The Solution
Starting in 2001, we worked with the company's engineering, construction, and marketing organizations to redefine their new build management processes and to implement a complete system from the ground up. Four fundamental principles for the new system were identified:
- The organization had to function in a highly coordinated and integrated fashion. The objective was to minimize ad hoc processes and make-it-up-as-you-go activities in order to increase productivity, reduce time to market, and increase predictability. The new system had to promote accountability and responsibility by formalizing project ownership and task assignment while allowing for the documentation of activities through every step of a project. At any point in time, one person had to be the 'owner' of a project, responsible for advancing it to its next stage. Responsibility had to be formally handed-off and documented through each stage of the project. Many participants had to be able to work on a project at any given time in a coordinated fashion. Project participants had to be able to assign work to others as well as to accept or reject work from others. Work assignments had to be documented and visible to all project participants.
- Information for individual projects had to be readily available to all project participants. The new system had to put all project information at the fingertips of a project participant or manager. This would allow fewer people to manage a higher volume of work.
- The new system had to provide for detailed project cost estimating and rigorous financial controls to control capital spending. Funding had to be requested against estimates and formally approved. Approved funding could never exceed approved estimates, actual funding could never exceed approvals, and approvals could never exceed the capital budget. The ability to prioritize projects was critical, since the goal was to not only control spending, but also to maximize invested capital.
- The ability to track overall progress toward new build goals, as well as the ability to track the progress of individual projects was critical. The new system had to provide for production and milestone tracking as well as for the enforcement of rules around who could set certain milestones and the conditions that must be met before specific milestones could be set.
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