Effective Project Planning is not generic. Being able to force a purported plan into a format provided by project-generic off-the-shelf computer software does not constitute effective planning. And all the Gantt charts in the world won’t help you in a major boat building or refit project, if you don’t have substantial grounding and many years experience in boatyard operations.
Moreover, project planning, in and by itself, is of very limited value, unless followed up with skilled and experienced project management. Nothing throws grit into the gears of a new build or major refit project so much as indifferent, or an absence of first rate project management. This is true both on the side of the boatyard and that of the owner or client.
Good project management is based and acts upon the truth that a boatbuilding or major refit project is like a marriage: it has to work to the benefit of both parties, the boatyard and the yacht owner, or it won’t work at all. Having managed numerous major build and refit projects from both sides of the desk – that is, as both shipyard operators and as owner’s representatives – we understand how to keep communications open and flowing, how to facilitate the appropriate application of labor and other resources, how to keep an eye on purchasing and expenditures with giving offense, and in general how to keep things running smoothly.
Our standard practice is to “shadow” both planning/management and purchasing/logistics. That is, we create our own plans and schedules against which we measure the yard’s actual progress, thereby letting us know, independently of the yard’s representation, if and when the project schedule may be slipping. And we watch purchasing and logistical management to ensure that costs 1) remain controlled and in line with original estimates and/or contractual requirements, and 2) continue to meet the demands of the production schedule.
Port Royal Group ...because experience always matters.
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1515 SE 17th Street, Suite A131, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA 33316
