Restoration Project Management

[joliette]

As a Project Manager from the Corporate world I've been thinking about the experience of restoring my Settimo Velo (http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=179427293999). When I started the project my estimated finishing time was based mainly on the amount of time that I thought I'd need to spend on rebuilding work.

However, if I had to think about this again I'd estimate time using three main criteria:

1. Rebuilding.
2. Destruction / dismantling (you have to destroy before you can recreate!).
3. Other: surveying, researching and thinking about solutions, and adminstration (buying, keeping records and accounts).

I would say that I've spent no more than 50% of time doing hands on rebuidling. Dismantling and thinking have consumed about 30% of my time.

This reflects the nature of the project and my own level of knowledge and capability, but I'd be interested in hearing others experiences and views.

 

[Tranona]

Think you are doing well to get 50% hands on! Of course it varies according to the stage of the project. Often you have a lot of thinking and organising time, but once you get things in place you can have solid "working" time. Problem with one-offs as I found rebuilding my boat 20 odd years ago, you would never do it the same second time around.

Maybe find out how true that is as am contemplating taking on another project with similarities to the last one.

 

[sarabande]

sounds as if you are applying loads of critical path stuff on this.

I'm in the middle of a minor restoration of a 24ft sloop, and have - very roughly - a service management approach.

1 I know what I want to have on the water in the end.

2 I know where I am now.

3 I think I know what I have to do to get to where I want to be.

4 I hope I know when I will have arrived there.


There's a load of metrics involved in this, even in a smallscale project, and as far as I have experienced it in the restoration, there are lots of Incidents (i.e. non-standard events, such as discovering that an aluminium battery frame is rotten, which necessitates the rebuild of the woooden frame supporting the metal one), as well as Problems (adhesive being frozen).

There has been a lot of Change Management, too, mainly associated with Configuration Management, such as having to draw up a new, very simple electrical distribution circuit diagram, and making new parts and testing them before installing.

Financial Management ? Err, not much of that, as the project is funded by whatever spare cash is available at the time.

In the end, I hope that I will have full knowledge of the structure and operation of the boat. Importantly, I hope to understand the whole system - whether structural, mechanical, or electrical - far better than I did at the start, and that this will deliver a better, safer, relationship with me, the primary customer, and enable me to deliver a better, safer relationship with the secondary customers such as my crew, and other other sailing people.

 

[joliette]

I guess that I started off with an attempt to define a critical path, based on my initial survey. However, as you say, discovery and change management kick in! I've ended up destroying the cockpit to replace fuel tanks that I thought would be OK, and will now have to replace the cockpit consoles and sole which were (on closer examination) found to be going rotten anyway.

Even when you have a survey you cannot be certain that something else will not be found as a result of a deeper level of examination that was not possible at the time of original survey.

I guess this is one of the key reason why Boatyards do not / cannot give quotations, because of these uncertainties(?)

My estimations of time required have been far too optimistic, because I focused mainly on the hands on rebuild activity. A lesson for me is to estimate this time and then double it to get to elapsed time!

It would be interesting to hear lessons learned from anyone that's worked in a Project Management capacity on a significant restoration project for a client. I know that Classic Boat have touched on Project Management in the past, but that was mainly from an owner's perspective as I recall.

I was also wondering if there is much scope in the business for professional Project Managers to be employed, or does an owner just find a Boatyard, trust 'em and write the cheques?!

 

[sarabande]

I reckon a good project manager should be able to save his fees (say £300 to £400 per day) by managing a rebuild in an effective way. Such a PM would have to be experienced in boat building as well, with the project having a pretty substantial rebuild cost in any case. Compare it with a PM function on a house building job of the same value. The skill in a rebuild will be adjusting the tasks and critical path when snags become an exception.

In my limited new boatbuilding experience, the job of PM is usually taken by the works foreman in collaboration with the designer, and that's a source of conflict and inefficiency. I'm sure that the big assembly line makers (Beneteau and similar) will have the whole process in full task detail, with parts manifesto, and build time against each sub-process, to manage the resource costs.

I think Full Circle knows about this.

 

[Tranona]

All the major re-builds have project managers - who may also be the owner's skipper. New builds also have them when the job is big. All Oyster buyers are allocated a project manager as a single point of contact. This person then manages the building process, liases with designer and suppliers etc. Considered God's right hand man (or even God himself) by people who deal with Oysters!

