Chemical Engineering January 2014 - 39

ABC Company
John Smith
New Batch Product
Project Organization Chart
project manager
Dec. 31
Rev. A
Plant EHS group
(permitting
safety reviews
safety support)
Plant engineering
(preliminary
engineering and
controls integration)
Engineering
partner firm
(detailed
Bob Buyer
(purchasing)
engineering)
Bill Builder
(construction
manager)
Commissioning
team
(from operations)
TBD
Prelim. engineering
Process P. Flow
Mech. C. Tower
C/S
D. Steel
Elec. C. Sparks
I&C F. Back
Controls
integration
F. Back
Engineering
project
manager
Civil/
structural
contractor
Piping/
mechanical
contractor
Electrical/
controls
contractor
Process
Civil/
structural
Mechanical
Cost
estimating
Figure 2. An organization chart clarifies who is on the project team
milestone schedule above, that your
company has made commitments to
customers to deliver the new product
in December, immediately following
the startup. Then you find out that
tank deliveries are going to take one
month longer than expected. That
needs to be communicated up the
line and a work-around may need to
be put into place. In this case, the
work-around may be that the product
has to be made in the pilot plant,
which may require overtime. Or, it
may need to be toll manufactured,
or some type of temporary storage
may be required. You may also need
to pay an expediting fee to meet the
needed delivery date. Note that the
work-around may impact the project
budget and eat into your contingency.
This would also need to be
communicated to management.
In some cases, something happens
to cause a schedule delay from which
you cannot recover. In this case, the
schedule needs to be adjusted to reflect
the impact of that delay on other
remaining tasks, and determine a
new completion date. A schedule
delay always needs to be communicated
up the management line.
4. Organization chart
While this tool may sound obvious,
the organization chart answers the
question of " who. " This can be important
if your organization has
limited resources to assign to the
project, if you are using part-time
resources, or if you are using thirdparty
resources. The organization
chart makes someone's assignment
on the project " official " and having
peoples' names on the organization
chart may help you get the priority
and commitment you need to
get the project done. For example,
if the plant maintenance engineer
is responsible for the electrical design
on your project, you might find
it difficult to compete for his or her
time. With any luck, the organization
chart (along with the project
schedule) might give you some leverage.
Likewise, if you are using
third-party resources, you can use
the organization chart to remind
people that you are having to use
outside resources, which can require
more effort to coordinate and
control. This could also help justify
the cost for those outside resources,
since you are using them because
no in-house resources are available.
Figure 2 depicts a sample organization
chart for our example project.
5. Action-item list
I run every project on which I work
with an action-item list, also sometimes
referred to as an open-items
list, or sometimes an informationneeds
list (which is really a subset
of the former). The action-item list
can be used to keep track of anything
on the project that needs to
be done: information that is needed;
decisions that are needed; or any
action that is needed. It is different
from the schedule in that the items
on the action-item list are typically
not important enough to be tasks on
the schedule, but nonetheless, they
are required to keep the project
moving. As examples, say you need
information from the maintenance
staff on the existing tote/drum filling
line, a decision on the location of
the new tanks from operations staff,
and verification from the plant control
engineer that there is adequate
I/O capacity in the control system
- all by certain dates in order to
keep the project on schedule. These
would not likely be tasks on the
project schedule, but they can be
kept track of on the action-item list.
And the action-item list can be used
for your own tasks as well as those
of others.
A common format is to use a
spreadsheet with columns for items
such as the following:
* Item number
* Description (such as " Need deciChemiCal
engineering www.Che.Com January 2014 39
Piping
Scheduling
Instrument/
controls
Electrical
http://www.Che.Com
Chemical Engineering January 2014

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