Mastering Efficiency: Expert Strategies for Centralized Project Controls

In complex capital construction projects—with their thin margins, workforce challenges, and inconsistent project management tools—what can go wrong probably will, including failure to deliver on time and on budget.

However, centralized project controls and standards offer a durable solution. Implemented thoughtfully, they deliver the ongoing predictability, scalability, and innovation you need to stay competitive.

This guide offers helpful insights from industry experts who have successfully completed this paradigm shift in their own organizations. Rick Deans, Executive Vice President of Industry Engagement at InEight, spoke with capital construction leaders Justin Terminella, Vice President at Kiewit Industrial, and Rod Wales, Vice President at Ledcor, to learn how they use centralized control and standardization to achieve:

• Consistency and efficiency: Standardized processes reduce variability, streamline workflows, and improve overall efficiency. Teams can work more predictably, reducing errors and redundancies.
• Improved estimating, oversight, and risk management: Centralized control ensures better project progress, budgets, and resource allocation. It helps identify risks early, enforce compliance, and maintain quality across projects.
• Scalability and knowledge sharing: With standardization in place, it’s easier to scale operations and to transfer knowledge between teams. Best practices and lessons learned can be documented and applied consistently across multiple projects.

Discover expert tips for getting started and advice for addressing some challenges you will likely encounter on your journey.

EXPERT PANEL:

CONSISTENCY DELIVERS EFFICIENCY

As projects grow in size and complexity, a major advantage of standardization is the reduction of variability across projects. In construction, different teams often use different methods for estimating costs, managing schedules, or tracking progress. With a standardized system, everyone operates within the same framework, which improves reliability and predictability. The experts in this discussion offered a few concrete steps toward standardization that can deliver efficiency.

ESTABLISH SHARED TERMINOLOGY

All too often, different teams use various terms to describe the same phases of construction or project milestones, which can lead to misunderstandings or delays. With a shared vocabulary, leadership and teams can more easily track progress and make decisions. When everyone, from senior leadership to project teams on the ground, uses the same terms and information structures, it eliminates ambiguity and confusion.

STANDARDIZE ACROSS PROJECTS

Centralized project controls also provide a clearer view of resource needs across multiple projects. A standard approach to project management makes it easier to anticipate staffing requirements and move resources where they are needed most. A unified tool also enables more efficient budgeting and payment processing for personnel, ensuring costs are controlled and aligned with project goals.

“You can go from one project to the next and you’re talking the same language,” said Justin Terminella, Vice President at Kiewit Industrial. “I can tell you, 10 years ago that wasn’t the case. Whether you were looking at a visualization of an earned value report, and then you didn’t understand what green versus red meant and every single time you went to a project, it was a debate on what the right one should be. Those conversations are over. You’re talking the same language, you’re looking for the same stuff, and people understand what you’re asking for. It’s ingrained from a lower level all the way through senior leadership.”

FOCUS ON CONSISTENT QUANTITY AND QUALITY

Managing precise quantities and maintaining rigorous quality standards create a structured, efficient workflow that minimizes risks and maximizes project outcomes.

QUANTITIES DRIVE EVERYTHING

One of the foundational elements of any construction project is accurate estimating, particularly when it comes to managing quantities. A bad estimate at the outset can lead to cascading issues throughout the project lifecycle, such as cost overruns, scheduling delays, and resource shortages.

SIMPLIFY COMPLIANCE AND QUALITY ASSURANCE

With a consistent tool, it becomes easier to enforce compliance with safety regulations, quality assurance protocols, and environmental standards. Project managers can more easily ensure that all teams adhere to the required standards and that any non-compliance or quality issues are detected early. This level of oversight helps minimize the risks of costly fines, rework, and delays while also maintaining the integrity and safety of the project.

Consistency has been key for Ledcor, even if it means giving up some extremely specialized tools that individual teams value. “That’s where we’ve seen the biggest benefit, is just getting consistent even though in some cases we’ve lost functionality by taking away low-code solutions,” Wales said. “In my viewpoint, and I’m a little bit biased perhaps, but it propels us into the future.”

LEARN TO SCALE AND SHARE KNOWLEDGE

Standardization plays a key role in enabling scalability and knowledge sharing across teams and projects. As projects grow in size and complexity, particularly with mega projects involving multi-billion-dollar budgets, having standardized systems and processes becomes crucial to expanding operations and improving communications.

SCALE BUSINESS PROCESSES ACROSS PROJECTS

For mega projects, where multiple divisions and teams are involved, the risk of systems breaking down increases if processes and software are not scalable. Standardization ensures that business processes can handle larger volumes of information and complexity without falling apart. Whether managing larger teams, coordinating across various disciplines, or handling more intricate project data, standardized processes provide the backbone for scalability.

For Ledcor, standardizing on the robust, scalable solution from InEight has been key. “We have to be able to keep a system running. It can’t fall apart every time if it gets too much information in it,” Wales said. “And we’re not scalable when everybody’s got their own system either, whether that’s a spreadsheet or a quick base program that they’ve developed themselves.”

IMPROVE COMMUNICATION WITH CLIENTS

Clear communication with clients builds trust and manages expectations on large projects. Standardized systems ensure consistent reporting, using templates, dashboards, and tools to present key metrics like progress, budget, and risks. This transparency keeps clients informed and improves collaboration by aligning teams and clients with the same performance metrics, identifying challenges early, ensuring smoother project execution, and strengthening client relationships.

Terminella recalled a situation in which a client expectations weren’t clear to the project team at Kiewit. But with complete, consistent data available in the project controls system, Terminella said, “we had the ability and the information to show the client what was remaining on the project, although doing so wasn’t part of the contract structure. You could tell the appreciation from the client of getting the information they were really after, even though the contract type wasn’t as such that we were responsible for the additional scope. But just giving them that answer was a huge benefit in their eyes.”

PROJECT MANAGE YOUR PROJECT CONTROLS

To effectively implement centralized project controls and standardization, you must first deeply understand business needs and objectives so you can mold the project management framework to serve the business most efficiently.

TAKE A PHASED APPROACH TO DEPLOYMENT

It’s crucial to understand that transformation doesn’t happen overnight. A phased approach allows the organization to gradually adapt and absorb the changes, preventing overwhelm or resistance to the new system.

Start by identifying high-priority areas where standardization will bring immediate value. Gradually roll out the tools and processes across the business at a manageable pace—this prevents disruption and ensures buy-in from the teams involved.

DON’T SKIMP ON PRE-PLANNING

Establish universally applied guidelines. Rules of credit are a great example—these should be consistent across all industrial projects, regardless of the project type (construction, installation, engineering). For example, defining milestones and deliverables must be standardized, ensuring clarity and uniformity in progress tracking across all teams. Having rules aligned helps create consistency, reduces ambiguity, and enables smoother decision-making processes across teams.

Thinking through how people will use the data captured and reported by the system is also critical. “You’re going to have too much data, whether it comes from InEight or the other things that you collect data from,” Terminella said. “Understand that architecture and get a plan in place around it, and cut out the noise. Also, focus your time on the visualizations of how you’re looking at the data.”

FOR ONGOING SUCCESS, STANDARDIZE

Streamline processes, reduce variability, and ensure consistency across teams. With centralized control and standardization, you can enhance efficiency, strengthen risk management, and scale operations with confidence. Gaining greater visibility, improving decision-making, and optimizing resource allocation drives higher profitability and project success.