Intermediate Project Progress Tracking

Abstract

With the increasing focus on project planning in engineer-to-order(ETO) companies, tracking the progress of the design phase of a project is essential for effective planning. Such progress tracking currently is done through the regular feedback of discipline leads, which are intrinsically subjective. The information thus collected is then plotted in the form of so-called S-curves, to represent the progress over the course of the project. The present method tracks progress of the manufacturing engineering phase based on how much mass is designed with respect to the design weight of the equipment. This so-called mass curves are used and fitted to an S-curve and represent the tracked progress. It is shown that the fitted mass curves represent the progress of the engineering phase with a systematic average error of 25 days. Additionally, mass data retrieved from completed projects are used to predict the S-curves shape of the ongoing project. The weighted average of tracked and Predicted S-curves is then used in a Monte Carlo simulation in order to estimate the progress of the ongoing project. The method was found to have a tracking accuracy of 0:6 4%, which translates into an uncertainty on the project duration and therefore on the equipment delivery date, by 2 weeks. This uncertainty is found to be the upper bound of typical grace periods agreed with most clients. The present results might offer a new outlook on progress tracking on the progress tracking of manufacturing engineering activities. Further research shall be conducted to address the progress of earlier engineering phases equally.