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I help professionals in project management and procurement to significantly and sustainably improve their results, through my university teaching work, and coaching private clients.
Hi, I’m Ian,
In my 'day-job' I am an academic at the University of Birmingham, where I am lead tutor on the Masters in Industrial Project Management - a distance-learning postgraduate programme for working project managers.
In my private consulting work I help project teams to deliver capital and construction projects faster, better, cheaper, and more reliably. I am particularly interested in helping teams to learn and exploit the under-used methods of project alliance (IPD) contracting, and critical chain (CCPM) scheduling and execution.
I still provide some training and coaching in my other areas of expertise – procurement & supply chain - mainly through my online training and coaching programmes, and in-person training for long-term clients.
This website has no relationship to my employer, the University of Birmingham. All views and opinions expressed here are my own, and the University is not responsible in any way whatever for what I say, or for any private work I may undertake with personal clients who contact me through this website. Academics are allowed - even encouraged - to carry out limited amounts of private work alongside their core university teaching and research.
If you wish to contact me in my university capacity, please email me via my university email address.
My expertise covers three main fields:
Capital and construction projects are critical to the growth of companies, and the continuing development of communities.
Unfortunately many fail to achieve their time and cost objectives, or take longer and cost more than they need to.
I help companies to solve this problem, and to deliver their projects...
on-time in less time,
on-budget at lower cost,
without compromising on scope, quality or taking more risk.
I do this by accelerating the implementation of Breakthrough Project Management, my innovative combination of CCPM and Project Alliance Contracting.
The average organisation spends over 60% of its income with third parties - some 5x the amount spent on employees.
Making suppliers the largest part of most organisations.
I help my clients to manage their supply base, and their internal processes, in order to ensure they get the greatest value and performance from their supply base, in support of their organisation’s goals. This is much more than simply squeezing suppliers to reduce their prices, which in many cases causes more damage than benefit, as well as not actually costing less.
I usually work as a coach to senior procurement executives, or develop and deliver professional development programmes
In managing their supply chains, many organisations struggle with the dilemma of
Maintaining a high inventory to ensure high service,
whilst trying to reduce inventory to ensure speed and low cash investment levels.
Swinging between the two extremes, and finding it hard to get things ‘just right’ across thousands or tens-of-thousands of skus. And most technology solutions, including today’s market leading ERP systems do not help!
I help clients to improve the performance of their supply chains by implementing DDMRP, the most significant supply chain innovation in the past 50 years.
To read more about my innovative approach for improving the value and performance of capex projects, click the button below to get your a copy of my FREE report.
I live in the north-west UK, midway between Manchester and Liverpool airports. I also spend quite a bit of time in Switzerland, where, when I am not working, you can find me walking in the summer and skiing in the winter.
I am passionate about improvement. As a consultant I will always be honest and give you my opinion, whether it is what you want to hear or not! That is what my clients expect of me, and that's how I deliver most value. If you want a consultant to reconfirm your opinion, even if they disagree, then I'm not your person.
I travel to wherever in the world my clients want me to be, though, thanks to technology, a lot of my support is given remotely.
Copyright 2021 Ian Heptinstall