Time Location Charts as are a powerful way to present a project schedule on a single page. But, most planners and schedulers misunderstand them and fail to take advantage of them on their projects.
You might know them by other names like Time-chainage, Time distance, Linear Schedules, Lines of Balance or even Tilos charts.
Let’s look at the 3 most common misconceptions about Time Location Charts. Watch the video below, or scroll down if you prefer to read.
1. Time Location Charts Are A New Scheduling Technique
Wrong!
Many people think that Time-Location format is new form of schedule reporting. This isn’t true.
Actually they’ve been used for at least 100 years and possibly much longer than that. If you visit the empire state building, you can see the Time Location Chart they used for the steel delivery and erection. The image below shows the schedule.
So this isn’t some new fad. It’s a proven technique. The difference is that these days we have the technology we need to get the most out of them.
2. They Are Only For Horizontal Projects
The second is that they are only suited to horizontal projects like highways and tunnels.
Wrong again!
Time Location Charts are just as useful on a range of projects, including vertical ones like high-rise buildings, or potentially any unit-of-production based project.
Here’s an example of an Time Location Chart for a vertical high rise building. You can see the work progressing from left to right and up the floors of the building. The critical path is shown in red.
3. They Are Difficult To Produce and Understand
The most important misconception is that they are difficult to produce and understand, that you’re going to have to put lots of time and effort into creating and really mastering these.
Couldn’t be more wrong!
The real power of Time Location Charts is that they are so intuitive and easy to pick up for planners, schedulers, and even for people who aren’t experts in this field. Best of all it doesn’t actually take much effort on top of your scheduling to create them.
Learn Time Location Charts in 30 Minutes
If you want to quickly learn about Time Location Charts and how to use them on your projects, I’ve created a 30-minute video course that covers everything you need to know about Time Location Charts, including:
- What are Time Location Charts
- Why they are the best way to communicate a project schedule
- Who can benefit from Time Location Charts
- How to read Time Location Charts
- How to optimise a schedule using a Time Location Chart
- The best (and worst) ways to generate Time Location Charts
- A 90-second demo of how to create a Time Location Chart with Turbo-Chart
- Tips on getting your team on board with using Time Location Charts
If you find it helpful, feel free to share it and send it along to anyone that can benefit. And, contact me with any questions about Time Location Charts and Turbo-Chart!
