A focus on project management with a global lens – Introducing Antonio

With a growing appetite to challenging past thinking LA Services started to ask itself ‘how might we’ test new project duration cases before award in a project portfolio framework that is integrate with live operational constraints to deliver an innovative organisational project modelling tool.

To help develop a solution to this problem Macquarie University introduced Antonio Zanin to LA Services. Antonio is a recently graduated mechanical engineer from Italy who is on an international exchange program with the University of Udine in Northern Italy where he is currently studying a masters in engineering management. Apart from his professional training he also has what turned out to be great experience in the fabrication and welding game, care of the family business back in Italy. This unusual combination of a practical heritage and theory made Antonio an obvious candidate for LA Services’ second intern placement from Macquarie University in 2018.

Antonio’s internship has two focus areas, his academic work is to review and analyse the current practices used to plan resources and manage the business’ project portfolio to operations interface. The aim of his research is to develop an innovative yet practical global scheduling system that can be adopted by the project and production teams to improve their project portfolio management maturity and delivery predictability. His other role is to immerse himself in the front-end engineering and design services required in tenders, these positions provides a win-win for Antonio and LA Services by exposing Antonio to the Australia business culture while allowing LA Services to test project management theories the concept of integrating engineering services into its business development and pre-award activities. Antonio’s future aspirations are to work in mechanical engineering design while bringing a practical approach to the project management processes required to deliver engineered-to-order projects.

Some of the things Antonio is enjoying about LA Services since he joined the team at the end of October is that “you are not just a number” and feels very welcome by everyone from the Managing Director right down to the production coordinator and trades personnel. From the start, he has been interested in learning as much as possible about the Australian working culture and feels very encouraged to get involved. Antonio also has a passion for projects and making an actual difference to the way we might work in the future. He enjoys how the learning via problem solving is build around teams so everyone gains knowledge and can made a difference to project outcomes. Antonio believes LA Services’ strength is in its passion to get the job done, he appreciates and acknowledges the opportunities given to employees and is also impressed by its openness to improve at every level in the company.

He believes that the future of the industry is exciting and greater success will come as small businesses come together through collaboration and forge partnership that increase their overall capability to service the customer. His advice for anyone wanting to join the industry is; be flexible, try to understand customer expectations and the end goals in any situation. Stay practical and stay connected to clients, suppliers and the people that service the wider business landscape around advanced manufacturing.

When he isn’t looking into solving complex problems, his is keen to spend his spare time sailing and taking in Sydney Harbour.