Temporary Projects Organization

Temporary Project Organizations are very useful to conquer emerging markets and new business opportunities.

It is often, despite the work plans and all the previous coordination developed for a project, that we will always find a better way of doing things, more effective, more efficient and with less resources.

Taking as reference the DCU on shape ... project, posted in the previous section, I will briefly share an excerpt of the lessons learned, and experiences of the mentioned project, don't forget that this post is laying on a turnaround services project, where all those support facilites were on a temporary based and availables the 24/7 (offices, meeting room, bathrooms, warehouse, etc).

Once the scope of the project is completed, the closing stage began, a phase that allows me to capitalize on the experiences, which definitely improves the DNA of any company. Let's review together all these lesson learned:

Labor Management: One of the biggest challenges of projects with temporary structures, is to assemble and solidify a teamwork in a matter of days, as far as I know there is no magic recipe, in my opinion I think that when we enter a project, we have common expectations such as of working in a safe environment, knowing the "what" and "how" are going to achieve the objectives, available services, location and availability of the camp, among others.

If we look carefully, so that all the elements of the organization can align towards a common objective, communication must be prioritized as one of the main axes of the project, as long as sufficient quality and quantity of information is managed at all levels ; administrative, supervisors and direct personnel, the greater the cohesion and commitment of the workers in transforming the raw material into valuable services for all interested parties.

Availability of the Equipment and Tools: The companies that are in service area, normally manage among their options, maintain an inventory of specialized machinery and tools or rent them prior to the start of the project. Each of the options entails great responsibility and execution of preliminary tasks, since the effectiveness of the service to be provided will depend on the reliability and availability of resources. For the project in question, there was a mixture of the two options, which represented an interesting challenge.

Checking the availability of the company own machines, it could be concluded that; there was an outdated inventory of machines services, only some of the maintenances were completed, that is when the phrase "is almost ready" definitely does not work.

It's like, we are hanging from a cliff when climbing a mountain and the next step is almost ready, you can imagine the result….

Solid preventive maintenance plans must be carried out with tests and records of periodic operation in order to guarantee the availability and reliability in the service that each team can provide, the most recommended practice for this type of organizations; is that specialized machines and tools are in charge of a business unit dedicated specifically to it, so that it can account for all the revised parameters.

As for the rented machines it could be concluded that; by not having pre-established alliances, that is, companies that you can trust, it represented another achievement to overcome, so it is recommended to develop a portfolio of suppliers and a verification system of products and services offered, in order to guarantee a prompt and reliable service response.

Supply Chain and Project Support: Logistics management is key in the execution of projects, they represent all the actors behind the scenes that enable the good functioning of the production system, among them we have, telecommunications service, packaged food services, transportation and staff accommodation, camp .. etc.

This particular project prompted the organization to develop extraordinary efforts in terms of supply management, which allowed it to reach the following conclusions:

Fast Track Procurement: It is recommended to divide the shopping list according to the priorities and the tasks to be developed, in this way the buyer will be able to meet the objectives since he or she is working only with small pieces of a whole.

Smart Materials Supply Management: It is recommended to manage a main warehouse outside the plant, and a temporary warehouse inside the plant, the key is to keep track of the quantities delivered by the warehouse in plant, so that with enough time they can be restored the minimum of each item, this monitoring will also serve to feed the cost control system and follow-up of activities, so you can respond at any time of the project "how much has been spent" ...

I hope you enjoyed it, If this article raise up any doubt or just you want to know more about it, don't hesitate to contact me at dpfluitec@gmail.com. I will gladly clarify or expand any additional information.