Background

As the Members of Parliament (MPs) arrived back at the UK Houses of Parliament in October from the summer recess, they would never have realized that parts of the building had been rewired in their absence. Long-time AMS REALTIME Projects user NG Bailey, the UK’s largest electrical contractor, had just completed phase two of the Parliamentary Voice and Data Network.

Communications are essential to us all, but it is no easy matter to install the necessary cables and electrical points in historic buildings. The project was also under severe time pressure - it had to be completed during the summer recess while MPs were away. "In old buildings in particular, you never quite know what you might discover behind walls and ceilings that have been untouched for nearly two hundred years," comments Damian Farr wryly. "We were constantly finding new challenges as the work proceeded, and this was reflected in the project plan that we developed on AMS REALTIME Projects. The plan had to be flexible and show us where the impact of delays was falling." NG Bailey completed 30,000 hours of work in nine weeks.

AMS Solution

Advanced Management Solutions' AMS REALTIME Projects tracked up to 700 separate job functions and the work package behind each one — all the detail on every piece of equipment and resource that was needed. Work was continuous 24 hours a day, with a maximum of 60 people working shifts.

"We used the plan dynamically, both at the start of a task, or a shift to check that all the resources necessary are available." said Steve Ainsworth, project manager.

"We stretched AMS REALTIME Projects to the limit," said Damian Farr, projects planning engineer. "For projects like this, we make extensive use of AMS REALTIME Projects’ ability to track every job and resource in detail to keep us up to date at every hour."

It was an unusual job as the day shift handed over tasks directly to the night shift, like passing over a relay baton. Normally, in a project of this kind, each shift would have work defined discretely, as separate teams. Here, AMS REALTIME Projects was in the front line to generate the list of tasks as the shifts changed. During the last two hours of the day shift, Damian Farr would update the program and find out where the project was slipping. "The night shifts hot task list was based on the analysis generated by AMS REALTIME Projects." says Farr.

The project was completed without disruption to the operation of the UK's government and despite the night shifts, the NG Bailey team assure that they did not see any ghosts - not even Guy Fawkes, who was hanged in 1606 for leading the infamous ‘Gunpowder Plot’ — an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament!

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