In an industry where timelines can affect lives and delays can have significant financial implications, project controls provide the necessary information to guide a project to an on-time, on-budget delivery. Partnering with the right people who can transform project controls datasets into actionable information helps the project team avoid costly errors, stay on schedule, and accelerate speed to market for treatments and therapies for patients.

At JE Dunn we promote a total lifecycle project view in our Life Sciences business unit. From project initiation through project closeout, the engineering and design, procurement, construction, commissioning, qualification, and validation phases all influence project time and cost, making total lifecycle project controls a must-have in a successful project delivery model.

At its core, project controls are about communication, collaboration, and coordination. The project controls team functions as the project management team’s partner in employing disciplined project controls processes to transform data into action that minimizes disruptions, enhances predictability, and strengthens project outcomes in a transparent model for all stakeholders. JE Dunn employs Lean methodologies like Target Value design (TVd) and Target Value Delivery (TVD) within the project controls framework to safeguard a project’s financial health by managing scope creep.

Project Controls at JE Dunn

JE Dunn employs a robust set of project controls procedures, guides, processes, and tools to manage and report on a project’s financial health, schedule compliance, risk exposure, and earned progress. At JE Dunn, the main elements of our project controls framework are:

• Project Financial Management
• Project Schedule Management
• Project Risk Management
• Earned Progress / Earned Value Management

Our proactive and transparent approach to project controls, backed by data-driven insights, provides our project and client teams with information necessary to make informed decisions that align with project and organizational goals, particularly in environments where certainty of outcomes is critical.

Financial management

Project financial management begins with a comprehensive estimate that calculates all anticipated costs necessary to fully deliver the intended project scope and benefits. Upon establishment of the Original Project Budget, TVd/TVD is implemented, and the Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) is developed. JE Dunn utilizes CMiC to track all commitments, expenditures, and forecasts for each budgetary line item within the project’s financial model.

Additionally, a cash flow analysis model is developed. Cash flow serves as a key indicator of financial health and can be predictive of a project’s future performance. We use detailed cash flow curves to identify variances against the project baseline and anticipate funding needs. By connecting financial forecasts directly to field performance and production data, we can share insights that inform timely decisions.

Schedule management

Schedule management begins concurrently with the development of the project estimate and includes all required scope in an intuitive, time-phased, CPM scheduling tool.

Lean tools and methodologies such as the Last Planner System®, TAKT Planning, and Pull Planning are essential to promote project team ownership of, and agreement with, the project’s Master Level III end-to-end Schedule.

Risk management

Formal risk management is another foundational component of our project controls approach. Beginning at project inception, risk management influences every major project outcome. Our risk program identifies potential exposure early, assigns probability of occurrence, and then assesses impact in cost, schedule, and quality, which is then used to calculate an earned monetary value (EMV) for each risk line item.

Earned Progress / Earned Value Management

Earned Value Management (EVM) rounds out our core project control components. EVM provides an objective view of progress, productivity, and future trajectory. We track earned hours against budgeted hours to calculate field productivity, i.e., the Productivity Index (PI), which then allows our team to forecast the remaining work with increased accuracy. This PI metric helps project teams understand where they stand — and where they’re headed.

Additionally, our project controls team uses our systems of record to calculate the full suite of EVM metrics including, but not limited to, Schedule Variance (SV), Schedule Performance Index (SPI), Cost Variance (CV), and Cost Performance Index (CPI).

Right people, right tools

JE Dunn has developed a comprehensive project controls ecosystem around reliable systems of record. Our philosophy is that our processes drive software selection and implementation because we recognize that tools are only as effective as our data collection and analysis processes.

We work with our partners to implement project controls systems that convert raw data into actionable insights — so you and other stakeholders on your team can focus on the decisions that matter most. Technologies like BIM modeling and reality capture tools such as Buildots are vital to this approach and establish a single source of truth for the project.

Leveraging these tools, we implement processes to track both predictive and historical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from day one. These include productivity rates, earned vs. actual performance, cash flow forecasts, and cost-variance dashboards. We color-code indicators to prompt deeper questioning: What is this telling us? What decisions need to be made now? This analytical discipline ensures every data point passes a reasonableness test — and earns the trust of our clients and project teams.

Most importantly, we govern these tools with well-defined policies, procedures, and templates that establish guard rails for decision-making. Whether managing cost escalation, field productivity, or scope change, our systems and processes enable consistent execution and reliable forecasting. Our teams regularly use Monte Carlo simulations to model thousands of potential scenarios and assess the probability of hitting key milestones, which can help inform downstream activities in complex, multi-phase life sciences facilities.

Delivering certainty

From ideation to handover, project controls help deliver certainty. And certainty is what builds trusted partnerships, brings treatments for unmet medical needs to market, and turns project goals into real-world outcomes.

To learn more about JE Dunn’s Life Sciences team and portfolio, visit https://jedunn.com/markets/life-sciences-research/