Customer Success Story
General Land Systems (GDLS)

Deltek puts GDLS on the Road to True Cost and Schedule Integration

Deltek enhanced its ability to provide critical earned value management (EVM) offerings to its broad project-focused customer base with the acquisition of Welcom in March 2006.

The Challenge

Manufacturing Light Armored Vehicles (LAV) for governments around the world is serious business that demands powerful scheduling and cost management software. Not many software packages would be up to the task, but the leading global producer of LAVs – General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) – chose Open Plan to manage its defense operations projects.

Since the early 1990s, GDLS has held several major defense contracts for manufacturing LAVs. Each has required considerable effort in the proposal development phase, and the existing tools – low-end scheduling and spreadsheet software – proved to be inadequate. A new, high-end pricing package that consolidated data into one database solved part of the problem, but GDLS had no system to develop a resource loaded schedule for baseline proposal data.

While searching for the scheduling solution, GDLS hired three new team members who had used Open Plan with a former employer. Their positive experiences with Open Plan became the basis for evaluating, and ultimately implementing the system. With its shared resource pools, calendars, code files, and report templates as well as shared project and ancillary data housed on the network, Open Plan proved to be a highly integrated, comprehensive package fully capable of supporting the size and complexity of GDLS projects. The only problem was that the existing pricing package proved cumbersome when it came to transferring Open Plan baseline and status information. GDLS needed a powerful yet flexible pricing solution compatible with Open Plan.

Because of hardware limitations and complex interfaces with cost systems, GDLS used a homegrown cost reporting solution that relied upon a relational database to incorporate budget, status, and actual cost data. That system proved adequate for a few years, but it required constant troubleshooting. Reporting was limited to work hours only, and the software lacked forecasting capability beyond manual estimates.

The Solution

GDLS began using Deltek Cobra for proposal pricing in the mid-1990s. In 1998, Cobra was the logical choice for its cost performance reporting solution for several reasons. The system had proven its ability to integrate proposal pricing, cost, and schedule data as well as work, organizational, and resource breakdown structures. In addition, the pricing team was familiar with it. Plus, like Open Plan, it supported high-end Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS) capabilities compliant with the U.S. government’s requirements for cost and performance tracking.

Like Open Plan, Cobra supported high-end EVMS capabilities compliant with the U.S. government’s requirements for cost and performance tracking.

The next step was to replace GDLS’s “black box” method of loading baseline data from Open Plan with a direct link to Cobra. “At that time, we were using the homegrown approach because we weren’t fully committed to a single person in the organization being responsible for multiple cost account resources,” explains Janice Floody, project management team leader and GDLS associate administrator in London, Ontario. “So we translated Open Plan data to separate the cost accounts before loading them into Cobra. Now with a true matrix structure and single cost account manager, we can use the direct load approach.”

The Benefits

According to Floody, the standard Cobra reports have been well received by internal customers, and confidence in earned value calculations has soared. Previously, these figures were the result of a complex set of manual steps.

As the system works now, Cobra is installed on the pricing and program analysis group server with executable files loaded on each workstation. Once the work breakdown structure and cost class breakouts are defined according to program requirements, GDLS loads a skeleton into its Basis of estimate Input Device (BID) system, which collects labor, travel, and other direct cost estimates.

“Using the system’s global editing capability, we can then filter and manipulate the data into formats suitable for distribution to various team members and management.” Gary Caryn Senior Scheduler/Coordinator, Diesel Division General Dynamics Land Systems.

When the basis of estimates are complete and reviewed, travel and other direct cost information is loaded into Cobra. Labor estimates are also taken from the BID system and fed into the schedule, which can be modeled in parallel with BID entries. Then the pricing team inputs elements such as manufacturing, labor, and bill of material estimates.

“When the resulting histograms are approved, pricing links to the data,” says Steve Toll, GDLS senior scheduler/coordinator and one of the three employees who originally recommended Open Plan. “At this point, we form our baseline for budgeted cost of work scheduled and establish a price for review.”

The Challange	The Solution	The Deltek Advantage
General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) needed a highly integrated, comprehensive software package that was fully capable of supporting the size and complexity of its defense operations projects.	Deltek Open Plan and Deltek Cobra were chosen so General Dynamics Land Systems could achieve the goal of automating their entire project management system.	Deltek’s products gave General Dynamics Land Systems the tools it needed to eventually achieve true cost and schedule integration.

Sometimes the process involves several phases of corrections and negotiations, but eventually a baseline budgeted cost of work scheduled is established. The program analysis team uses these numbers during the performance phase. Then, the scheduling group feeds the monthly budgeted cost of work performed from the updates provided, and individuals charge the associated work orders to arrive at actual costs of work performed.

“Being able to compare budgeted cost of work scheduled, budgeted cost of work performed, and actual costs allows the program analysis team to generate cost/schedule status reports at the program and enterprise levels,” explains Gary Caryn, GDLS senior scheduler/coordinator. “Using the system’s global editing capability, we can then filter and manipulate the data into formats suitable for distribution to various team members and management.”

But when it comes to fully automating complex defense projects in an environment with the depth and breadth of GDLS, software is only part of the story. Real cost/schedule integration is an ongoing process that also requires collaboration and coordination between engineering, project management, and finance.

“Open Plan and Cobra have given us the tools to eventually achieve true cost/schedule integration, but our ongoing challenge is to set up a process that supports it,” concludes Floody. GDLS intends to automate their entire project management system.