In today's world, good project management is a basic requirement for successful major projects. Everyone will agree with this statement. And of course everyone does good project. And of course everyone practices good project management. Isn't it obvious? Of course good project management is important to us - but we want to remove the word "obvious" and replace it with "established". We have "established" project management as an essential task and anchored it in our staff. This word better describes the journey we have taken and will continue to take to establish and maintain project management excellence. The word "establish" also contains a promise to continue investing in processes and methods and training people in this management discipline. We are convinced that good project management is teamwork and must be optimised again and again.
As a global service organisation that delivers to Brazil, India and China, we need to plan efficiently and follow through with projects - including critical analysis. There are many external factors that challenge our agility and the creativity of our teams. It is important to us that we have control over everything that can have an impact on us.
Larger projects can include new construction, renovations, major maintenance, possible demolition work, or working on pipelines. Such projects are time-critical especially during the assembly phase. In many cases, there is only a limited period of time during which components can be installed at our customers' sites.
Major project in Munich
In Munich, it wasn't the time pressure that mattered, but the dimensions we had to work with.
München waren nicht der Zeitdruck entscheidend, sondern eher die Dimensionen, mit denen wir arbeiten sollten. From the very beginning, it was clear that the main challenge would be the limited amount of space available to carry out the final assembly.
After three decades of reliable service, the DN 900/1100 wedge gate valves in the steam system of the district heating plant of Stadtwerke München were due for maintenance and repairs. High-quality wedge gate valves are the heart of the district heating station and with a weight of over 6 tonnes and a length of 2 metres they are true giants. These dimensions are impressive in themselves. In addition, the gate valves had to be installed in an extremely cramped space, under a busy street in Munich.
The project planning in advance was extensive and involved cross-departmental coordination. "We can only emphasise the frequently highlighted requirement for transparency in communication. For us, precision begins with data acquisition, documentation, and scheduling with sufficient buffers. We systematically extract buffers by reviewing completed projects. Visiting in advance by project managers and metalworkers, and then precisely planning of which services are carried out in our factory, what can be implemented at the customer's site.” Mr Hinz reports. „The result is impressive: The wedge gate valves were installed and delivered on time and on budget.” The project could only be implemented this way because we were not surprised by anything - because everything was planned.
