The key to staying on budget, reaching project goals, and maintaining industrial best practices is project management. Companies must prioritize project management to be successful. If a company cannot provide ample project management for themselves, or if busy times require it, it may be beneficial to hire an outside company with project management expertise. In addition to reducing the workload of busy managers and executives, this can also save money and allow a company to benefit from another company’s focused experience in this area. Here are a few key areas that a company who offers project management services will be able to assist with.
Involving Key Personnel
In any project, project leaders and key personnel must be kept aware of project status and consulted frequently to ensure open communication and avoid any misunderstandings. Good project management companies should have the experience, tact, and skills needed to be able to bring together the right people and maintain thorough, productive communication for the duration of a project. Key personnel could include individual people like project leaders or department heads, or may even include entire departments. It’s easy to underestimate the difficulty of getting and keeping multiple groups on the same page, but an experienced project management team will be up to the challenge.
Scheduling and Managing Work Needs
Scheduling is often a challenging aspect of projects that cannot be overlooked. To meet tight deadlines, it is important to schedule workers and shifts so that production flows along smoothly. Additionally, some projects may require extra laborers to handle an increase in workload. A qualified and experienced project management company will be able to schedule appropriately, ensuring that there are adequate workers to get the job done, without over-scheduling and wasting payroll resources.
Managing and Coordinating Multiple Phase Projects
Many projects involve multiple interlocking parts that must all work seamlessly together to reach an intended goal. Project management companies should be able to coordinate complex, multi-phase projects with ease to allow company leadership to focus on big picture goals and achievement of predefined objectives. In addition to the planning of this type of project, execution of plans is probably the most important part of any project. It is not enough to simply create plans. A company that specializes in project management should have the knowledge and skills necessary to help implement plans and to monitor them as they move toward a successful completion.
Monitoring the Project Budget
One benefit of outsourcing project management is having a qualified professional manage your budget. Industrial projects are often under strict budget requirements and someone must be in charge of tracking all expenses and making key personnel aware of any new expenditures that may not have been accounted for. Without careful tracking of spending and close attention to budgetary concerns it is very easy for a project’s costs to balloon out of control.
Ensuring Best Safety Practices
Especially in industrial settings, maintaining a safe environment for all people involved is very important, even if circumstances require a more rushed timeline than usual. Even under strict deadlines, good project management companies should know that corners cannot be cut when it comes to safety. It takes a seasoned professional to understand how to ensure safety when time, money and resources are short. In the end, this focus on safety will always pay off in the form of fewer or no accidents.
Company Experience Matters for Project Management Services
The STI Group’s project management skills encompass all these areas and are firmly rooted in a track record of excellence and quality. The right project management service provider will be able to assist in setting clear goals and objectives and work diligently to help meet those goals. Our customers can feel secure when working with us for project management services that their projects will be completed at or under budget, before the deadline, and with an unwavering commitment to safety.
