Heather Abel from Komatsu Mining - Choosing the Right PM Tool for the $285 Million-Dollar Job

This Project Life

Host, Matthew Stoltz, VP of Marketing, and “Bucky” Jobe, VP of Operations at Moovila, interview Heather Abel, project coordinator from Komatsu Mining Corporation, about Komatsu’s $285 million manufacturing facility project and new headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They discuss how autonomous project management technology has helped Komatsu stay on track. Heather shares how she became the Project Coordinator for building the new corporate campus — the largest project in the history of Komatsu. She first prepared for and achieved the status of Certified Associate Project Manager (CAPM) from PMI. Next, she worked with “Bucky” Jobe on setting up the multiple workstreams of the construction and installation project in Moovila. Moovila developed new functionality for this Komatsu project. Listen in for the importance of using the right project management technology for the scope of your project.

Key Takeaways:

• Before this project, Heather was Executive Assistant to the President, with a focus on projects. This Project Coordinator role is a lifetime opportunity for her.
• Heather quickly got certified in CAPM.
• The project spans a 60-acre site. It includes a manufacturing plant, offices, robotics labs, a four-story parking garage, and a museum.
• Heather had about 25 workstreams running at any one time. She needed something robust to manage a team of 60 and their different project plans.
• The workstreams are not siloed but overlap. Komatsu needed software with visibility to make the experts and project managers accountable.
• Moovila offered a simple way to assign tasks and accept assignments without email or meetings.
• A workstream may have multiple projects. Heather tried Microsoft Project but it was not enough. “Bucky” tells of the partnership between Heather and Moovila.
• Heather was given no rules but was expected to show the results!
• “Bucky” was involved with the Komatsu project from Day 1 as part of Moovila’s White Glove service to fully onboard its customers.
• Heather shows Matt and “Bucky” more details that involved 15,000 tasks.
• Heather lists some of the workstreams, such as spaces, furnishings, moving people to the new buildings, and overseeing the project team.
• Everyone can manage their project as it suits their team, and Heather can coordinate the teams to see that they all work together.
• Heather credits the Moovila team who helped her import data to the system from the different tools each team used to document their progress.
• Heather talks about taking an overview and looking at everyone’s milestones. She showed Matt and “Bucky” her Moovila executive dashboard.
• Heather has meetings all day. Moovila allows assignments to be made without extra communication. The teams are aligned as efficiently as possible.
• Heather finds the reporting to be far superior to the reports she used to make from Excel. Moovila has visibility and tracking.
• Executives can go into Moovila and focus on one tiny corner. Is it on time? Is it done? Moovila is transparent.
• Heather likes the critical paths on the installation checklist and features such as batch editing. Heather can add or subtract managers and update the timeline.
• The status goes to the executives and the executives report to the top levels.
• What does Heather see as the most notable gains of using Moovila? There are quite a few million dollars of savings projected over the installation.
• There were some construction delays and COVID-19 paid a huge role in them.
• Heather shares how Moovila’s transparency works for executives. They expect this installation not to impact customers in any way, and to stay within budget!
• This Komatsu project drove the development of Moovila’s interproject dependency functionality and completely put it to the test! It works!
• From her executive dashboard, Heather can see the status of all projects and the story behind everything. Heather doesn’t do charts or calculate anything.
• Heather’s last thoughts: Managing an installation project of this scope with Moovilla is incredible! It is historic, it is substantial, and it is fascinating!

Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management

Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife

Email: [e-mail]: Komatsu Mining Corporation

Heather Abel

Adison “Bucky” Jobe

PMI

CAPM Certification

Microsoft Project

Excel