Application of EVM to Pressure Equipment Manufacturing

Work reported in this paper covers recent developments in transforming a project-based organization from one with minimal formal project management structure to a business that is now being managed as a whole by its project focus. Changes were driven by the need to restructure the host organization so sufficient data streams become available for earned value management (EVM) analysis. The central challenge has been to make EVM function beneficially on a relatively small scale without imposing uneconomic burdens in data generation and management. Established EVM theories were applied--as described here--and shown to be adaptable to the small-scale manufacturing projects this research is investigating. Results from schedule forecasting have shown consistency in the various methods applied, though some proved more accurate than others. Conclusions suggest EVM has the flexibility to be successfully used as an option for the tracking of pressure equipment manufacturing projects. In addition, the structure to support EVM, and the data delivered by the method, displays capacity to benefit functional areas of the SME and deliver improvements in estimating and scheduling