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:

It’s 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!