What does engineering project management include?
Engineering project management is the discipline of delivering a capital project on scope, schedule and budget. In practice it includes a project execution plan; a critical-path (CPM) schedule and progress tracking against it; cost control and budget management; a risk register and active mitigation; coordination of the engineering disciplines, contractors and vendors so their work fits together; change management when scope or conditions shift; regular progress and status reporting to the owner; and coordination of the turnover that hands a completed, working facility back to its owner.
How is independent project management different from an EPC contractor's project management?
An EPC contractor's project manager works for the contractor and is measured on delivering the contractor's scope profitably. That is a legitimate role, but it is not the owner's. WES manages the project for the owner: the schedule, the budget, the risks and the contractor's performance are watched from the owner's side of the table. Because WES is an independent engineering firm and does not manufacture plants or bid to build the facility, its project management is aligned only to the owner's outcome — a facility delivered on scope, schedule and budget.
How do you manage schedule and cost?
Schedule is managed with a critical-path (CPM) schedule that identifies the activities driving the completion date, then tracked so that slippage is visible early rather than at the milestone it threatens. Cost is managed against a controlled budget, with commitments, forecasts and changes tracked so the owner always knows the position and the trend, not just the original number. The two are managed together, because a schedule decision is almost always a cost decision and the owner is told the trade-off before it is made.
How do you manage project risk?
Risk is managed through a risk register that identifies the technical, schedule, cost, contractual and regulatory risks that could undermine the project, assesses each for likelihood and impact, and assigns a mitigation and an owner to it. The register is a working document, reviewed and updated through execution as risks close and new ones appear. The purpose is to act on the risks that sink projects while they can still be mitigated, rather than to record them after they have become problems.
At what stage should WES take on project management?
The earlier the better. WES can manage a project from the conceptual stage through turnover, and involvement from the start lets the execution plan, schedule and budget be built on sound engineering rather than inherited from decisions already made. That said, WES can take on project management at any stage — including a project already in construction that needs independent management to recover schedule, control cost or coordinate contractors — and scope the engagement to what the project needs at the point it is engaged.
How does project management relate to owner's engineering and procurement?
They are complementary roles on the same project, all performed for the owner. Owner's engineering is the independent engineering judgment that evaluates technologies, reviews designs and represents the owner's technical interest. Procurement support prepares specifications, evaluates bids and coordinates vendors so proposals are compared on the same basis. Project management is the execution layer that holds it all to scope, schedule and budget once the work is underway. WES can provide any one of these or carry them together across a project's life.
What reporting do we receive?
The owner receives regular progress and status reporting: where the project stands against the CPM schedule, where it stands against the budget, which risks are open and what is being done about them, what changes have been raised and their effect on scope, cost and schedule, and what is coming next. The reporting is written for the owner's decisions — clear enough to act on and honest about problems while there is still time to address them — not a formality filed after the fact.
What does project management cost?
Cost depends on the scope and duration of the engagement: the size and complexity of the project, the stage at which WES is engaged, and how much of execution — from conceptual stage through turnover — the owner wants managed. Because those variables differ by project, WES scopes and prices project management individually after understanding what the engagement has to deliver. Many owners begin with an assessment, which starts at $12,500 and frames the project before a management engagement is scoped.
