What’s that saying again? Oh, yeah… those that fail to plan, plan to fail. Here at IKD, we take that seriously. We’ve learned through many years of rotary equipment field service and parts supply that planning is the heartbeat of a successful job. We’re proud of the growth of our planning process and very pleased that it has created stronger communication with you, our customer, and contributed to many outstanding project successes.

Thoughtful planning for your project begins before we’ve even received a purchase order from you. Our four-part planning process strives to create a system that eliminates any surprises (monetary or downtime related) and significantly reduces the risk of errors and oversights. Today, in this blog post, we’re going to give an overview of the detail and attention that goes into planning your projects!

Before the four-phase process begins, we start with a walk-through of your site and job scope development. The purpose of this is to develop an accurate scope of work and to gain a firm understanding of your equipment, a bird’s eye view as well as a detailed look at the project, create costing sheet reports, and a write up of observations and findings that will aid in quoting the job accurately to you. We always take into consideration your specific equipment and your product/process, and if necessary, a Project Manager with industry segment specific knowledge will be included in the walk through and initial discussion regarding your scope of work. This visit and walk-through are free of charge in almost all instances and strongly contribute to the success of scope development, quoting and the execution of a hiccup free job.

Phase 1 of the planning process picks up after you’ve agreed to the job and issued IKD a purchase order. This phase is exciting not only because it includes the performance of your project, but also because this is where a ton of energy is put into communication with you and making sure that you’re met with no surprises at the end of the job. This phase really starts with repeating the steps in the job scope development outlined above and ensuring all details are in order. Additionally, key stake holders are identified to set-up future communication of project updates. The next portion of this phase involves the Project Manager arriving on-site a day before the project begins. Here’s what your Project Manager is trying to accomplish the day before the job starts:

• A walk through of the job site to see if any conditions have changed since quoting that may introduce complications during the job.
• Revise the plan considering any conditions found during the walk-through.
• The Project Manager will meet with supervisors and crew to layout job tasks and daily progress milestones.
• Inspection and quality control of parts on-site needed for project
  
  • Are all parts on-site?
  • Do they fit?

If there’s an issue at this point, the Project Manager will work with your Key Account Specialist, our home base office and you to ensure the problem is corrected.  

Once the project kicks off, this is where the communication magic happens, and Phase 2 begins. We’ve created a unique reporting system that allows you to see updates not only daily, but via live feed. Meaning, you’re getting up to date information frequently even throughout the day as our Project Manager’s input it. Some of the information you can expect to see on this live report includes:

• Quoted vs. actual totals
• Identification of the crew on-site (you’ll always know who is at your plant and working on your equipment)
• Weather
• Daily progress reports

+ More

Shown above: Example of a real time update through our Project Management software.

Keith Hendrick, IKD Project Coordinator, described how Phases 1 and 2 have had a lot of time and love poured into them through our corporate Operations Department and also on the district planning level. “I’m particularly proud of how far we’ve come in terms of real time updates using our specialty Project Management software, leaving room for little to no surprises for our customer, and also the addition of the extra day on-site on the front end for the Project Manager. We’re serious about quality control of our parts and getting the job set up correctly and this is something I don’t think you necessarily see with our competitors.”

Remember back in phase 1 when we identified our key stakeholders? We want to highlight that for our customers who may be too busy for the real time updates or would like to supplement them, you’ll be added to an email list for your project that sends daily progress updates. This ensures that no matter what your preference and frequency of communication may be, you’re receiving the information pertinent to your project.

Moving on to Phase 3, this is where the project gets wrapped up and the demobilization process starts. Before the job site closure, a closing email communication is sent out wrapping up all the details of the project. At this point, there should be no bombshells regarding pricing or final invoicing as everything has been outlined and updated in Phase 2. Job site clean-up commences, and we prepare to leave your equipment better than we found it.

The last, but very important phase, Phase 4, is a review of how the job went with the Project Manager and our office. A key component of this phase is the review of actual job totals vs. quoted totals (issues arise and/or adders happen!) All jobs are impacted by After Action Review (AAR) and it’s important for our team to identify and improve upon in any snags in our process. For this reason, this step will never be skipped, even if it may not be a step that you’re as heavily involved in.

So, there you have it! An inside look into our project planning process! Our aim is always to deliver you the best rotary equipment field service and parts supply on the market and one of the ways we do this is through thorough planning. We are a relationship driven company and what relationship thrives without well-developed communication and thoughtful attention?

Have you planned a project with us lately? Contact us today to set up a call with your Key Account Specialist and let’s develop a scope of work!