“Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.”

I’ve always appreciated that quote from Mark Twain. It applies to our day just as much as his. In the construction industry, clients are tightening their demands on project costs and schedules. In response, some contractors are making promises they can’t keep, simply to win jobs.

A prime example is job scheduling.

We recently were asked to bid a rush job for a major federal entity. They wanted five temporary buildings in six weeks. We sharpened our pencils, but could not figure any way to complete the project safely in less than nine weeks.

We didn’t win the job. The firm that was awarded the bid had promised to deliver in six weeks.

Of course, the story doesn’t end there. Six weeks after project inception, only two buildings were partially completed. This presents a big problem to the client, which is under a court order to have the project buildings completed within a deadline.

So, if you’re the client: how can you know whether a contractor is being realistic in scheduling?

Fortunately, there is an answer. It’s called the “manpower loading curve.” Picture a graph with the number of laborers on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis. The graph should form a nice, symmetric, classic bell curve.

Not a warped curve. Not the profile of a two-humped camel.

Manpower loading curves require a lot of work to prepare. They are not a part of bidding a normal job. But if schedule is the driving factor of your project, ask for one. The bidding contractors may not want to do it, but they’ll respect you for knowing enough to require it.

And they may be less inclined to provide you fanciful figures.