The various construction activities can be planned considering the following factors:
Manpower: Type of manpower required by the project for its execution,
is first decided and whether this type of manual labour is cheaply
and sufficiently available round the year. To decide whether the
labour is costly or cheap, planner must consider the output given by
the labour.
Completion period: Every project is required to be completed in a
particular duration. Since delay in completion of project means
increase in construction cost due to rise in prices, payment of
overhead for more period, imposing of penalty for delay etc. The
completion period plays a deciding role about the extent of
mechanisation, since less the completion period more the
mechanisation.
Nature of work: Where the nature of work is such, which is beyond the
scope of human labour to perform, use of construction equipments is
unavoidable. Nature of work includes adverse weather, climatic
conditions, topography etc.
Availibility of money: Since cost of equipment is too high and to be
spend initially, it needs heavy investment in the beginning.
Therefore it is main factor in deciding the extent of mechanisation.
Availability of indigenous equipment: The import of costly equipment
and of spare parts proves a drain on foreign exchange resources of
the country. After sales service, repair facility are also considered
where equipments manufactured in our own country are not available.
Labour relations: In certain areas, past experience indicates labour
unrests, strikes, absentism or seasonal fluctuations.
Site conditions are also taken into account for deciding the
activities.
The Construction equipment & machinery required can be decided considering the following factors:
Suitability for job conditions: The equipment must meet the
requirement of the work, climate and working conditions.
Size of the equipment: Size of equipment should be such that it must
be able to be used with other matching units. If equipment is large
it will remain idle and if it is small, it will not be able to work
with matching equipment.
Standardization: It is better to have same type and size of
equipment's in the project. It means lesser spare parts reserve, more
interchangeability of parts if required, easy for operators.
Availability of equipments: The equipment easily available in market
should be purchased. It is easy to dispose off such equipment after
completing of projects.
Multipurpose equipments: There are certain types of equipments which
are not fully utilized fully. So if possible , they must be capable
of performing more than one function.
Use in future projects: When equipment completes only a part of their useful life in a project, it should be kept in view that thye equipment can be used in future projects and may not become obsolete.