Every day, project engineers have a variety of tasks--and those day-to-day responsibilities may vary depending on the specific projects they're working on at any given time. What, exactly, does a project engineer's day-to-day workload look like, and what are they expected to complete each day? Take a look at these daily functions.
Checking RFPs (Requests for Proposals)
A request for proposal is an opportunity to bid for a new job, or an add service/change order for an existing job. Sometimes, the answer is to put together a quality bid that will hopefully encourage the client to choose the company and go ahead with the work. Other times, the project engineer might have to compile and summarize multiple RFP’s from subcontractors and package it together for submission to the owner.
Project Planning
Project engineers are often responsible for planning major projects. That may mean going through a lot of material, including emails from subcontractors and collecting a wide range of documents for a potential project. Keeping up with all of those projects can prove difficult, especially if the project engineer does not have an effective organization system in place that can help manage emails and keep up with those vital tasks.
Budget Management
Managing the budget is a critical part of any project. Most people have a strict budget that they have to stick to when they begin a new construction project. Once a company has put in a bid, the project engineer must ensure that the project stays on track. While there is always some overhead built into the project, breaking into that overhead also means eating into the company's profits, which could lead to poor overall outcomes. Savvy project engineers stay on top of potential problems to ensure that they do not go over budget.
Document Management
Project engineers often have to manage a variety of documents. They have to keep up with bids from subcontractors, contract negotiations, project bids, a host of documentation on safety, compliance, and other vital measures. Keeping up with those documents is essential to keep each job running as smoothly as possible.
Contract Writing
Project engineers often take on the vital task of putting together contracts. Sometimes, they may need to access templates in order to complete those contracts correctly. Other times, they may bring together a great deal of data from a variety of courses in order to create a comprehensive contract that covers everything the client needs.
Personnel Management
In addition to managing budgets and documentation, project engineers must also manage personnel: ensuring that the right people for each project are in place and ready to complete their assigned duties when they're needed. Personnel management needs may change based around the weather, the specific deadlines and requirements of each project, and even how the project progresses over time. Effective personnel managers also know their employees' strengths, which teams work well together, and how they can best ensure a more effective project. Personnel management may also mean keeping up with construction safety regulations or deploying the latest construction technology to all personnel. Furthermore, project engineers may need to keep with ongoing training and other critical measures.
Work Site Visits
Many of a project engineer's daily tasks take place in the office. They may have a number of phone calls to make, calculations to perform, and emails to return. Some of a project engineer's daily tasks, however, can only happen on the job site, where they can check up on progress, make sure the job is meeting necessary standards, and observe personnel as they manage those key responsibilities. On a work site, communication tools become more important than ever. Not only does a project engineer need to be able to communicate with people on that work site directly, he may need to keep up with other vital communications as he manages his projects and takes care of his other responsibilities.
LinkedField Can Help
Over the course of a project engineer's day, LinkedField can offer a variety of advantages that can make it easier to handle email communication, subcontractor management, and document collection and management responsibilities, all of which can take up a large percentage of his day.
LinkedField Makes Communication Easy
With LinkedField, project engineers can easily stay on top of medium to long term tasks where they need to collect documents from subcontractors while they handle their critical job responsibilities. With all their communications kept in one location, they can easily check notifications, schedule messages, and make sure that they don't miss critical communications from subcontractors, whether they're in the office or out in the field.
In addition, LinkedField is designed to help keep communications organized. All the communications with one subcontractor or about one project can be kept in one easy-to-access location, which makes it much easier for the project engineer to check notes, make sure everyone is on the same page, and avoid missing a vital change order or question.
LinkedField Collect Keeps Documents at Hand
Project engineers often deal with a wide range of documents over the course of their business day. LinkedField Collect is ideal for document management and collection. The documents will be in the platform and organized. This offers several key advantages. First and foremost, it ensures that the data is at the project engineer's fingertips, where it can be accessed with ease. Second, it ensures that they remain organized. Project engineers will no longer have to waste time shuffling through paper documents or clicking through documents in the hopes of finding the one key piece of information they need.
LinkedField Keeps the Project Connected
With LinkedField, it's easy for project engineers to remain connected to all the critical details they need, from information about a specific subcontractor's processes and requirements to information about the latest changes in a project or the progress made on the job site. With LinkedField, project engineers can more easily stay on top of everything they need to keep the project running smoothly--and all the documents needed for the project remain in one easy-to-access location.
Are you a project engineer or part of a construction company that can benefit from a more organized communication system and data storage solution? LinkedField can help. Contact us today to learn more about our products or for a demonstration of how they can benefit your company, including improving overall document management strategies.
