When we think about our daily goals, what comes to mind is essential to our survival. Health, Food, Water and Electric Light are some of these items and it is in this context that Sendi Engenharia and Sendi Prefabricados are inserted. With a trajectory of more than 26 years in the market and working in the construction of substations, factories, hospitals and various types of buildings for the most varied purposes that make possible the development of our country. However, for our dreams to come true, it is necessary before any step that we think and plan to succeed. At Sendi, we have well-defined planning and control routines that make it possible to draw up strategies and monitor their implementation gradually, and even more so, when it is necessary to correct the route, act so that in the end there is success. In the following, we will try to describe the steps that are involved in this process: Initially, when thinking about planning and control, the so-called PDCA cycle (Plan - Do - Check - Act) comes to mind, which consists of planning, executing, checking if the plan is being followed and acting to correct deviations.
Figure 01 - PDCA Cycle
Let us think of a practical case of building an electricity transmission substation.
Figure 02– Substation Completed by Sendi Engenharia in 2020. In order to outline the planning for a project like this, it is necessary to work with a vision of the whole, of all phases of the project that are interconnected and these are Engineering, Purchasing and Construction, or also called the construction of a project under EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction). Thinking in this way, we can see that for the venture to succeed, projects need to be prepared at the right time, purchases need to be made and products delivered at the right time and construction must also be carried out in a timely manner. Unlike what happens in other types of enterprise, due to the time frame for manufacturing equipment and engineering being quite representative, the strategy called fast-tracking is adopted, that is, these steps go hand in hand with each other and they also go hand in hand with the construction stage.
Figure 03 - Scheme of interrelation of phases in Fast Tracking Therefore, it is necessary to map in our schedule, which is the basic tool of planning and control, all interested parties or stakeholders so that we can, through the links between them, diagnose possible impacts, both positive and negative to the enterprise. With this mapping done, the project's baseline is drafted, control documents such as “S” Curve and Vista Management are prepared and there is a periodic monitoring of the project's activities against this baseline. This monitoring is normally updated weekly and at this moment, the project's behavior is assessed. If the activities are developing as planned, there is no need to re-plan them, you should continue to monitor them. However, if there are deviations, action should be taken, redesigning the activities, analyzing what the reasons are leading to the different result and taking measures to correct the route. Following this process, which is based on the PDCA cycle, as mentioned earlier, we proceed with the monitoring and control process during the execution phase of the activities until the closing moment is reached. At this time, there are also some very distinct stages, such as lifting pending issues, resolving and canceling them and closing the project. Planning routines are followed in our activities with the aim of bringing reliability and predictability to enterprises, which facilitates decision-making, which is why we have adopted them.
by Raphael Forastieri Planning Engineer at Sendi