Discover Defremm’s advantages in using Twproject: easy monitoring of progress and precise analysis of resource costs for single activities
Interviewee
Luca Missaglia, Technical Office Manager and PM
Interviewee
Luca Missaglia, Technical Office Manager and PM
Defremm S.p.a. is an Italian manufacturing company focused on cold forming of standard and customised parts in steel, aluminium alloys, copper, brass and stainless steel.
The main challenge for the technical departments was to replace the primitive Gantt chart created in Excel, which was characterised by a complicated updating process, with a simple tool such as Twproject; the aim was to make the management process more intelligible and efficient.
Luca says that the previous solution required date updates by colouring the cells, but the people involved often forgot to make these updates. This situation made it impossible to verify this information and have clear and real data.
For Defremm S.p.a., it was imperative that the work tool accelerated activities, allowing tasks to be completed more productively.
The company was looking for a system that combined ease of use with comprehensive project management functionalities.
This was made possible by Twproject, designed with a simple and intuitive interface, facilitated by an interactive Gantt, ideal for planning complex projects, yet simple in terms of usability.
Twproject proved to be outstanding in replacing tedious and sometimes inaccurate manual work, making the planning process and our regular project progress meetings much easier.
Defremm Spa, like many other companies choosing to adopt Twproject, was looking for a solution to improve efficiency and reduce error risk when updating projects. Before Twproject, everything was managed with Excel spreadsheets, but making changes was complex and risky, often leading to human error and delays.
Twproject, on the other hand, allows changes to be made in real time, ensuring a smooth and accurate update, which is propagated according to defined dependencies. Changes are automatically spread to the entire team through notifications, ensuring that everyone is informed of the updates.
By dealing with notifications, Twproject eliminates the need for manual communications. This is a major step forward in terms of savings compared to Excel, which usually requires separate, manual communications to report changes to team members.
The ease of updating is a crucial aspect. Twproject offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface that makes it easy for anyone to make updates without having to acquire specific skills, while respecting defined security and roles. With Excel, on the other hand, filling in can require more time, precision and expertise, often leading to delays in updating information, which can therefore only be managed by specific persons.
Defremm Spa was looking for a tool that would allow the company to monitor the progress of the project at all stages with precision and transparency. After testing various software, they chose Twproject, the best in terms of cost, benefits and usability.
Twproject is a ‘generalist’ software that is not tied to a specific project management methodology. This is the feature that allowed Defremm Spa to adapt the software to the company’s specific needs.
For example, Defremm’s team has chosen to create ‘master’ projects for each type of sample, i.e. pre-defined templates for structure and assignees, which can be customised quickly on changing dates or reducing the complexity of the WBS.
Twproject makes it easy to prepare your own ‘project templates’. Templates can be used as a starting point for a new project, but can also represent portions of a tree to be copied as needed. This flexibility allows you to create complex projects from a common base in just a few clicks.
Once projects and assignments have been created, thanks to Twproject’s notification system, Defremm Spa has been able to easily observe data: date overruns, incoming milestones, budget or worklog overruns and much more.
Twproject also offers a series of customisable reports and dashboards that provide a clear and detailed view of project progress, scheduling, activities and allocated resources.
Defremm Spa has identified the importance of turning project meetings into effective decision-making moments as a key issue for the company.
Project meetings are important occasions in which to develop agreed work and evaluate project performance. Having the right people around the table with a working tool to consult in real time and to question during discussions and data analysis is extremely important.
By consulting Twproject, in addition to monitoring work progress or updating it in real time with the people in charge, you can dynamically manage periodic meetings: you have the opportunity to address the problems and critical issues of the project in order to obtain concrete results and make these sessions decisive and constructive moments. In fact, it is possible to be prepared for the meeting thanks to the data entered in the system and thanks to the remarkable ease of controlling any impacts of resource re-planning and more.
Twproject maximises the effectiveness and efficiency of project meeting management by simplifying the preparation of sessions and the formalisation of documents resulting from meetings.
Defremm Spa needed to obtain accurate statistics on the hours worked in each project and phase. As a result, it was necessary to easily record all working hours spent by team members for each project phase or for routine tasks.
Twproject offers several options to keep track of the work done, allowing you to record both the actual hours worked and the total days spent completing a project or phase.
Tracking working time is extremely important for all company resources, whatever role you play in the company. With accurate tracking, you will gain greater awareness of your time spent, highlight any bad habits, and learn how to manage it better.
Thanks to Twproject, Defremm Spa is able to quickly and accurately record the hours spent on even the most complex days with multiple assignments. In the implementation phase, among the different ways of recording work activities available in Twproject, they embraced the approach of marking completed activities (ToDo closure) and filling in weekly sheets (timesheet).
Since Defremm Spa has adopted Twproject to manage its projects, updating data and communication within the company is no longer a problem.
Twproject has helped eliminate human errors and delays caused by manually editing Excel cells; updates with Twproject now occur in real time and are automatically notified to the entire team.
Twproject has brought significant benefits to project management at Defremm Spa, improving efficiency and communication within the team.
Twproject allowed us to attend meetings with greater consciousness in terms of: optimised working time, clear planning, status, key milestones set, clear estimated times and balanced resource allocations.
With the adoption of Twproject, due to its ease of use, Defremm Spa manages all new sample projects, starting from “master” templates, by adjusting assignments, setting up managers at various stages who in turn assign their operatives and estimates. They plan dates accurately and adjust schedules as needed, improving communication in a timely and comprehensive manner across the workflow.
Defremm Spa has benefited from the simplicity of Twproject in relation to the management of work scheduling. The company found it easy to keep track of work times using weekly timesheets. PMs can generate accurate analysis statistics in a quick and effective manner.
Twproject is the perfect solution to flawlessly track the activity of our collaborators and monitor the hours spent on each stage of the project or the routine activities that impact our time.
In fact, even routine activities no longer elude our reporting thanks to the use of ToDos. Now, the hours recorded on Twproject are in complete harmony with the markings on our badges, putting an end to any discrepancies with the administration.
Since the introduction of Twproject in the company, Defremm Spa has solved the need for accurate and precise working hour statistics.
By adopting Twproject, Defremm Spa has been able to manage its projects more effectively and transparently, and has responded to one of its main needs, namely to find a working tool that is easy to use, despite the complexity of the subject matter.
We made it easier to share information, eliminating the complexity of Excel. We also significantly improved communication between teams, making meetings more efficient. In Twproject, we found an effective tool to manage information in real time and collaborate in a practical way, leaving more room for improvement and mutual support.
Progressively, as projects evolve, thanks to Twproject, all changes and their consequences are visible to everyone in real time and subject to instant discussion, allowing us to conduct detailed plans with precision
Sector: Machinery production
Location: Italy
Website: https://www.defremm.it
Employees: 50