Overhaul maintenance of large power-generating units: Management by subprojects

Management by subprojects is an effective approach to handling large projects especially when only low memory computers are available. By and large, power generating units for public utility are large with many activities and their overhaul must be completed in a relatively short time-span. A typical characteristic of overhauling large power generating units is the presence of many parallel activities and ‘paths’. This characteristic allows for greater flexibility in resource scheduling and also justifies the suitability of the subproject approach. Subproject management was found to be very conducive to overall project control when applied to a specific case; it yielded good results. Slippage charts were drawn at the rescheduling stage and slippage could be identified to a subproject, then to the subnetwork and finally to the cause.