Entries from April 2009 ↓
April 29th, 2009 — miscellaneous
I’m currently wrapping a project I’ve been working on for the last year, involving construction of precast units. I’ve been on this job for about 15 months and have been freed of the Project Manager as of Jan 2009. My responsibilities increase but my title and pay did not – as it happens with these companies.
We were basically on the home stretch there. The first couple of weeks back in the new year were probably the busiest but were the most fun. I was in control, just me and a Supervisor in the field.
Safety was going great, having changed the culture and transformed workers from a building trade to proper construction workers over the past year. Quality of construction had also improved. In addition to my usual tasks as project engineer, I was now in control of the schedule as well as signing invoices – these are probably the main roles that the manager did, not much else.
I was on great working terms with the procurement assistant (we get things done, our managers seemed to make things difficult). We were on track to complete production in March and demobilise site by the end of April. We’re going to achieve that.
From next week I’ll spend a couple of weeks in the office wrapping up the MDRs and the Project Closeout Reports etc. I’ll suspect I’d be involved in closing out all outstanding accounts and purchase orders as well.
Next career move: looking to get into the commercial area – contracts, estimating, forecasting, becoming an expert in the areas where a lot of people seem to lack the skills required to win and successfully (commercially) manage projects.
Just another day in the life of a project engineer!
April 13th, 2009 — miscellaneous
Check out this new hub: A Day in the Life of a Project Engineer
It also contains a video of project engineer from Bowen Engineering explaining his roles and responsibilities.
April 12th, 2009 — miscellaneous
Happy Easter 2009 everyone! Don’t forget to reflect on the real meaning of Easter.
(Hint: it’s not about chocolate!!)
Hope you all have a very safe Easter break – remember it’s double demerits!
April 8th, 2009 — management, procurement
In the construction projects I’ve worked on, the basic procurement procedure for an engineer looking to buy goods or services is this:
* Fill out a material requisition (MR),
* Get it approved by someone on the authority matrix,
* Hand the signed MR to a procurement officer
* The procurement officer gives you a purchase order number (PO#)
* You pass the PO# to vendors or hire companies in exchange for buying materials or hiring machinery etc.
Now it varies between companies and projects, for example, the process may end with you handing the signed MR to the procurement team and they run with the rest. I’ve always preferred to deal with my suppliers direct because then I can develop the relationships, I have a handle on lead times and if the item I’m after is late, I can expedite it. No middle man.
Therefore, when I give a signed MR to the procurement team, I expect them to be able to give me a PO# almost immediately (or within an hour or even two, at worst). Not weeks later or not at all! This has been my biggest gripe with a procurement manager I worked with recently. I would stand there at his desk, holding my signed MR, and he would keep me standing for 10 minutes and still not give me a PO#.
The Procurement Team needs to understand that:
1) I don’t want a computer print out or pdf of the Purchase Order itself. I just want the PO number! If they give me access to the register, I can even get it myself!
2) Supervisors on site generally request materials or hire equipment when it becomes critical. Sure, this is due to a lack of planning on their behalf. However, it is important to recognise that there is a sense of urgency associated with construction that does not cater for slack members of the procurement team. The longer we have to wait for a PO#, the longer it takes to get the equipment that the supervisors need and the more cost it will incur because of all the workers standing around unable to do their job on site. [I recognise this is more a planning issue, but the procurement issue exascerbates the problem]
3) During mobilisation, we need to get bits and pieces from Bunnings or wherever. We either need to have access to a company credit card, or a blanket purchase order (or one with a specified cap, say $1000). Without it, mobilisation could take twice as long.
The best thing this project did was to hire a very competent procurement officer to work on the team – she is amazing. It hasn’t got to the stage where she gives me a PO# before I even request it, but it’s pretty darn close! When you are a young project engineer you are hardly given any credit and are definitely not on the authority matrix to spend any money. The lack of trust combined with incompetent managers costs companies a LOT of money. Why can’t anyone else see this problem???
April 5th, 2009 — project management tools
As a project engineer, I often find that the work environment can become plagued with inefficient meetings, fluctuating morale and productivity that is far from optimal. Expensive consultants (or “facilitators”) are brought in for workshops that might sound good in theory but as soon as they are over, most people will go back to their old habits. I’m not being pessimistic, that’s just the unfortunate reality.
It can be very challenging to create the conditions for success. So many meetings are held to “create an agenda” rather than “action the items on an agenda”. People digress and waste time. Learn to run highly focussed, compelling meetings with this Meeting Success Kit. Transform your meetings from “time wasters” to “time savers”. (One important tip I’ve found to stand out from the crowd is to take notes and actually action the items straight after the meeting – do not wait for the Minutes of Meeting to come out, these are often late or handed out just prior to the followup meeting. )
Some Project Success Kits are also available that contain checklists, templates and step-by-step instructions to manage risks that are identified on a project. Risk management is an area that is poorly tackled, but if it is mastered can be the difference between thousands of dollars lost on remedial works or thousands of dollars saved because a contingency plan had been put in place.
With the right tools in place you can boost productivity, efficiency and profitability.
