How to Be Successful as an Industrial Automation Manager

The following tip is from the ISA book by Greg McMillan and Hunter Vegas titled 101 Tips for a Successful Automation Career, inspired by the ISA Mentor Program. This is Tip #32, and was written by Hunter.

Over the years, I have learned a number of valuable tips, either the hard way or from my talented colleagues. Here are some points that will be extremely useful to any project manager.

Concept: Successful project management requires a diverse skill set and covers a broad range of activities. Most project managers acquire that skill set the hard way, but hopefully this list of tips will help you acquire those abilities in a much quicker and less painful fashion.

Details: As mentioned previously, a good project manager is really a risk manager and a successful project manager is constantly working to identify and eliminate risk to the project. Beyond that, here are several other key concepts that a good project manager should understand.

• Good, fast, cheap – pick any two. This is an age old project management maxim, and the simple fact is that you cannot have it all. If the project must be completed quickly, it will either suffer in quality or cost more. If project expense is paramount, prepare to sacrifice quality or speed of execution. And finally, if the project must be of the highest quality, then it will either cost much more or take longer to install. Manage the client’s expectations. If the client is making unreasonable requests and demanding a fast track, high quality, low cost project then consider either declining the project entirely or informing them at the onset of the impossibility of satisfying their requests.
• Time nearly always trumps cost. Most projects have a one or two year payback. Therefore, a one week delay is usually worth 1 – 2% of the project cost. Spending a bit more to save time is usually justified by the economics.
• Never commit to something that you cannot deliver, but ALWAYS deliver on those items to which you commit. Follow this advice and your team will quickly gain the respect of your co-workers and clients. Instill this concept in your team and success is virtually assured.
• Never low-ball or undercut an estimate. Returning excess funds is infinitely easier (and much better career-wise) than over-running a job budget and begging for more funding.
• If the client wants to cut project cost, cut the scope rather than cutting out the contingency funds. NEVER assume everything will go perfectly – because it will not.
• Plan the work and work the plan. Take the time to plan the project at the start and continually compare the actual project status to the plan. Find simple metrics that will provide a quick and accurate picture of the activities and highlight possible problems early. Fixing a problem is difficult if you don’t know it exists!
• Know the team. Pick team members whose talents and quality are known and whose trustworthiness is a given. If their “first time right” percentage is low or they are new to the team, cross check their work early in the process.
• Realize that there is rarely one path to accomplish a goal. As a project leader it is easy to become so focused on proving your own approach that other viable options may be dismissed. Budget and timing limitations may dictate that things be done in a certain way, but if possible let the people under you run with their ideas. This makes them stronger team members and they will often become more engaged and work harder to prove that their concept will work.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate – be sure the team understands their role and understands the project goals. Formal meetings are not required and can often be replaced by constant informal communications that keep all of the team members on the same page.
• Identify scope changes early and document them well. If the contract is a fixed price contract, get formal approval BEFORE doing the work. When the client is desperate to get something in, he will say anything to get it done. However, people tend to forget those promises when the money gets tight at the end of project and they are presented with a verbally approved scope change for final sign off.

Watch-Outs: While communication is extremely important, realize that the productivity of meetings varies with the inverse of the square of the number of attendees. A two or three person meeting is highly efficient. Productivity begins falling precipitously after five attendees and approaches zero as the number grows above ten. Short, informal meetings of a couple of people will usually provide the best results.

xceptions: Working the plan is important, but even more important is the ability to realize that the plan needs to be able to change! Be flexible. If things are not going as they should, do not be afraid to change direction early and quickly to rectify problems.

Insight: Young engineers often see themselves as managers before they are ready for the role. To be successful a manager has to have the skill and desire to manage clients, motivate and develop others, provide technical direction, ensure quality, keep the schedule, watch the budget, mitigate risk, do the billing, etc. If an engineer is missing some of those skills he or she should consciously pick the weakest one and work to improve it.

Rule of Thumb: The best project managers probably did not set out to BE project managers. In most cases they started out as engineers who over time proved their ability to successfully run increasingly large portions of projects and manage others. Most make the job look easy, but the role is a lot more difficult than it might appear.

About the Author
Gregory K. McMillan, CAP, is a retired Senior Fellow from Solutia/Monsanto where he worked in engineering technology on process control improvement. Greg was also an affiliate professor for Washington University in Saint Louis. Greg is an ISA Fellow and received the ISA Kermit Fischer Environmental Award for pH control in 1991, the Control magazine Engineer of the Year award for the process industry in 1994, was inducted into the Control magazine Process Automation Hall of Fame in 2001, was honored by InTech magazine in 2003 as one of the most influential innovators in automation, and received the ISA Life Achievement Award in 2010. Greg is the author of numerous books on process control, including Advances in Reactor Measurement and Control and Essentials of Modern Measurements and Final Elements in the Process Industry. Greg has been the monthly "Control Talk" columnist for Control magazine since 2002. Presently, Greg is a part time modeling and control consultant in Technology for Process Simulation for Emerson Automation Solutions specializing in the use of the virtual plant for exploring new opportunities. He spends most of his time writing, teaching and leading the ISA Mentor Program he founded in 2011.

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About the Author
Hunter Vegas, P.E., has worked as an instrument engineer, production engineer, instrumentation group leader, principal automation engineer, and unit production manager. In 2001, he entered the systems integration industry and is currently working for Wunderlich-Malec as an engineering project manager in Kernersville, N.C. Hunter has executed thousands of instrumentation and control projects over his career, with budgets ranging from a few thousand to millions of dollars. He is proficient in field instrumentation sizing and selection, safety interlock design, electrical design, advanced control strategy, and numerous control system hardware and software platforms. Hunter earned a B.S.E.E. degree from Tulane University and an M.B.A. from Wake Forest University.

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