Work Breakdown Structures

(WBS)
By: AMRIL HADRI BIN JAMALUDIN
Faculty of Civil Engineering
UiTM Arau, Perlis
 In the end of the lesson, students
should be able to:

Understands more on the concept of WBS

Realize the importance of WBS in the
project
Identify the WBS and the activities
involved in the project
 Introduction
Scenario:
Imagine you have to construct a
multistory office building or a high-tech
manufacturing facility.
You are going to start by estimating the
cost of overall construction project.
How?
 Introduction (cont)
Solution:

Its the same way you eat an elephant

ONE BITE AT A TIME!
 Introduction (cont)
As large as the task may seem, there
actually is a logical method for organizing
all of the work activities, materials, and
labor associated with a project.

This is where we use an organizational tool

called as Work Breakdown Structure
(WBS)
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Is a primary organizational tool

Establish the basic building blocks of both:

Estimation (Quantity, Cost, etc)
Schedule (for planning)
 WBS (cont)
Primary purposes:
To organize & identify the work of the project
To not overlook any of the steps needed to
complete the work
How?
By breaking each division of work into a separate
work package.
The work package identifies each step in the
process of that work item.
 WBS (cont)
A sample work package looks something like this:

Work Package 1
Concrete Ground Floor Slab
Excavate the footings
Install the edge forms
Install under slab fill
Install vapor barrier
Install the reinforcing
Place the concrete
Finish the concrete
Strip the form work
 WBS (cont)
In other word, work package consists of the Main
activity & its Sub-activities

Work Package 1
Main activity
Concrete Ground Floor Slab
Excavate the footings
Install the edge forms
Install under slab fill Sub-activities
Install vapor barrier
Install the reinforcing
Place the concrete
Finish the concrete
Strip the form work
 WBS (cont)

When all the work packages have been

identified and arranged according to their
sequences, that is when we have a
complete WBS
Work Package
- Main activity 1
Sub-activity 1.1
Sub-activity 1.2
Sub-activity 1.n

Work Package 2
This is what we called
- Main activity 2
Work Breakdown
Sub-activity 2.1 Structure (WBS)
Sub-activity 2.2
Sub-activity 2.n

Work Package 3
- Main activity 3
Sub-activity 3.1
Sub-activity 3.2
Sub-activity 3.n
Example of various usage of
WBS in construction projects
 Summary
WBS is an organizational tool which can
be used to establishes the basic building
blocks of estimate & schedule.
Main purposes is to organize & identify the
work of the project by breaking each
division of work into a separate work
package.
It also avoids us from overlook any of the
steps needed to complete the work.
 Conclusion

Remember:

ONE BITE AT A TIME!