Project Organization

Project Organization
Cost-effective project execution requires that the size of the project organization adjust to the size of the overall required effort. Therefore, the number of resources that we dedicate to a given project varies. Most small projects will be staffed with a subset of the overall organization illustrated below.

Account Manager
This is the Applied Control Engineering representative responsible for overall customer satisfaction. The account manager is not only the direct contact for sales and pricing information, but is ultimately responsible for mediation of any project performance or customer service issues.
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Project Manager
The project manager is charged with the task of delivering the specified control system on time and within budget. As such, he/she is responsible for project resource allocation, change control, and schedule maintenance. Depending on the size of the project, our project manager may also serve as a technical lead for either control or HMI/IS configuration engineering.
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Quality Assurance
The QA engineer is responsible for ensuring that the project conforms to the procedures and guidelines in Applied Control Engineering's ISO9000-compliant quality system. Except on very large (multi-million dollar) projects, this is a part-time project resource.
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Engineer, Hardware
This resource designs the physical controls required to meet system specifications. This includes development of I/O lists, equipment layout, panel design, and generation of bills of material.
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Lead Engineer, Control
This individual will direct the technical design and implementation of the PLC software. Additional responsibilities include proper interfacing to third-party devices such as drives, weigh scales, and automatic identification equipment. If multiple control engineers are required to complete the effort on a project, the lead control engineer modularizes the technical effort and directs the additional resources to achieve a fully integrated solution.
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Lead Engineer, HMI and Information Systems
The lead engineer for HMI and IS ensures that the process visualization tools that have been chosen for the project are implemented according to the specifications.
Often, connectivity to plant information systems is required for management access, product tracking, custom reporting, or interfaces to enterprise-level systems. If these requirements are part of the scope, they are normally the responsibility of the lead engineer for HMI and IS.
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Document Specialist
The document specialist maintains document management systems which controls revisions of all documents once they are subject or project change control. This resource also assists in project communications and issues final as-built project documentation in both paper and electronic (WORM CD) format.
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CAD Designer
Under the direction of the hardware design engineer, he/she produces all CAD drawings required for complete hardware system documentation including architectural, AC/DC wiring, cabinet layouts, rack layouts, and termination details. In coordination with the documentation specialist, the CAD designer is responsible for revision control of the hardware design documents.
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Engineer(s), Control
This resource assists the Lead Engineer with PLC configuration and interface development. The number of control engineering resources depends upon the size of the project and the technologies involved. It is common to use multiple resources, each for a small part of the overall project timeline, as individual technology requirements are addressed.
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Engineer(s), HMI and Information Systems
Depending upon the technologies involved, there may be multiple resources required to supply the appropriate expertise for overall HMI and Information Systems implementation. These include resources expert in HMI configuration, network setup, software development, database configuration, and customer driver development. Under the direction of their lead, these resources will configure modular software components to address the project requirements. All code is fully tested before being integrated into the overall system solution.
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