Project Scheduling

Project Scheduling

What’s your success rate on capital projects?  Usually on time? On budget? If you commit to a Total Installed Cost (TIC) of $450k and a line downtime (DT) of 22 days, do you make it? What’s the over/under bet the Maintenance guys have running?  30 days?

Typically, you do your best estimate on the time you need, then pitch it to Operations and Plant Management.

“We need 28 days of line downtime to do this project.”

Plant Manager is shocked (shocked, I tell you), Operations Manager seems concerned, and the Engineering Manager is suddenly much more interested in your project timeline.

If you’ve done more than one project in a manufacturing plant, you know what questions you’ll be asked and have the answers.

How are you planning and tracking the schedule?

I’ve used Microsoft Project on some large projects. On more simple projects, I used an Excel spreadsheet.

If I had to do those projects over again, I’d always use MS Project or something comparable.

Advantages of a project management program (my experience with MS Project here; your mileage may vary.)

• Critical Path – visually seeing the most critical tasks on a project helps you focus on the items that CANNOT be allowed to slip. The critical path may change in the middle of the project as some items are completed.
• Easier to link tasks (Predecessors in MS Project) – Sure, you know the concrete has to cure before you set that platform on it, and of course the platform fab has to complete. Did you build in that 1 week for getting the approval drawings back?
• Resource loading – Oh, you double booked a couple resources? MS Project shows little red guys in the first column by those tasks. Those LRGs tell me I have an overloaded resource. Right click and I see that my ONE detailer is detailing two platforms, dust collector ducting, and collection hoods at the same time. Maybe I would have caught that with my spreadsheet. Maybe.
• Status tracking and reporting – OK, this is cool. MS Project has some pretty good tracking tools. You can set a Status Date and generate reports for your weekly update meetings.

So why did I ever choose to use a spreadsheet and not MS Project?

Cost

A MS Project subscription is about $30 per month. How fast does that get paid for with one of your production lines starting up on time after an upgrade? “

Time (INITIALLY)

MS Project is a good tool, but you must invest a little time up front to work with it effectively. When I picked it back up, I spent a few days refamiliarizing myself with the latest version. I can set up a basic project schedule, with tasks and predecessors, in about a day.

So, use a good Project Management tool.

Just the act of entering the information into the program will remind you of things you might have overlooked.

Bridge Blog Post – Project Scheduling – Bridge Technical Services, LLC