Instructor: Blake Wentz

Why are some project managers consistently more successful than the “typical” project manager in our industry? What separates good project managers from great project managers? While age, experience, attitude, and talent are important factors in a project manager’s success, the instructor has identified and will share the best practices skills that can be learned by any project manager who has the attitude, aptitude, and desire to improve and succeed. This session includes an overview and in-depth discussion of the many best practices used by the industry’s best project managers. It also provides a review of the traits and qualities that are the common denominators among excellent project managers. This session will serve as an overview and refresher for many of the topics found in the Fundamentals of Project Management educational program.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Project managers must have a rudimentary understanding of fundamental legal concepts to effectively and profitably manage their projects and their customers. With this information, they are more likely to be proactive in avoiding potential legal problems on their projects and more confident and effective in successfully documenting, debating, negotiating, and resolving difficult project issues and disagreements while maintaining positive customer relationships. This session will include an overview of the most significant construction law concepts, issues, and principles that are commonly encountered by the mechanical project manager, including: Interpreting the contract, The Uniform Commercial Code and the construction industry, The authority and responsibility of the architect/engineer, Differing site conditions, Unforeseen site conditions, Basic premises of tort law, Basic premises of contract law, What constitutes a contract, Maxims of law, Design specifications vs. performance specifications, Defective construction caused by faulty construction practices, Defective construction caused by defective plans or specifications, patent vs. latent defects in plans or specifications.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

The end of a project is usually a challenging and difficult time for the mechanical project manager and the foreman. Unfortunately there is no magic formula, wand, or pill for eliminating the difficulty of project closeout. There are, however, several tactics and strategies the project manager and foreman can implement to improve end-of-job performance and mitigate the difficulties of project closeout. In addition to a review of innovative methods used by MCAA contractors to help reduce the typical end of project “profit/productivity drain,” this session will include the following project closeout topics: Punch list, Warranties, As-built drawings, O & M manuals, Customer satisfaction, Closeout productivity improvement, Demobilization, Change order finalization, Final payment, Feedback meeting.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

In today’s marketplace, mechanical contractors are likely to find themselves with a customer who has pre-purchased most of the major equipment items on a project and tailored their contract documents to place all of the equipment risk on the mechanical contractor. Projects that include owner furnished equipment (OFE) must be managed differently to help mitigate this risk. This session will have special emphasis on planning, documentation, communication, and claim avoidance. It will include the following topics: Identifying and understanding OFE risk, Managing and controlling OFE risk, Bidding issues and OFE, Contract issues and OFE, OFE documentation issues, OFE and project scheduling issues, OFE short interval scheduling requirements, Understanding the owner’s position regarding OFE, Managing customer relationships on OFE projects.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Successfully managing change orders on a complex and constantly changing project is a seasoned project manager’s greatest challenge and a new or inexperienced project manager’s greatest nightmare. If not well managed by a proactive and knowledgeable project manager, change orders can cause unnecessary additional risk, destroy base contract labor productivity, ruin customer and contractor relationships, choke cash flow, reduce or eliminate profitability, and create nearly irreversible negative jobsite moral. In this session, Blake Wentz will provide all attendees, regardless of age or experience level, with numerous strategies and proven best practices for successfully navigating this multi-faceted and complicated project management challenge. Blake will conduct a very informative and interactive discussion with attendees regarding change management and will emphasize and explain the critical importance of: being proactive in your approach to change; planning and identifying changes early; knowing and following your contract; cost identification and explanation ; believing and knowing what you are selling; working hard to have great communication and documentation; knowing your numbers; maintaining solid trust-based relationships; your partnership with your foreman; proceeding under protest wisely; pricing before proceeding whenever possible; understanding the difference between CCD’s and change orders; developing a standardized approach to changes; being able to identify, explain, and negotiate change order impact costs; negotiate price confidently and wisely.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Learn the unique, basic management skills of the mechanical project manager. Gain an understanding of the essential traits, skills, and behaviors that allow effective management. Topics include: leadership and management skills; management ability vs. technical savvy; the importance of organization and standardization; motivating others to perform; managing the boss; delegation skills; communication skills; and working with difficult people.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Learn the techniques and strategies used by the best mechanical project managers for setting themselves and their companies apart from their peers and their competitors. Project managers who attend this session and implement the concepts will see a significant improvement in their value to their customers and to their employers. This session will include discussion of the following skills: personal and corporate accountability; goal setting and achievement; sound decision making; ethical project management; building customer trust and confidence; professionalism; creating long- term trust based relationships; creating your personal “brand”; identifying and focusing on customer needs and providing solutions; investing customer money versus spending customer money; managing customer expectations and the importance of performance and execution.

Instructor:  Blake Wentz

Gain a basic understanding of contract types and components, and learn how to use the contract to maximize profitability while managing a mechanical construction project. Learn skills to help you know what the contract says and how to organize and manage the project accordingly.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Pre-Construction Planning and its Effect on Profitability

Investing project management resources in pre-construction project planning yields significantly higher productivity and profitability. Energetic in-class discussion will identify thorough pre-construction planning as a mandatory process for all projects.

Conducting an Effective Turnover Meeting

Effective turnover meetings maximize project profitability through the timely and complete transfer of information from estimators to project managers. They provide for standardized information exchange and facilitate project planning and control. This session covers all the fundamentals for conducting an effective turnover meeting.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Gain an understanding of job cost control and labor cost trending methods as detailed in the Job Cost Control section of the MCAA Project Manager’s Manual. Learn to use the job cost control system as a management tool to accomplish your project objectives rather than focusing on cost documentation. This “basic” session is geared to new or potential project managers with little or no experience in job cost control systems and procedures.