In the past, Orbital ATK’s scheduling team struggled to complete schedule quality and risk assessments due to their time-consuming nature. They were also unable to compare multiple project schedules at once and had difficulty quickly viewing data and easily analyzing the results.
Orbital ATK needed to find a way to improve the quality of its schedules to help drive on-time or early deliveries to its customers.
The Solution
Orbital ATK wanted a solution that was easy to use and seamlessly integrated with its current systems. After reviewing several options and utilizing free trials, Orbital ATK turned to the Deltek Acumen Suite to help solve its scheduling challenges thanks to its proven track record, ability to integrate with existing tools and highly customizable reporting features.
The Benefits
and eight hours to complete with legacy tools, depending on the project complexity, can now be done in mere minutes. Additionally, reports can be sliced and diced in a variety of ways to provide better and more valuable insights to its users.
Since its implementation in fall 2015, Orbital ATK has already seen better quality schedules, resulting in more on-time or early deliveries – a win-win for the company and its customers. Deltek Acumen allows users to easily view schedule history and trends and compare actual data to baseline data. For example, if a Control Account Manager (CAM) tells the scheduler he/she is going to complete five activities and he/she completed ten, the scheduler can easily confirm the discrepancy with the click of a button. Deltek Acumen also helps with standardization. Performance can be compared against the baseline plan, and reusable templates can be set up and used by all schedulers. Reporting capabilities also tie directly to data analysis, and any background data can be easily exported into Excel for further analysis and sharing across the enterprise.
A Look to the Future
Orbital ATK started off with two licenses and within a few short months decided to purchase the full Acumen Suite for their entire team. The scheduling team is now actively working to develop best practices and standards for all of their schedulers, as well as create customized dashboards with actionable items and data that can be used by program managers and CAMs.
According to Stacy Abbott, program scheduling manager, “As we learn more, Acumen is only going to become even more valuable to our team. It's fast, it's easy to use and I'm happy we have it.”
