Work Programming

Introduction

By planning and organising work effectively, a turf manager can provide a means of ensuring things will get done in an efficient manner and at the correct time of year.

Work programmes can assist the setting of staffing levels, machinery requirements, contract hire operations, material requirements and budget cashflow forecasting. This could be very useful when discussing these matters with line or senior management.

The information that you will have collected can support your side of the discussion and might make the difference between winning or losing some of the issues you will have raised. Work programming is therefore an important process of management.

Define your objective/s

This should be in a clear and concise way; for example, "At the beginning of September we are to start and complete a major renovation of all 18 golf greens within a two week period".

There has to be a good reason for carrying out your decision, because you will no doubt have to defend it when you see other people; in this case it might be the club secretary, green's committee and members.

You may have found that following justifiable complaints from golfers and a detailed assessment of the greens, a number of areas were identified for attention: (maybe these do not apply to every green though)

• Heavy compaction throughout large areas of some greens;
• Dry Patch present to varying degrees, especially on slopes and mounds;
• Poor root development;
• Poa annua is dominant within the main body of the greens, but Agrostis and Festuca are dominant around the perimeter and slopes;
• Excessive and costly water requirements are needed to maintain an adequate playing surface;
• There are undesirable levels of thatch and fibre present over the majority of the greens;
• The sward coverage is inconsistent and patchy, giving below average putting surfaces in places;
• Regular complaints from members have occurred over the past few months.

On the positive side, you have found that

• The soil particle size analysis of the greens, from soil beneath the compacted surface layer, would indicate that with correct management a good growing medium can be provided, implying that major reconstruction should not be necessary;
• Other soil characteristics are conducive with the growth and maintenance of an Agrostis / Festuca sward including an acidic soil pH and good permeability of the tested rootzone material.

Having considered the above you will then decide on the renovation work required to improve the situation.

Compile a list

Do this for the resources needed and then divide the whole job into individual tasks.

For example:

1. Hire a vertidrain and operator (these will usually have to be booked well in advance of the planned work) to carry out the vertidraining of all the greens;
2. Scarify the greens in several directions (let's say this is to be done twice);
3. Apply a suitable sand to the greens (say 3 kg/m² initially);
4. Work in the sand to ensure it is fully incorporated into the vertidrain tine holes;
5. Apply a fertiliser / turf tonic to assist in the establishment of the grass seed and for sward development (say 35 g/m²); Be careful not to encourage Fusarium patch disease by a relatively high nitrogen application in September.
6. Overseed the greens; Is pre-germinated or treated seed to be used? (say 25 g/m²);
7. Apply a liquid conditioner or seaweed extract (say 25 ltrs in total);
8. Irrigate if required (use the automatic pop-ups for this);
9. Ensure staff will not be on holiday;
10. Make sure temporary greens have been prepared in advance if desired.

Analyse and Sequence the tasks

1. Determine the order or sequence in which the work should be carried out, as well as when materials and machinery are required. Material will most likely have to be purchased some time in advance to ensure it is present, on site, before work commences.
2. You will have to decide if the greens are to be completed one at a time (with the exception of the vertidraining which will probably complete the 18 greens in as short a time as possible) or you have a rolling programme of completing specific renovation tasks on all or some of the greens before moving onto another renovation task.
3. Estimate the time each task should take. Obviously breakdowns can occur and a contingency plan will need to be available. For example, To cut the greens by triple mower might take 4 hours in total. You may wish to convert this into person days for your work programme (in this case ½ a person day to cut the greens) or keep it in hours. Work out similar times for your required renovation tasks.
4. Ensure you know exactly how you and your team are going to do each task, i.e. what skills, machinery, equipment and materials are required.
5. Build up a resources analysis sheet. This will also hopefully bring to your attention any points which may have been missed.

