Event-Based Distributed Planning & Control Systems for Project Delivery

As modern projects become increasingly complex, dynamic, and pressed for time, delivering them on time and on budget using traditional means is becoming more and more challenging. Strategic Project Solutions, Inc. (SPS) has successfully extended Lean Manufacturing techniques to complex production-based project environments, namely large construction and industrial projects. To support large and complex project-based production systems, such as construction, SPS has developed a webbased real-time distributed project management tool. It provides distributed cross-functional teams a means to better control workflow at the production (design, fabrication, assembly, etc.) level. This system, with named SPS Project Suite, has been implemented on several large construction projects, including London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Expansion (T5) and Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) Contract 105. SPS Project Suite combines the principles of Last Planner, Lean Manufacturing, and Project Management with web technology to enable project team members to better coordinate interfaces, manage shared resources, and identify where performance improvement efforts must be invested. The use of web technology enables crossfunctional teams to work remotely. SPS Project Suite’s single database contains all production-level workflow information related to a project. The single database enables resource optimization at the highest level through a real-time overview of the project’s production status at any point in time. This paper describes how SPS’s web-based real-time distributed production control tool benefits projects that are large, complex and dynamic.