2016 PMO of the Year Finalist: Parker Aerospace

 

There's no room for error in the aviation industry: An aircraft's myriad components must work flawlessly no matter the altitude or weather. Since the dawn of the aviation age, Parker Aerospace has been engineering precision parts and reliable systems for the world's airplane manufacturers. When it delivers critical operating systems to the likes of Boeing, Airbus or the U.S. Department of Defense, those products must last for decades.

“In the aerospace industry, our product life cycle typically lasts 25 to 40 years,” says Barry Draskovich, PMP, vice president of program and contract management, Parker Aerospace, Irvine, California, USA. “So it's really important in the development phase that we get the profitability right—because that profitability [has] to last for a very long time.”

But inconsistent program and project delivery methods were causing cost overruns and missed deadlines, undermining Parker Aerospace's ability to chart and execute a growth plan. So in 2010, the organization—an operating group of Parker Hannifin Corp.—launched a program management office (PMO) to develop the practices, tools and talent required to deliver certainty around program execution and ROI.

This yearslong upgrade process has given Parker Aerospace on-demand insights into the health of projects, programs and the entire …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.