About this Presentation
Gina Sauer and Nicolas Hiestermann present a Budenheim industrial CAPEX case in which Critical Chain Project Management was introduced after the project was already underway. Budenheim is a producer and service provider of chemical specialties with operations across life-science and material-science markets. The project itself began in 2023, experienced personnel changes, and had a planned execution start in September 2025. By February 2026, the team was managing a complex process-equipment project involving a plant shutdown, suction-cell deployment, a decanter, control-system replacement, commissioning, qualification and validation.
The shift to CCPM began on February 12, 2026. The implementation included appointing a new project manager, merging separate project plans into one overall plan, introducing the Fusion plug-in for Microsoft Project, and gaining strong management support. The plan identified a focus-duration completion date of July 9 and a low-risk duration of August 8, providing four weeks of project buffer. The milestone plan included the plant shutdown on April 7, suction-cell deployment on April 28, decanter positioning on May 5, start of commissioning on June 5, qualification and validation on July 3, and the first saleable batch on July 9.
Execution combined CCPM with practical visual and meeting routines. The team established daily construction meetings, weekly status updates with stakeholders and management, a weekly action log, weekly project-plan updates, direct issue-resolution discussions, and a project room close to the construction site. The deck explicitly notes that the team mixed CCPM with the Last Planner System. The achievements slide shows the plant shutdown, suction-cell deployment, decanter installation, qualification and first saleable batch marked as achieved, while the planned commissioning and validation start dates are marked as missed.
The case is candid about obstacles. The team had limited time to learn Fusion while managing the project, some tasks did not fit the CCPM approach well, the fever chart overstated the project's actual status, and one supplier filed for insolvency during execution. Their lessons for the next project are correspondingly practical: use CCPM from the start, shape tasks to fit the system, involve all necessary departments in planning, maintain cross-divisional daily and weekly communication, call short-notice meetings when problems appear, consider assigning qualification to Quality on larger projects, and combine project-management tools when that improves execution. Budenheim now has four additional projects planned with CCPM, while acknowledging the need for more experience and better internal communication.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
What it takes to introduce CCPM into an industrial CAPEX project already in flight: consolidate separate plans, create one critical-chain view, secure management support, and make the project buffer visible.
How Budenheim combined CCPM with daily construction meetings, weekly status and action reviews, a project room, and the Last Planner System to connect the schedule with day-to-day execution.
What the case revealed about imperfect implementation: limited time to learn the software, task structures that did not always fit CCPM, a fever chart that overstated risk, missed commissioning and validation start dates, and a supplier insolvency.
The team's practical lessons for future CAPEX work: use CCPM from project start, involve all required departments in planning, adapt task definitions to the system, escalate emerging problems quickly, and mix project-management tools when doing so improves flow and coordination.
Instructor(s)
Gina Sauer
Gina holds a master’s degree in food technology and has experience managing multiple technical projects across the food, beverage, and cosmetics industries. As a project engineer, she was responsible for the comprehensive planning and monitoring of project timelines, costs, and deliverables.
She has worked at Chemische Fabrik Budenheim KG since 2022. Gina began in the project department and, since 2025, has served as a Quality Engineer within the quality department.
In this role, she is responsible for qualifying production facilities and serves as a key liaison between the quality and project teams throughout all phases of a project, particularly during commissioning and the handover to operations.
For Project 444, Gina is responsible for managing the qualification of the entire production line. This includes the qualification of new separation equipment, validation of the process control system, and process and cleaning validation. These quality-related activities are essential to the successful completion of Project 444 and to ensuring that products are manufactured in accordance with the highest quality standards.
Nicholas Hiestermann
Nicholas Hiestermann has an academic background in environmental and process engineering, with experience delivering technical projects across the chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries. His work has covered the full project lifecycle, including project scoping, engineering, construction supervision, commissioning, and the evaluation of technical and economic requirements.
Since October 2025, Nicholas has worked in the project department at Chemische Fabrik Budenheim KG, where he supports and manages technical projects at the company’s Budenheim site.
When the designated project manager became unexpectedly unavailable, Nicholas stepped in at short notice to lead the overall Plant 444 shutdown project. He coordinated multiple sub-projects, including the installation of new equipment, modernization of the process control system, planned maintenance activities, and qualification of the production line.