Cross-Regional Team Improves Project Closure Process
By Cesar Paredes, CDOT Office of Project Development Intern
June 5, 2015
On May 18, 2015, the Region 2 Project Closure Process Improvement Project Team was recognized at a Region 2 Full Staff Meeting. During that meeting, the Team members received certificates in appreciation for their hard work on the project. The accomplishments of this Project Team – a joint collaboration between Regions 2 and 5 -- included:
Creating a Finals Notebook to help organize and keep paperwork easily accessible
Changing the Form 325 process to an electronic streamline process that saves approximately 25 staff-days per year in Region 2 alone
Standardizing the layout in ProjectWise for finals documentation
The team's overall goal is to reduce the median number of days it takes to close out a project to 200 (currently at 344 days).
One-Year Project
This project began in May of 2014 when the team participated in a three-day Rapid Improvement Event in Pueblo.
The project team recognized that rework was the main contributing factor to the period of time it takes to close a project. This rewords often resulted from information feeding into the Finals processes, so the team worked to understand those factors. The team then focused on how to help project engineers be more effective in collecting and retaining their finals documents.
Cross-regional benchmarking played a crucial role in the Project. A Finals notebook was designed using a prototype provided by Tom Bovee, the Region 5 Finals Administrator and a member of the R2 project team. This simple, effective tool will help project managers organize and keep the needed paperwork in one centrally located place and can easily be turned in at the conclusion of the project to the Finals Administrator for easy and streamlined review.
Then there was the issue of Form 325, which outlines final budgets, dates, and days used to complete the final estimate for the project. The process to submit this form required sending numerous copies to multiple recipients. The team decided to go electronic using Adobe Acrobat and ProjectWise. This meant that instead of the recipients receiving hard copies, they received emailed copies and the files were then stored electronically in ProjectWise. According to Don Scanga, the Region 2 Finals Administrator, this process saves approximately 25 staff-days per year in Region 2, in addition to saving cost in paper, shipping, storage, and copy machine wear and tear.
Another win for this Team occurred at a recent Finals Administrator’s statewide meeting where Scanga and Bovee reviewed the project’s work and requested that a decision to standardize the folder structure in ProjectWise for Finals Documentation. That request was approved, and there is now a standard for storing important closing documents which will now be used consistently by all Finals Administrators throughout the state.
Key Benefits
The focus on improving Region 2’s closing process allowed this team to impact a wide variety of processes in Region 2, and these improvements can also be applied. The team will also be working with Area Engineers to modify the Construction Manual to include standardization of the Finals Notebook, the ProjectWise folder structure, and the new electronic Form 325 process.
What They're Saying
“I am very proud of the accomplishments of the Region 2 Project Closure Team. These changes were very much needed. Team members continue to amaze me with the implementation of this effort.” - Karen Rowe, Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Region 2 Transportation Director.
“This team did a wonderful job. I 'm looking forward to seeing the data in December and hope that we not only meet the goal but exceed it.” - Michelle Malloy, Project Team Lead.
“In addition to all of the improvement made to the project closeout process, this process improvement is a great example of region helping region – in this case, Region 5 helping Region 2. The use of best practices from Region 5 was a key driver for the success of the R2 project. I believe strongly in CDOT’s Values, and this team’s work reflects several of those values: respect for people, and the courage to act to improve our business; excellence and our commitment to continuously improve our products and service; and people recognizing the skills and abilities of our co-workers – such as those from other Regions -- and drawing strength from our diversity. I congratulate everyone who has been involved with this important improvement." - Gary Vansuch, CDOT Process Improvement Director.