On paper, a schedule always looks simple. In reality, time is often what decides the success of a project. Between the order and the installation, each stage has its own duration, and these durations rarely add up as expected.
Read real lead times, not quoted ones
A quoted manufacturing lead time is a starting point, not a guarantee. The workshop's workload, the availability of materials and the complexity of the piece all make it vary. Experience makes it possible to read these lead times clearly and to tell commercial optimism from a commitment that can be held.
To this is added transport time, often underestimated. Towards the Indian Ocean or the African continent, sea freight sets its own pace, on top of which come formalities and on-site delivery windows.
Build margins, not hopes
A robust schedule builds in margins where the risk is real: on bespoke pieces, on long orders, on milestones that condition others. These margins are not wasted time: they absorb the unexpected and protect the opening date.
A project's timeline is not caught up on site: it is won at the moment of the order.
Coordinate rather than endure
What remains is to orchestrate the whole. Launching production in the right order, consolidating deliveries, sequencing arrivals so the site advances without jolts. This coordination, discreet, is what makes it possible to deliver on time a project made up of dozens of contributors.