 

[sarabande]

I think that is the point which Joliette and I are making. Project management is a very complex skill and ability in its own right, and all serious business activities are subject to it in some form or another flavour. A good PM does not have to be a tech specialist in GRP layup, or electronics installation for instance. It's the management, not the practice.

Boat building and restoration is a predominantly manual craft, and the hours necessary to reach the level of skill where one is likely to be employed by a really quality builder do not, I submit, allow the acquisition of effective PM skills which can save masses of time and heartache by proper control of work flow, supply chain and quality.

We have all read here of what can happen if a big budget yacht build is not subject to proper PM and QC procedures.

 

[joliette]

If you're setting out to spend millions on a "Lulworth" or a "Mariquita" then you'll probably have the good sense to bring an independent PM on board to manage your investment.

However, I'm also aware of relatively large rebuild costs arising on much smaller scale projects ... a fellow I met recently had spent a 6 figure sum restoring a 1960's vintage 38 footer. It'd given him a lot of pleasure, watching the rebirth of his pride and joy, but I did wonder if a good PM could've reduced the time / cost of the project.

I can think of projects that I've observed locally that have dragged on for years. They haven't been driven to completion in a reasonable time. They appear to become a substantial part of a Boatyard's bread and butter income, a means of covering the overheads and keeping the lads in a job.

An independent PM would help to prevent that from happening, but I suspect that many owners would hope for a trusting relationship with the Boatyard and perceive an independent PM to be an extra layer of cost with no certainty of return ... ?

 

[Tranona]

I think it depends on who you are and why you are doing the project. I suspect many people are like me. "Management" is our trade and dirty hands on is partly a leisure activity. In other words we like messing about with boats as an antidote to our everyday life. Not surprisingly the combination of management and doing is attractive, but not necessarily the most effective way of getting the job done.

Sub-contracting either the management or the doing somehow reduces the pleasure attached to the project. However there is a limit to the size and complexity that one person can handle and it is perhaps underestimating the scale of the task that results in so many unfinished projects!

 

[Keith 66]

A good reputable boatbuilder does not need a project manager. In fact it adds another layer of unnecesary expense better spent on the boat. Saying that at several hundred pounds a a day i could get quite used to project management!

 

[bra]

The problem with a project manager is the price, even in our project, the restoration of a 80' Brixham Trawler , we do not have one. It would cost us more than 2 months of work on the boat to hire one. So we do this together with the master shipwright. Sadly the story in Norway is that big projects run by project managers,seems to be even more expensive than when its not run by PM. I think a good owner-boatyard cooperation is all you need.

 

[joliette]

... projects run by project managers,seems to be even more expensive than when its not run by PM. I think a good owner-boatyard cooperation is all you need.

I can see where you're coming from. However, as the LOA and hence overall costs rise I think there's a point where the PM cost starts looking like a smaller enough percentage of total cost to be seen as worthwhile.

From a PM perspective, both time and quality need to be managed in addition to cost. It's not unknown for boatyards to skimp on quality or be happy to collect storage fees whilst they go work on "other priorities", or just fail to organise themselves so that work is not interrupted.

 

[Seanick]

Several hundred pounds a week more like.

 

[bra]

I can see where you're coming from. However, as the LOA and hence overall costs rise I think there's a point where the PM cost starts looking like a smaller enough percentage of total cost to be seen as worthwhile.

From a PM perspective, both time and quality need to be managed in addition to cost. It's not unknown for boatyards to skimp on quality or be happy to collect storage fees whilst they go work on "other priorities", or just fail to organise themselves so that work is not interrupted.

In norway no boatyard would dear to cut on quality of work or charge extra fees, the word about any yard doing this would spred around the fleet, like fire in dry gras, and that yard would be out of business. Boat yard doing big- boat jobs are totally dependent on happy costomers!! All you need is a man how knows abit about the boat and what to expect, like a skipper.

 

[DownWest]

I have done some PM on houses, unfortunately when the builder went bust or just ran off. I then was asked to take over. This is not a good place to start!! as the money has been overspent and the owner is looking to finish without losing too much. The idea of £3/400 per day would have been VERY attractive.
Also, there is quite a difference between an 80ft commercial boat rebuild and a similar length yacht. The later would be several times more expensive and would gain from PM.
A