Thistle Systems has delivered a project management masterclass to successfully deliver its most challenging maturation racking project in its 25 year history whilst dealing with a global pandemic, 4 months of lockdown, 5 major storms – and still finishing a full week ahead of schedule.
Delivering any major cask racking project demands the highest levels of project management excellence to ensure the end result is achieved on time, within budget and to the quality and safety standards that are expected in the whisky sector.
The logistical test of coordinating, unloading and storing materials from 65 artic lorries is enough to challenge the most experienced company. However, the issues presented when working on remote islands such as Islay raises the bar even higher.
Having successfully delivered 3 warehouses for Bruichladdich, Thistle Systems had developed what they believed would be a robust project management programme to meet the proposed timeline for the 6 cells whilst building in a degree of contingency which is inevitable on a project on Islay.
However, the project management gods had other ideas as 2020 presented conditions that re-wrote the book when it came to planning for the worst case scenario.
Having delivered a number of projects on Islay, we expected the face a few challenges with the weather, however, even the locals onsite were amazed at the disruption caused by no fewer than 5 major storms.
And whilst these presented challenges on site, no-one was able to predict the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which meant the entire site and island was closed for 4 months.
Despite the challenges faced, Thistle Systems completed the Bruichladdich project a full week ahead of schedule, much to the admiration of the Distillery management.