LA Consulting's Principal Mr. Harry Lorick, P.E., PWLF, T.O.E., has been a trainer for APWA's Public Works Institute for the last nine years. This year he instructed on Module 2 - Advanced Public Works Supervision; Workload and Crew Scheduling for the Southern California APWA chapter. He was selected by the Southern California Chapter as the American Public Works Leader of the year in 2012.
Harry's course including learning objectives to determine why public works agencies schedule, how scheduling fits into the management process, how to understand the process for estimating work, and how to identify the various tools needed to schedule.
An example of one of the situations Harry instructed on how to handle is Case 1 - Fred's Works Assignments. Its 8am and Fred, the streets foreman has encountered eight employees in the yard waiting for assignments. Fred starts to organize today's activities. He has an asphalt job on Hill Road that must be done that normally requires four employees with two flaggers. He tells Jake, his lead worker, to organize the crew and equipment to go to work at the Hill Road site. Fred must also go to a meeting at City Hall that morning, and so he then leaves. Jake selects and assigns the six employees he needs for the job who are familiar with the site as well as the City work guidelines. Jake has not been given another assignment so he tells the two remaining employees "you two ride with me as I am sure the boss knows what he is doing and I can keep you busy."
Can you tell what the issue or problem is?
What do you think of Fred's work assignment for the day?
What else could you have done if you were Jake?
For more information on how to attend a training conference hosted by the Southern California APWA chapter, visit www.apwa.net.