A leading plant engineering firm with deep expertise across environmental energy, urban infrastructure, steelmaking plants and offshore steel structures undertakes more than 100 construction projects annually — covering a wide range of sizes and business sectors. The business processes supporting these projects are diverse, and improving the efficiency of their management had been a long-term challenge.
The challenges
Performance data was collected periodically and entered manually into Excel for project progress reviews, resulting in delays in receiving reports from relevant personnel. The effort and time required to compile and convert that data was significant. To improve the usability of performance data, it was essential to eliminate duplicate processes and enable real-time data visibility.
In 2020, the organization implemented a transformation initiative aimed at strengthening its competitiveness. As part of this, it decided to deploy an enterprise-wide integrated system and implemented Sequence Enterprise as its project management system. The company chose Sequence Enterprise because of Octave’s consultants’ extensive knowledge of engineering practices, the ability to deploy quickly using Sequence Enterprise’s pre-populated templates and its rich project and program management capabilities.
The solution
Improved productivity and visibility in resource management processes
Upon registering a project into the system and entering start and end dates, the workflow automatically replicates the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) template, generating and displaying the schedule in a Gantt chart format. While reviewing the project schedule, users can input the number of days required to complete each task. This information is then consolidated per project member, allowing users to view and adjust individual team members’ workload and availability.
The system facilitated the aggregation of planned workdays, enabling users to compare and analyze planned resources against the actual number required for each project. Users can also assess whether planned tasks were completed against the actual number of days and analyze resource requirements by simulating various scenarios — such as project delays or situations where a project could not be undertaken.
Simplified data visibility and reporting processes for project management
Sequence Enterprise integrates with data from the ERP system. Once basic project information is entered, financial data — including project order value, recurring profit and other financial information — can be used to generate reports based on ERP system data.
The item list, previously maintained manually by the project manager using ERP data in Excel, is now efficiently managed within Sequence Enterprise. The data integrates with ERP automatically, reconciling against actuals. Data within the procurement item list can be displayed and analyzed in tables and graphs according to the WBS, enabling easy identification of budget spending status and current overrun status — providing valuable information for cost control and monitoring procurement items.
Users can toggle between a line chart displaying the percentage progress of the project’s contract and the percentage progress of the specification’s issuance by clicking on the completion rate — making it straightforward to track progress status at a glance.
Productivity gains through streamlined aggregation and progress tracking across multiple projects
Earned Value Management (EVM) metrics are now integrated with Sequence Enterprise, enabling users to check the current status of EVM, Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI) records. Users can also analyze the latest performance metrics to determine whether numbers indicate an upward trend.
Users have the capability to manage scheduled project reporting dates and actual task completion dates for each project, allowing them to check and analyze progress and performance across the portfolio.
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