When a project falls behind, the conversation usually jumps straight to acceleration. Add overtime. Add a shift. Add crews. Each idea sounds reasonable, and each one gets argued on instinct. What is usually missing is a table that shows, for every option, how many days it buys and what each of those days costs.
Only the driving path counts
Money spent on work that is not driving the finish buys nothing. A second shift on an activity with thirty days of float may feel productive. It does not move the milestone. Before pricing any option, confirm which path is driving the date on the current update.
The usual options
- Overtime. Quick to start, but productivity falls with sustained long hours. It buys fewer days than the extra hours suggest.
- Second shift. More real capacity, with added supervision, lighting, inspection and coordination costs.
- Added crews. Works only where there is space and enough work face for them.
- Resequencing. Often the cheapest days available, if the logic allows work to run in parallel safely.
- Resetting the milestone. Sometimes the honest answer. Its cost is real too, and belongs in the same table.
Compare cost per day recovered
For each option, test it against the network, record the days recovered at the milestone, and divide the cost by those days. Then compare that figure with the cost of one late day. If an option costs more per day than the delay, it is not a recovery. It is a different way to lose money.
What can the team change now to protect the finish date?
Emmanuel Ugbaja, Principal & CEO
Run the comparison on a sample network with the Recovery Options Tester, or ask us about schedule recovery on your project.
