26 Aug 2022 Project Controls News

Dear Planning Planet Member,

Join the Global Community [1] - did you know that this newesletter goes to the largest community of project controls professionals on planet Earth!  

Well, I’m glad you asked! Many people, including industry professionals, say that they’ve heard of Takt. That is, until you ask them to explain it. Then the silence ensues. So in the interest of all those who are blankly staring at the screen wondering (not out loud, of course) what this is and why it even matters, let’s start at the beginning.

Takt pulls its origins from Latin and German roots. ‘Taktzeit’ means cycle time in German.  Read more [3]...

Are you in the market for software to help you manage your Shutdowns, Turnarounds and Outages (STO’s)? 

If so, these tips should help you select the right software, for your organization!

Unfortunately, companies often try to force their ERP and EAM solutions to manage their shutdowns, turnarounds & outages; however, there are several Turnaround specific software packages to choose from – but only one that publishes its software pricing!

These are the providers that offer software designed specifically to support Turnaround processes:

• Roser Consys – Now Prometheus
• Prometheus – STO Planner
• Wolters Kluwer
• Monitor – M Power
• Safran
• Mobideo
• iPlanSTO from iamtech [5]

In this blog we look at some of the most useful features to look out for when choosing your turnaround software. 

Read the blog [6].

There’s no denying projects are unpredictable. In a featured New York Times Article titled “Years of Delays, Billions in Overruns: The Dismal History of Big Infrastructure,” author Ralph Vartabedian discussed the growing prevalence of monetary and scheduling uncertainties plaguing today’s projects in the United States. Today’s project cost overruns don’t just cost thousands, but rather millions. Project schedule delays, likewise, have grown from months to years. Could this have been avoided? Read more here. [8]

I recently had a discussion with a student who was trying to track down the reason for Negative Float on an activity and I decided to write this article as a check list for people who want to track down the cause of Negative Float in their program.

There are a number of reasons why a P6 program will display Negative Float, some are well known and expected, some less well known and some not expected.

The aim of the article is to list the reasons why a P6 program will display Negative Float.

To download this paper and understand this function please click on this link>>> [9].

Accelerate your understanding of scheduling software to advance your scheduling career and be able to prepare better schedules with Eastwood Harris books, training courses and online videos on the following software packages:

• Microsoft Project,
• Oracle Primavera P6 and 
• Elecosoft (Asta) Powerproject 

Please follow these links:

• Eastwood Harris books and training materials are available here Eastwood Harris [11]
• Online videos available through Udemy [12], click on this link and search for Paul E Harris, and
• Eastwood Harris inhouse, one-to-one and public training courses are offered through Primaskills Pty Ltd, more details here>>>> [13]. 

Paul E Harris

Director Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd

Together with BEMAS - Belgian Maintenance Association, Cleopatra Enterprise is hosting a seminar “Digital Work Preparation and Execution Management of STOs” – September 10th 14:00-17:30 (CEST) in Antwerp!

Would you like to learn...

• What possibilities there are to manage the preparation and execution of STOs in a single solution?
• How you can achieve an integrated approach with the contractors?
• How you can efficiently set up the monitoring process through mobile devices?

Then register here [14]... 

CESK Data has published their latest Release Notes 2022, with the latest additions to the system, including cost models for Mining Equipment, Tank pit, Offshore Windfarms, as well as an addition of new regions and items in the database.

Explore the latest CESK Data updates here CESK Data release notes 2022 – Cesk Data [15]

Cost Engineering Academy 's Director Elmer Sachteleben presented at the AACE Australian Section on ''Integrated Project Cost Management Solutions''.

Cost Engineering Academy offers many courses to cover crucial topics in the industry with the aim of sharing knowledge.

Find your courses here [17]... 

Primavera P6 stores its data in a database, which can hold millions of values, dates, and other data. When working with huge amounts of data, it is highly typical for the database to become corrupted. 

This type of database corruption can include erroneous POBS data and unwanted risk types.

See how you can safely and securely share XER and XML project schedule data without the threats of corrupting another P6 user’s database.

Learn more [19]

POBS data within XER file increases the file size, thus affecting the performance of the Primavera P6 application during file uploads, which causes P6 users to lose valuable data while importing.

Files size decrease and import faster in the Primavera P6 database when you remove POBS data from XER schedules.

Learn more [21]

Do you seek PROMOTION or do you want to better UNDERSTAND YOUR Stengths and SKILLS (in private) or do you seek that NEW ROLE?

Proven Practitioner provides... 

ALL THE TOOLS YOU NEED

Go to Premium [22] and sign up!  

A superior alternative to the "most popular" software for us as planners?

Spider Project

Spider Project offers numerous unique functional features and is the only PM software that optimizes resource, cost, and material constrained schedules and budgets for projects and portfolios. 

Check it out here [25]...  Ask questions here [26]...

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