Major Challenge(s)
Very thin management team, Multiple initiatives – hiring, organization building, safety etc., many interactions with operations, many shared resources across project and operations
At an organizational level, an unprecedented expansion initiative has to be implemented – at many times the pace at which past investments were being implemented.
Work is happening across various locations in Gujarat and Mumbai. Many large and small contractors/ vendors are involved in the projects and capacity to manage is limited with the management team. In addition, hiring and organization building exercises are also in progress in order to match throughput requirements. The biggest challenge for management was the lack of visibility of the entire portfolio and its impact on the business targets. High number of iterations in the basic engineering phase, typical to chemical industry, also means unpredictable impact on due dates
Solution Element(s)
Consistent, replicable project execution structure to facilitate growth plans, simple and stable 2-tier schedules for easier visibility, Concerto for leveraging the implemented methodology to generate forward-looking alerts
The methodology and software was implemented in the account. The key differences that prior systems did not provide were:
Pre-FK, FK and Execution Phases
Phases with transparent gate conditions were created to control the flow of under-prepared projects in to execution, to protect thin management capacity
2-tier planning methodology
Simple and stable project plans ranging between 30 – 250 Focus-&-Finish tasks created for every project
Management processes established to drive pro-active actions on Concerto signals
Review structure implemented and driven to exploit thin management capacity
Synchronized execution
Dynamic and Prioritized schedules for aligning various teams, so far working in silos
Forward-looking alerts
Portfolio/ project level forward-looking alerts for management meant pro-active actions. E.g. Concerto predicted huge delays due to slow pace of ordering, prompting Top Management to clear calendar for ordering decisions/ negotiations and delay recovery
Results achieved by client
Within the first 6 months, per month billing was increased by over 100% by providing visibility to management – the need for prioritization of projects, concentration of teams, stringent project release criteria became visible and was acted upon
We are working with the Realization over the last year to help us execute our aggressive expansion plan. Our need was not merely the typical Project Management consulting to improve coordination and analyse delays. In addition to better synchronization, we needed someone to own our business needs and help us take pro-active decisions to ensure that we deliver according to the targets. Realization literally acts as Google Maps for my projects.
Today, the potential delays against the targets are transparent to the entire project team. All of us, from the Top Management to the front line manager, know exactly what actions are necessary to prevent them from becoming actual delays. This visibility greatly enhances our ability to take proactive decisions. In the first year itself, the same project team has doubled the rate of execution. What impresses me is that they act more like partners to my business. They really understand my business requirements in detail and provide me control of my entire portfolio and great insights in the way forward.