Skip to content
Review.Live

Coordination

Telling every trade about a schedule change the same day

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

At 10:00 the utility's coordinator calls: the permanent power connection moves from March 2 to March 16. By 14:00 you have worked out in your head what moves with it, and told nobody. The following week the elevator technicians arrive to test cars that have no permanent power, and a truck comes to collect the temporary heaters.

A worker in a hard hat and high-visibility vest reads his phone at a railing above a waterfront work site, with a city skyline across the river.
Photo: Nelson Ndongala on Unsplash

A schedule change reaches the site only as far as the last trade that hears about it. Word of mouth reaches the foremen you happen to meet, in different versions, and trades further downstream hear nothing until they arrive for work that cannot start. The City of Los Angeles's engineering bureau puts the principle plainly: keep communication active daily and resolve issues as they arise rather than holding them for scheduled meetings.

  1. Trace the ripple before you call anyone: which activities move, which trades do them, and who depends on them, including suppliers, inspectors, rentals and crane or hoist bookings.
  2. Settle the new plan, then announce it. If a date is still open, say so and say when you will confirm it.
  3. Write one message for everyone affected: what changed and why in one line, the new dates by area, what each trade must start, stop or move, and what stays the same.
  4. Phone the most affected foremen first, then send the written message the same day to every foreman and their office.
  5. Ask each trade to confirm by a set time that their crew plan works. Silence is not agreement.
  6. Update the board and the look-ahead so the posted plan matches the message.
  7. Check the next morning that every crew is where the new plan puts it.

Common mistakes

  • Telling only the foremen you meet on site.
  • Sending new dates without saying what each trade must do differently.
  • Forgetting suppliers, inspectors and equipment bookings.
  • Changing the plan again by phone without re-sending the written message.

What to say

The same-day message

  1. You:What changed: [activity and area] moves from [old date] to [new date] because [reason].
  2. You:Your dates: [trade] now starts [area] on [date].
  3. You:What to do: [start, stop or move crew, material or equipment].
  4. You:What stays the same: [areas and dates not affected].
  5. You:Confirm by [time today] that your crew plan works.

Check your understanding

Why send the change in writing when you have already phoned every foreman?

Show the answer
A phone call reaches one person in one version and leaves no record of what was said or when. The written message gives every trade the same dates and instructions, reaches the office staff who book crews and deliveries, and shows later that each trade was told on the day.

Sources

  1. Project Delivery Manual, Procedure 5.3: Progress MeetingsCity of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering · Los Angeles, United States (a public owner's procedure for its own projects; shown as an example of practice) · accessed

Related articles