Stevens Engineers & Constructors, Inc. uses Acumen Suite for Driving Schedule Quality, Consistency & Confidence
Since 1970, Stevens has been a proven leader in the engineering, construction and management of projects for clients large and small, in a wide variety of industries and environments.
The company is committed to providing personalized service on each and every project, as well as delivering the highest quality from concept to completion.
As the general contractor on projects ranging from $1 million to $50 million, Stevens is right in the middle of all of the action.
On one hand, they have owners pushing towards a fixed date for project completion.
And on the other, engineering, manufacturing and various other teams work towards individual dates for delivery.
With so many components and complex schedules to adhere to, it can be difficult to understand how potential changes at each stage of the project will impact the upfront delivery date.
Stevens decided it was time to dive deeper into the data and analytics in order to have better, more informed conversations with all project stakeholders.
“I’ve been familiar with Deltek Acumen for quite some time, and from what I’ve seen, the suite’s recent upgrades and new features have made it best-of-breed in the industry. I am excited about the deeper forensic capabilities we can achieve with the combination of Fuse, Risk and 360; and ultimately that the tool will not only help us create higher quality schedules, but also gain a competitive advantage in the market.”
»» Tom Fadok,
IT Director
Challenges/Objectives
♦ Despite decades of experience, Stevens struggled to accurately understand the potential impacts different delays would have on its projects.
Evaluation processes were very manual and gaining buy-in on required changes from key project stakeholders remained challenging.
♦ The company’s homegrown system successfully tied together its various database-driven estimating systems, ERP systems and progressing systems; however, project leaders realized that the company could benefit from the ability to perform deeper, more detailed analysis on its projects.
♦ With the schedule operating as the centerpiece of each project, Stevens was looking for a complementary tool that would enhance its overall processes, while still being easy to use.
Solution
♦ After evaluating several other tools on the market, Stevens purchased the full Acumen Suite and is leveraging:
»» Acumen Fuse: To check all project schedules for missing logic, redundancies, common errors and compliance with DCMA’s 14-point assessment and earned value requirements
»» Acumen Risk: To run anywhere from 500 to 5,000 Monte Carlo simulations in a matter of seconds and pinpoint high risk, high impact activities that could lead to project delays
»» Acumen 360: To quickly identify acceleration cases, hypothesize best and worst-case scenarios and see impacts to the overall project through“what-if” analysis
Benefits
♦ The Acumen Suite has taken the company’s analytics and reporting capabilities to the next level.
With Acumen, Stevens is:
»» Enhancing the overall quality of its schedules
»» Diving deep into schedule data to make more informed decisions at every stage of the project
»» Getting a real-time view into how potential setbacks will impact project finish dates
»» Quickly pinpointing problem areas to accurately allocate additional resources and/or time
»» Performing comprehensive and consistent risk analysis across its project portfolio
»» Creating sophisticated, detailed reports for upper management
