knowledge of project can plan the project. Planning is an important exercise in the begining but extremely important during implementation to have the check & balances as well as foresight of the project.

Well we can not undermine role of a planning Engineer in A project. Most of the things are executed as per planning done by planning engineer. Specification are descided, cost is decided. and structural system is decided. If proper planning is done and strutural design and design of services associated with the project is done with due deligence there is no way project can not go as per plan and as per schedule and project can also be completed on time with the same cost. But again planning also need experience of field work and is not a simple estimation or quantity surveying or preparing Bill of quantities and thorough knowledge of project site to asses all cost aspects accurately. 

Dear Nitin,

To plan a project, the engineer should do a detailed WBS study which will give him clear information on what should happen at site. Then he documents the project plan. The planning engineers job is not ending there. He have to track the project and so the daily activities at site are to be followed by him. This will be possible only by close interaction with the site. Again planning engineer have to analyse slippages and report. All this will make the role of a planning engineer much more than just documentation..

Your role depands upon your employer .

If you are working for any construction company , I mean from contractor side than what Nitin is telling is true.

But it will be differant if you are working from client side or from a consultant.

So there are lot to do as a planning engineer , it all depands on you and your employer.