Project management

Project Management is the fundamental core of our successful project delivery using integrated teams, flexibility and a lean project management style which has proved to be both cost effective and results focused. We can provide a full range of project management support from standalone consultancy services through to full management of engineering teams.

Our basic culture of delivering best value service through an integrated team begins with project management – or project leadership. We believe that it is our approach to the ‘tools’ and ‘teams’ needed which makes us different. This approach has led to our receiving several ACTIVE awards.

Tools

The tools we use include planning software, standard SAP modules with self configured reports and other measures based around Windows standard software packages. We utilise standard measurement techniques for progress, statistical analysis (using a Monte Carlo Simulation), earned value, cashflow, cost control and risk management to ensure that the status of a project or task is fully controlled and understood. Our success in the industry we serve can be partly attributed to the pragmatic approach we adopt to tools and techniques which are based around:

Flexibility: using the appropriate tool for the job; adapting the standard or use client’s standards or simple bespoke systems; ensuring control and not simply measurement. Challenge the norms of completing documentation which does not add value
Low Tech High Touch: adopting measures and displays which are easy to use and tell the story at a glance, e.g. litmus reports, Progress Indicator Graphs (PIGS) and RAG reviews. We also use storyboards to show how a development unfolds – integrating pictures and 3D visualisation also help everyone understand the project’s progress and issues
Integrated teams/risk management/value management: ensuring that projects are approached in the correct manner whilst also ensuring that the key metrics for the project are controlled (see below for more detail).

Teams

With all of the teams we bring together to tackle projects, we ensure that there is a cultural balance of enthusiasm, experience, drive, organisation and control, which when brought together, ensure that projects are given the best possible opportunity to succeed. The underlying message which underpins these teams is that of trying to enjoy the day-to-day activity on a project. This can be promoted using a host of team building activities to create an environment, which is both focused and efficient in producing the project deliverables.

Client teams of engineers and operators will commonly form key roles within the teams we generate. Integrating the client’s personnel in this way allows us to use their site knowledge and contacts to ensure that the design meets the needs of our client in as short a period as possible.

Each of our Project Managers also have their own individual strengths based upon experience, exposure and approach, which allows us to select the most suitable individual for our clients’ project needs. We firmly believe that each project not only needs the right blend of engineering and construction team, but also the right Project Manager to bring out the best in that team.

Fundamentals

There are several key fundamentals which we apply to each and every project to ensure that they experience the necessary levels of control. These include:

Project definition
Spending time with our client’s team at the outset of a project allows us to build a quick understanding of our client’s needs, aspirations and limitations for a particular project. This ensures that we work within the framework he sets out and that we limit our ideas and innovation to the areas where it will have most benefit.
Managing risk
Using risk management software developed in-house, we can quickly and easily enter and assess risks throughout the duration of a study or project to ensure they are captured and managed. This software provides the project manager with an action list, which ensures that risks are closed out and reported on a monthly basis.
Managing programme
Generating a logic-linked programme for a project, which encompasses the detailed design, procurement, construction, commissioning and validation (if applicable) allows a weekly review to be carried out and progress to date recorded.
Reporting
Generation of a monthly report which records all of the issues allows the client representative and CEL’s Project Manager to discuss the key metrics on the project and agree any steps which may be required to ensure progress and control in the future. We have found these meetings to be extremely useful as ways of ensuring that issues are resolved quickly on a project and not allowed to develop.
Safety management
Ensuring that the project is designed, built, operated and maintained in a safe way is the most important issue for all CEL projects. We take the safety of everyone associated with a project to be of the utmost importance and manage our sites in a way which suits this approach.
Constructability
A series of constructability reviews with the client’s team of engineers and operators allows the intended design to be fully communicated to those who will be responsible for the facility in the future. The reviews are carried out at various stages to ensure that any alterations can still be made if necessary.
Change control
To ensure that any changes required are well documented, agreed and their impacts discussed prior to implementation, we use a Notice of Change (NOC) system, which allows us to assess the impact of changes and keep a tight control on any cost plan and programme implications.

Benefits

As a result of our approach to projects, and the use of the project fundamentals, the benefits to our clients are:

projects are carried out under tight control – the project is fully understood and uses all the skills and tools available
risks are identified communicated and resolved as a team
the impact to the project costs and programme are known prior to any changes being implemented
the safety of all personnel associated with the project will be given priority through each and every step of the project
all issues are regularly reported, discussed and agreed between Project Managers.