S6E150: Project Controls in Design & Engineering stages with Paul Waskett

In this week’s pod, we were joined by Paul Waskett to discuss Project Controls in design and engineering stages.

Paul is a Director of Adept Management where he takes responsibility for the development of their Project Controls tools and services, as well as supporting clients and projects across the construction industry. Since 2014, Paul has been supporting two major rail projects.

He is a Mechanical Engineer by background and has over 20 years’ experience in Design Management and Project Controls. In addition, Paul has spent time working in central government, where he managed a construction innovation budget, and as a researcher where he developed some of Adept Management's innovative approaches to design planning and management. 

The main topics we discussed on the podcast were as follows:

• There is generally more scrutiny on the construction part of a design and build contract however both need equal attention in order to manage projects effectively
• Design planning is not as linear as other types of programmes. There are generally more interdependencies and iterations of designs
• Build a WBS and identify relevant activities and inputs before starting the planning process
• As the project is delivered, the Last Planner System can be used to monitor progress
• Using % complete to measure design progress can be difficult to implement consistently
• Working from home has made it more difficult to promote communication and problem solving in major projects as the relevant stakeholders are not collaborating as often as they would in an office based environment
• Earned Value Management only works when rules of credit are in place and all stakeholders are aware of the limitations of it being the sole measure of progress
• Digital twin can help engineers to assess the effect of what may seem like a small scale change on a design
• It is prudent to have a sole interface between engineering and project management in order to deliver a consistent message
• One of the key challenges for Engineering Managers is to get the “commitment” from the engineering team(s) to deliver to a specified date or budget

Here are links to some of the topics we discussed:

• The Latham Report – Constructing The Team: https://constructingexcellence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Constructing-the-team-The-Latham-Report.pdf
• Adept Management: https://www.adeptmanagement.com/
• Last Planner System: https://leanconstructionblog.com/What-is-the-Last-Planner-System.html

Join us next week when we speak to Tony Welch to discuss five levers for change.

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