Project Management

Rimkus offers a Programme Management Office (PMO) service to give organisations visibility of key information and a management capability across their whole portfolio of projects at all stages in the project life cycle. Key performance indicators, metrics, and progress milestones are designed around what is important to the organisation and its governance processes. The health and status of individual projects can easily be reviewed from dashboard-style reports, with the ability to further interrogate and provide more detailed information when required.

Our team offers the PMO as a stand-alone service working alongside existing project delivery teams or as an add-on to our individual project management services. We are also able to integrate with and support existing PMO environments or develop new PMOs from scratch. The following PMO services and associated deliverables are designed to suit client requirements:

• Gathering and collating individual project reporting streams into a single key data set
• Preparation of individual and routine reports to show project and programme performance against agreed metrics, e.g., programme, budget, earned value, quality, and health and safety
• Preparation and maintenance of project and programme trend data to show performance over agreed intervals and periods
• Implementation of corrective actions and project team support to drive performance improvements
• Support and training to establish PMO culture, processes, and data streams

Rimkus offers a range of construction management services to any type of client, including developers, business operators, contractors, and funders, to support the delivery of engineering and construction works on a stand-alone basis or as an add-on to any of our core services.

We provide flexible resources during both the pre-construction and construction phases to support design, procurement, and mobilisation activities and the planning, monitoring, and coordination of the works themselves. Under our construction management services, we undertake various supervisory, monitoring, and coordination roles to suit the project team structure and contractual arrangements. A specific scope of services is designed to reflect unique client and project requirements, but typically includes the following activities:

Pre-Construction Phase:

• Assembly of a Pre-construction Information Pack
• Support of procurement activities
• Support of early supply chain engagement in connection with design and procurement
• Support of project planning and management activities, e.g., preparation and/or review of preliminary site logistics plans, construction sequencing and methodology, construction noise and vibration management plans, and environmental protection plans
• Review and/or preparation of the client’s quality management requirements
• Review and update of project risk register
• Preparation and update of project programme

Construction Phase:

• Supporting coordination of the client’s operational activities with construction and/or engineering works
• Monitoring health, safety, and environmental management activities, including support in fulfilment of CDM roles
• Monitoring general site management, e.g., security, site accommodation, waste management, tidiness, site logistics, site inductions, and site register
• Maintaining contemporaneous records, site diary, and photographs (weather, site attendance, resource levels, deliveries, collections, progress, and site/locality conditions)
• Preparing regular reports, including progress; quality; health, safety, and environment; site issues; and planned works/deliveries
• Inspecting materials and equipment on and off-site as necessary
• Reviewing the principal contractor’s Construction Phase Plan and monitoring the implementation
• Reviewing Risk and Method Statements (RAMS) for key or high-risk activities
• Monitoring implementation of the Quality Management Plan
• Monitoring compliance activities
• Monitoring and receipt of documentation, including testing, commissioning, site acceptance certificates, operation and maintenance manuals, and health and safety file contents
• Reviewing and updating the project risk register and project programme
• Supporting project and commercial management and contract administration activities

The identification, management, and regular review of all forms of risk is essential for the successful delivery of any project or programme. Rimkus provides the following risk management services on a stand-alone basis or in conjunction with other core services:

• Facilitating initial and interim stage risk workshops
• Risk categorisation
• Coordinating probability and impact ratings from project team (pre- and post-mitigation)
• Developing mitigation and contingency measures in conjunction with project team
• Allocating risk owners
• Maintaining and distributing risk register
• Preparing risk trend/tracking reports
• Risk assessment and modelling of specific impacts, e.g., commercial and programme

Rimkus offers planning and programming services using industry-standard applications, including Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, and Asta Powerproject. We provide these services for developers, business operators, and funders on a stand-alone basis or as an addition to any of our core service offerings during a project’s pre-construction and construction phases.

Our skilled and experienced personnel can provide a specifically scoped service or be fully integrated into the client’s teams. Our planning and programming services typically include the following activities:

• Preparing project master and/or construction programmes for complex projects in regulated environments
• Maintaining and updating active programmes during all stages of project delivery to reflect progress and revisions
• Forensic programme review in connection with disputes and claims (for employers and contractors)
• Programme efficiency and acceleration reviews and revisions
• Developing construction sequences and methodologies in conjunction with design and construction teams
• Critical path analysis
• Resource analysis and planning
• Programme management in accordance with NEC contract forms
• Application of first principles in project scheduling
• Supporting clients in implementing individual delivery strategies
• Coordinating programme inputs (third parties, clients, cost, and resources)
• Performance and data analysis
• Cost loading analysis
• Monitoring and reporting of key performance indicators and milestones
• Monitoring and auditing of contractor plans against forecasted and actual performance

Rimkus consultants have extensive experience devising and/or reviewing quality management plans and either implementing or monitoring these on a variety of project types. We adopt a collaborative approach to engage project teams in the process so the benefits are tangible for all.

