1. Civil engineering, construction, petrochemical, mining and quarrying
Projects in this category are the ones that come to mind most easily whenever industrial projects are mentioned. A common feature is that the compliance phase must take place on a site that is exposed to the elements and typically away from the contractor’s main office.
These projects incur special risks and organizational problems. They often require massive capital investment and deserve (but don’t always get) rigorous progress, finance, and quality management.
For very large industrial projects, the funding and resources required are often too great for a contractor to risk or even find. Therefore, organization and communications are likely to be complicated by the involvement of many different specialists and contractors, with the main players possibly acting together as a consortium or a joint venture.
2. Manufacturing projects
Manufacturing projects aim to produce a piece of equipment or machinery, ship, airplane, land vehicle, or some other specially designed piece of hardware. The finished product can be built specifically for a single customer, or the project can be generated and financed from within a company for the design and development of a new product for subsequent manufacture and sale in quantity.
Manufacturing projects are typically carried out in a factory or other home environment, where the company should be able to manage on-site and provide an optimal environment.
Of course, these ideal conditions do not always apply. Some manufacturing projects may involve off-site work, for example installation, commissioning and commissioning, initial customer training, and subsequent service and maintenance. More difficult is the case of a complex product (such as an airplane) that is developed and manufactured by a consortium of companies, quite possibly crossing international borders, with all the consequent problems of risk, contractual difficulties, communication, coordination and control.
3. Management projects
These kinds of projects demonstrate the point that all companies, regardless of size, can expect to need project management experience at least once in their lifetime. These are the projects that arise when companies relocate their headquarters, develop and introduce a new IT system, launch a marketing campaign, prepare for a trade show, produce a feasibility report or other study, restructure the organization, mount a stage performance or, in general, participate in any operation that involves the management and coordination of activities to produce a final result that is not primarily identifiable as a hardware or construction item.
Although management projects may not result in a visible and tangible creation, it often depends on their successful outcome. There are well-known cases, for example, in which the lack of correct implementation of a new computer system has caused a serious operational breakdown and has exposed the responsible managers to public discredit. Effective project management is at least as important for these projects as it is for the larger construction or manufacturing project.
