Reigning in out-of-control projects for a small local contracting company

Consilium was engaged by a small contracting company going through a significant period of growth. We were originally contracted to manage scheduled performance updates for a project that had four sub-packages and was close to mobilising. After a month of missed targets, it was clear that the approach to project controls was one of appeasement rather than realism.Consilium commenced work with this contractor and immediately realised the problem stemmed from the site team’s lack of buy-in and understanding of the existing schedule. After discussions with the site team, it also became apparent there had been virtually no engagement during these schedule builds.It was at this point Consilium stepped in and decided to bin the schedules and start again.We rebuilt bottom-up based on drawings, BoQ and workshops with the site team. With buy-in over realistic, clearly broken-down activities that reflected the scope and the most logical sequence in which to deliver, the site team started to request short and medium-term lookaheads. We then started to hit milestones, which instilled greater confidence from the clientAfter this initial success, the client requested a site project control presence to provide the ‘site drive’. We were able to workshop with the teams and look at recovery plans for some of the packages that had previously slipped. This proactivity showed the client we were doing all we could to bring their projects in.Thanks to this streamlined approach we continued to improve throughout the remainder of the project, having provided the contractor with insights into trade inefficiencies, options to accelerate and minimise indirect costs.