PM Software Optimizes Date and Resource Planning
Multi-Project Management in Plant Construction
Uhde High Pressure Technologies (UHPT) is a high-tech company which belongs to thyssenkrupp and ranks among the world’s leading providers in plant construction. To improve its planning processes, UHPT was looking for a new project management solution.
With approximately 300 employees, UHPT supplies international clients and markets with industrial high-pressure plants and machines. In order to improve planning and controlling of projects in the areas of customer-specific plants, research and development as well as service projects, UHPT was looking for a software system which provides reliable support for the entire process from planning to development, manufacturing, and post-delivery service. The new software should also provide a solution for existing problems in date and resource planning. Having to manage 170 simultaneously running projects with an average duration of one to two years, delivery dates could often not be met. The heterogeneous project landscape complicated resource planning and a uniform project planning process was missing.
Planning in Excel and MS Project
In the course of an internal process optimization project, a competence team was formed with the aim to establish a central date and resource planning. Until the right project management software was found, the new team consisting of the team leader (order control panel) as well as three date coordinators initially relied on an in-house solution. During this phase, the team set up a schedule landscape by means of self-made MS Project schedules and their own Excel tools. At the same time they were working on planning processes and the standardization of schedules. The high manual effort required for data maintenance, however, limited efficiency and thus the benefits gained from the obtained results.
In cooperation with the digitalization manager, a digitalization project was launched at the same time. The objectives of this project were ambitious and for UHPT, the implementation of a project management software promised a series of improvements:
Choosing the right Multi-Project Management Software
The competence team tries different software products for project management available on the market and consults external specialists. In the course of in-depth research, the list of about 50 possible suppliers was narrowed down to 15 suppliers with which interviews were conducted. Half-day workshops were then held with six suppliers to get a clear picture of UHPT’s requirements and the options provided by the respective softwares. Eventually, a PLANTA demo-system was set up and another seminar was organized. The decision for PLANTA was made in early 2020.
According to UHPT, the new software system convinced primarily for three reasons. Firstly, PLANTA standard already fits the requirements of company-internal processes, secondly, PLANTA facilitates the integration of all employees, and last but not least, the system allows for a simulation of projects and changes without having a direct impact on the productive environment.
ll specific listbox values, have been made to the standard software in order to meet UHPT’s requirements. Adjustments were also made to the dashboard and to the project core data. This enables the users at UHPT to hide and unhide fields and data areas in the project core data and to have overdue work packets of all projects displayed (or only of particular ones by filtering). In the future, UHPT want to carry out such adjustments themselves and therefore receives customizing trainings by PLANTA.
Software Implementation
UHPT has implemented the new PM-system at its corporate headquarters at Hagen in all departments, staggered by product groups. Since April 2021, the software is used in the following business divisions:
- Planning of client projects, service projects, and F&E‑projects.
- Construction, disposition, work preparation (departments/teams with comprehensive and continuous planning in PLANTA incl. resource planning for all employees)
- Purchase, supplier management, quality assurance, dispatch (departments with partial planning in PLANTA, no resource planning)
- An outline planning on cost center level is carried out for manufacturing in order to be able to derive a coarse resource planning and to monitor the work load. In-depth planning of manufacturing is not carried out with PLANTA but with SAP in combination with an MES tool (manufacturing executive system) based on the date-oriented project planning carried out in PLANTA.
Currently, a total of 145 users work with the new PM system: five project managers, four multi-project managers / date coordinators, 20 team leaders, 60 reporters, 20 employees in management & sales.
Besides the core product PLANTA project, which is used for multi-project management, UHPT also has implemented a component for customizing and interfaces and has put the system into operation in two languages, German and English (for client reports). The entire search for and implementation of the new tool took 20 months. From the time of problem definition it took about 12 months until the decision for PLANTA was made.
PLANTA’s software has ever since replaced all MS-Project schedules and Excel tools. The linkage of all projects in multi-project management allows for better planning quality and significantly optimizes the effort required for project monitoring.
Interfaces, Integrations, and Adjustments
Interfaces to the SAP system have been realized in the course of software implementation in order to be able to, e.g., exchange relevant project data like dates and tasks. In the future, HR data will furthermore be transfered to the SAP system.
Several adjustments, like the implementation of new views or filters which respond to or fill specific listbox values, have been made to the standard software in order to meet UHPT’s requirements. Adjustments were also made to the dashboard and to the project core data. This enables the users at UHPT to hide and unhide fields and data areas in the project core data and to have overdue work packets of all projects displayed (or only of particular ones by filtering). In the future, UHPT want to carry out such adjustments themselves and therefore receives customizing trainings by PLANTA.
Using PLANTA since 2021