Our team develop and implement a comprehensive quality management regime in conjunction with clients, project teams, contractors, and supply chains. Once established, we coordinate implementation of the regime by embedding the procedures into day-to-day project activities and reinforcing a quality-orientated culture through regular reporting and feedback on quality metrics. The quality management services include:

• Development of definitive and measurable quality standards
• Documentation requirements
• Delivery of a workable quality management plan, including milestones for:
  • Approval of design information at key stages
  • Inspection and testing of materials, components, and equipment on-site and off-site
  • Inspection and testing of works in progress at key stages
  • Routine testing and recordkeeping (e.g., concrete cube tests)
  • Hold points to prevent subsequent works
  • Inspection and maintenance of materials and components
  • Pre-commissioning, commissioning, and site acceptance testing
  • Snagging and de-snagging inspections

Rimkus consultants can apply our project delivery capability to provide monitoring and audit services for projects delivered by others. In addition to providing reassurance that the projects are being delivered within the agreed parameters and that the requisite governance and project controls are being followed, we also add value by reviewing strategies, contributing to problem solving, and identifying unforeseen issues.

We adopt a collaborative approach to monitoring and audit roles to avoid conflict and enhance, rather than divide, the incumbent project team. Rimkus brings an additional independent layer of capabilities and resources to any project team to assist in avoiding problems in the first place or to help get projects back on track when things have not gone to plan.

Our project monitoring and audit services typically include the following, but can be tailored to our client’s specific project requirements:

• Preparing regular monitoring reports at an agreed-upon frequency covering key project health metrics
• Monitoring health, safety, and environmental management activities, including fulfilment of CDM roles
• Undertaking regular site inspections, including off-site materials and manufacturing as necessary
• Attending key project meetings, e.g., pre- and post-contract progress meetings
• Reviewing key project information, including:
  • Project brief
  • Pre-construction and construction phase programmes
  • Budget/cost plan and expenditure
  • Regular reports from project manager, cost manager, clerk of the works/supervisor, and contractor
  • Risk register
  • Change control register
  • Planning and other statutory consent trackers
  • Design information
  • Tender submissions and procurement reports
  • Quality management plan
  • Construction phase plan
  • Contracts and administration documentation, e.g., certificates, statements, and notices

Stakeholder planning and management is frequently overlooked as an important aspect of project management. Only when the potential influence of stakeholders is fully understood can the associated risks be mitigated, and opportunities exploited. Stakeholder analysis and management is particularly important for infrastructure or industrial process projects, many of which are sensitive by nature and attract a great deal of public attention.

Rimkus offers stakeholder planning, management, and engagement support on a stand-alone basis or as an add-on to our other core services. Services include:

• Preparing and populating a stakeholder matrix
• Facilitating a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of identified stakeholders
• Preparing a stakeholder management plan
• Coordinating stakeholder engagement activities, such as end-user workshops or focus groups and consultations and preparation of newsletters/bulletins
• Collating stakeholder responses and feedback
• Reviewing and updating the stakeholder management plan at key stages

Rimkus has extensive experience working in highly regulated sectors where rigorous governance and project controls apply. Through this experience, our teams have developed the capability to produce an optimum regime of project controls and governance designed to reflect the specific risks of any project with gateways at appropriate stages and ongoing protocols.

We offer governance and project controls support for new projects and those already underway, and we can work within existing governance systems or develop new controls from the ground up. Services include:

• Establishing approval gateways at key stages
• Expenditure and commitment control
• Change control
• Monitoring of delivery against project briefs, forecasts, and key performance indicators
• Facilitating the adoption and implementation of project controls

Rimkus consultants’ broad range of skills and experience means we are ideally placed to review strategy and inject much needed positivity into any underperforming project. Our input can range from a light-touch project review and recommended minor course corrections to a full strategic review and recommendations against the incumbent project management function. Incumbent teams may lose their objectivity over time and struggle to identify a positive way forward, particularly if their commercial position has been undermined. In any challenging situation, a fresh and independent perspective can bring much needed clarity and objectivity.