Project Management: The Forgotten Toolkit

A Possible Intersection Point

There is a possible intersection between the CMMS product and project management using WO actuals, WBS budgets and Schedule activity progress. The joining element would be the WBS cost account code. Some CMMS products have the ability to create this WBS (work breakdown structure). This feature enables the project manager to lay out the scope, deliverables, and budgets. The application might include a Project Cost Report. When this WBS is linked to a schedule, then progressing can be multiplied times budget to get earned value.

Example Projects

Facility architects manage new construction and alterations. And when a new building is delivered there can be hundreds of assets. These new assets need to be given the right maintenance strategies and maintained at optimum cost. In other industries, outage management is a primary concern. Either way, cost effective asset management starts inside the CMMS.

The Elusive Weekly Maintenance Schedule

There are many reasons this process can go sideways. Consequently, 90% of all sites have never successfully created an automatic, resource-leveled weekly schedule. Some just print out a list of open work and hand that to the maintenance staff to figure out. Some just focus on emergency and urgent work blended with generated PM work orders. The problem lies with "all the other work" in the backlog as to how best to manage. And even if all the work orders had a craft estimate, questions still exist as to which ones should be done first, and, how much work should be scheduled based on craft availability. This link shows the Weekly Schedule Order of Fire activation screen.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a company that marketed project management software. They sold scheduling software and project cost tracking. These two products could be integrated through a work breakdown structure (WBS) at the cost account level to provide the ideal project management system. This software included a full function scheduler that could manage any size project -- and plot graphics of all types (bar charts, histograms, and network diagrams). At one time, maybe 50% of all nuclear power plants in construction/startup and operational phase used this software.

Then the Mainframe Died

Change happens. The mainframe software for the most part did not convert over to today's technology. Although the new technology is absolutely brilliant, there was some lost functionality. By lost I mean, the current CMMS with scheduling interfaces have weak progressing and graphic capabilities. But beyond that, there is also a general lack of knowledge in the CMMS community regarding WBS design and purpose.

Project Management Best Practices: 1-2-3

I am trying to recall the lessons learned 30 years ago from my project management classes. I was told that if you build a large project (e.g. construct a nuclear power plant) you should first create a WBS. This design ensured that no scope was forgotten, and it provided scope management (additions) once underway. The cost account (CA) element would typically store the budget values. The WBS was also a good place to capture dollar transactions (movement between cost elements). Lastly, it was the WBS-CA that provided an intersection point for CMMS work order actuals and schedule activity percent complete for cost reporting.

The next step in project definition was to start creating fragnets. This is where the scheduler performed interviews similar to a newspaper reporter. Typically the scheduler interviewed the construction and system engineers. Often times the scheduler would draw a logic diagram on paper (pen on paper). This technique enabled the scheduler to identify activities and logic ties almost as fast as the person speaking. The scheduler then combined all of these independent fragnets into a master schedule where it was flowed and leveled.

Once the master schedule was finalized, a pretty looking bar chart with logic ties, under a timeline, was produced for readability purposes so that all stakeholders could clearly see dates for intermediate milestones, and of course, the project finish.

10 Requirements of the Ideal Project Management System

In a perfect world, it would be much easier if the CMMS could be set up to support project management best practices -- and work management. Maybe it can't do total float calculation and fancy bar charts, but it should be able to do everything else -- including a resource leveled weekly maintenance schedule. Here are 10 future-world requirements:

1. Allow for a T4 countdown scheduling design. The scope is tied down 4 weeks in advance. The T-0 week is the execution week. This process is all manually performed. The weeks would be stored/managed inside the CMMS.
2. Some organizations only want a resource leveled weekly schedule. This would be a single-click action direct from the CMMS creating a tabular report; the weekly maintenance schedule could also feed the Daily Plan (showing a 2D matrix design).
3. The CMMS work management product would provide a capability to generate a rough estimate.
4. In the case of a weekly maintenance schedule, need ability to properly capture carryover work which includes ETC by craft and optional restart date, against the work order. The ETC values (if entered) would then be used in subsequent weekly schedule leveling calculations.
5. Provide ability to store major projects inside CMMS as a WBS -- and graphically display the WBS chart. Also provide ability to store budgets against any WBS element and transfer monies if needed between elements. Plus, the WBS would track added scopes.
6. Provide ability to link WBS-CA to work orders, capture actuals on work orders (CMMS), store budgets in WBS. and roll-up percent complete from project scheduling tool integrated with WBS-CA codes.
7. Provide ability to produce a Project Cost Tracking Report, using indented levels. The moment an outage finishes the CFO wants to see total costs. Upper management does not want a report showing cost account level, therefore all costs would be rolled-up.
8. Using integration to project scheduling software, provide ability to create a graphical bar chart with logic ties, WBS codes, and colorful group breaks. This project scheduling software would also permit PERT chart format.
9. This project scheduling software would also have ability to perform advanced progressing, i.e. progress against a datadate. And, provide ability to add work to the CMMS from the scheduling tool.
10. Provide ability to display a work schedule in a M/S Calendar format.

Outage Manager Requirements

An outage manager depends heavily upon the outage scheduler(s). He also needs staff that can apply system operations knowledge to schedule and scope control. Once the required critical path is identified, then other work can be added so long as it does not extend the critical path or place the outage duration at risk. If you were an Outage Manager for a nuclear power plant how would you make best use of project management software?

1. Create initial outage schedule showing all required activities with milestones by interviewing all stakeholders. Note that this scope control starts many months/years in advance of scheduled outage.
2. Using an iterative review process, bring total cost down to CFO allowed expenditure (and duration) based on prioritization by removing/adding scope.
3. Validate critical path; analyze “driver activities” using critical path walker; perform automatic resource leveling; final validation of milestones .
4. Assess risk points; identify ways to mitigate risk.
5. Create mock-ups to test areas of risk and complexity; validate craft skills.
6. Review safety measures for all – including contractors.
7. Freeze the schedule and outage scope; establish outage scope control measures; track scope additions & approvals.
8. Establish procedures for capturing outage progress on daily basis (by shift).
9. Have ability to transfer contingency funds and document movement.
10. Ability to output an indented project cost tracking report at any time, especially right at outage completion.

How Much Software Do You Need?

You can buy software to do anything. But why not take a harder look at the CMMS and see what can be configured internally. Through clever use of applications, and configuration capabilities, output can be generated which performs project management best practices.