HVAC/Plumbing Project Management

Walt Risler

I would like to get some input from some of the other Project Managers that visit this website to share some tips, methods of operation, software and any other general information that they use to run their projects successfully. I thought it might be helpful to share this input, and it might help each other out in running our projects smoothly and on budget. I wanted to start off sharing the projects that I am involved with and some of the problems I am encountering. Right now we are half way through a 220 cell addition and renovation of a county jail in northern Indiana. We have completed the new Mechanical room for the addition, set the two 250T air cooled chillers on the roof (7 stories) and have hooked up the AHU's, new boilers (Intellifins) and have completed all the cell piping hook-ups. The other main job I have is a new Library for a large University. This job is just getting mobilized and I am finishing up all the submittals. The Engineer has specified that we install a lot of seismic vibration and accoustical hangers, bases and I have having some diffuculty with this because we have not had to follow many projects with seismic requirement because we are located in a location that is not prone to earthquakes. We have to provide stamped drawing for all the equipment pads in the Mechanical room showing that they will conform to the seismic vibration requirements. Anyone have experience with this item? Also we are installing two 54,000 CFM "HVAC21/RAE" custom AHU's, these are new to me and I am a little concerned because I we have never installed this brand of unit in the past. Anyone out there ever installed these? They are going into a 3rd floor Mechanical room and we have to lift them through the roof and they are quite expensive. Has anyone ever installed this type of unit? I would also like to know what the favoeite type of software you guys use for tracking your projects. I have Microsoft "Project" but I was thinking about asking the boss if he would buy "Primavera" because I see more and more people using this and I am assuming it is a good program for tracking the costs during construction. If anyone has any input, thanks in advance.

jack_4

Project Mgt.

Well there is a question I can answer. First, I am a Certified Project Manager with the PMP rating for 7 years now. I work on large projects that often include HVAC components.

Software management tools are just that, they are tools. You can use them right, wrong or just half a**ed. We use MS Project 2000 and are in the process of upgrading to MS Project 2002.

For basic smaller projects we use .mpp file project plans. On larger and more complex projects we use the Project Central feature of MS Project as this allows the use of the central database and finer detail tracking and control. Resources (both human and equipment), Cost tracking and Earned Value calculations are a piece of cake with the Project Central feature. Add to that, it is cheap, scalable and MicroSoft is not going anywhere soon. Bonus, it is web friendly.

Call your MS rep for tech assistance on how best to set it up.

Primavera is a much more expensive tool and unless you are building aircraft, ships or space shuttles, it is far too complex. I have used it when I worked for Boeing on the 777 and it was useful, but we spent more time teaching others, learning for ourselves, and figuring out what went wrong with (how we used the software) than we should have.