All figures in the following table are based on the 18 greens being 9,000m² in total area.
(The estimated times and costings are generalisations purely for illustrative purposes only)

RESOURCES ANALYSIS SHEET

Tasks (in order)	Area / Volume / Weight	Estimated time (person days)	Skills needed	Machinery / Equipment needed	Materials needed
1. Scarify		1	Ability to use machinery	Compact tractor and Mounted Scarifier	Fuel
2. Vertidrain		2	Contract hire	Contract hire	Contract hire (£700)
3. Apply sand	3 kg/m²	4	Ability to use machinery	Mechanised top-dresser, tractor & trailer	Fuel; Sand - 27 tonnes (£540)
4. Brush and dragmat in sand by hand		28	Correct use of hand tools	Brushes, dragmat	None
5. Apply fertiliser	35 g/m²	1	Ability to use cyclone spreader	Cyclone spreader	Fertiliser - 315 kg or 13 bags (£195)
6. Overseeding	25 g/m²	1	Ability to use cyclone spreader	Cyclone spreader	Grass seed - 225 kg or 9 bags (£900)
7. Application of seaweed extract or similar	25 ltr	1	Ability to use Cushman sprayer	Cushman sprayer	Fuel; Seaweed extract (£50)
8. Irrigate, if required		Nominal	Ability to programme pop-ups	Automatic sprinklers	Water
Totals		38			£ 1,490 +

To do all of the work on the 18 greens has therefore been estimated to take 36 days plus 2 contract hire days. With 4 staff being available for the greens renovation, the actual time needed to complete the project has been estimated at 36 ÷ 4 = 9 days. By working some overtime and using additional staff, as well as increasing the use of machinery (mainly by working the sand in, although this may not be as effective as by hand), this could be reduced if required.

Design a bar chart

This will show the tasks and the estimated times in a graphical way. A symbol could also be used to indicate which member of staff, or number of staff, is allocated to which task, or an indication given as is shown. Presenting the information in this format is useful for both maintenance and construction work.

Occasionally you will find that it is necessary to divide the work force up, with possibly one person to finish off a task, whilst one or more people start another.

Sometimes you will have to programme backwards from a completion date to find out when you need to start the project, thus ensuring (weather etc. permitting) the work is completed on time.

WORK PROGRAMME BAR CHART

Date : Sept

3

4

5

6

7

8 & 9

10

11

12

13

14

Task

Day into project

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

(am)

(pm)

(am)

(pm)

Scarify

{1}

Vertidrain

{1}

{1}

Apply sand

{2}

{2}

Work in sand

{1}

{4}

{4}

{4}

{2}

{2}

{4}

{4}

{4}

Fertilise

{1}

{1}

Overseed

{1}

{1}

Seaweed

{1}

{1}

Irrigate

*

*

Daily total (max. 4)

{4}

{4}

{4}

{4}

{4}

{1}

{4}

{4}

{4}

{4}

{3}

{0}

Machinery

Compact tractor & Scarifier

*

Vertidrain

*

*

Tractor/bucket

*

*

Trailer

*

*

Cushman

*

*

Cyclone spreader

*

*

Hand tools

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Cushman sprayer

*

*

Materials

Sand

*

*

Fertiliser

*

*

Grass seed

*

*

Seaweed

*

*

Notes for interpreting the chart:

• In this example the work has been split into two parts: Sand applied to the first 9 greens is worked in before the remaining 9 greens have their sand applied; this prevents the last 9 greens from having to wait too long before having the sand worked in, preventing the sward from being smothered for too long.
• The figures in the curly brackets { } indicate the number of people allocated to that task.
• All greens are scarified on Day 1.
• The maximum number of your own staff available is 4 per day. This is indicated in the Daily total row. This row can be used as a cross check to ensure any miscalculations haven't occurred. Contract hire staff are not included in this instance.
• Days 5 & 10 are spilt into am and pm, with no more than 4 persons being available in each session.
• No work is carried out over the weekend : Sept' 8 & 9.
• Machinery and material requirements are indicated for when they are needed.

This example shows the basics of work programming and can be of great assistance when undertaking large projects.