Most sign projects fail in the same place. Not at fabrication, not at install day. They fail in the spaces between, where one party hands off to the next and details get lost. A measurement that didn’t get communicated. A permit that wasn’t tracked. An install date that nobody confirmed with the property. A change order that didn’t reach the production floor.

Ortwein Sign’s project management team exists to close those gaps. Every job we run, from a single monument sign to a multi-state rollout, gets assigned to a dedicated project manager who owns the entire process. You don’t chase status updates across departments. You don’t manage handoffs between vendors. You have one person, one accountable team, and a project that lands when we said it would.

What a Dedicated Project Manager Does

When you start a project with Ortwein, a project manager is assigned to it before design begins and stays with it through final installation and sign-off. That project manager is your single point of contact and the person responsible for every piece of the job behind the scenes.

That means coordinating site surveys at each location, confirming what’s permittable at each site, managing the design adaptation across locations, scheduling fabrication against realistic lead times, coordinating shipment and crew availability, confirming site access ahead of install day, tracking permits through municipal review, handling change orders, and providing completion documentation when the job is done. Internally, the project manager coordinates with our design team, production floor, install crews, account managers, and any subcontractors where they’re needed.

You see the result. The project manager handles the moving parts.

Case Study: Twice Daily

One of our long-standing clients in the Nashville area, Twice Daily, is a regional convenience store chain and Shell fuel distributor. Several of their store locations had freestanding signs that no longer met Nashville’s ordinance requirements for size, placement, or aesthetics. Compliance wasn’t optional, and the changes needed to happen fast.

The scope: Replace freestanding signage at nine Twice Daily locations across the Nashville metro: Edmondson Pike, Charlotte Avenue, Memorial Boulevard, Old Hickory Boulevard, Hillsboro Road, Moores Lane, Highway 70 South, Murfreesboro Road, and North Gallatin Road.

The constraints: Every sign had to clear Nashville zoning requirements. Production had to move quickly. Some locations required custom parts that couldn’t be sourced from inventory. And operations at each store needed to continue uninterrupted.

How project management ran the work: Because Ortwein operates a full sign manufacturing facility, our production team could fabricate parts in-house as the project manager needed them, rather than waiting on third-party suppliers. Site surveys ran in parallel at all nine locations. The project manager coordinated design adaptation, permit submissions, fabrication scheduling, and install crew assignments as a single sequenced program rather than nine separate jobs. Each location received flat white acrylic faces over a surface blue vinyl face, with custom parts produced at headquarters where needed.

The result: All nine new Shell signs were designed, manufactured, and installed within a single month. Every location cleared Nashville’s sign regulations. No store operations were disrupted during install.

That’s what dedicated project management does on a multi-location program: it turns nine projects into one program, and it gets the program done on schedule.

How Our Project Management Process Works

Every project is different, but the structure of how we run them is consistent.

Scoping and survey. Before any design or fabrication begins, the project manager works with you and our account team to define the full scope. Site surveys at each location capture what’s buildable, what existing signage may need to come down, and what conditions affect installation. This is where realistic timelines get built, not where they get promised and missed.

Design coordination. The project manager works with our design team to adapt your brand to each sign type and location, accounting for architecture, sight lines, setback, and code constraints. For multi-location work, the project manager ensures the brand reads consistently across sites even when sign types and structures vary.

Permitting and code compliance. Sign permits clear before fabrication begins. Our project managers handle permitting in-house, coordinating with each municipality, tracking applications through review, and managing any revisions or variance work the project requires. More on our permit acquisitions service.

Fabrication scheduling. The project manager works with our production team to schedule fabrication against the install calendar, not against general lead times. For phased rollouts, production is sequenced so signs are ready when installation crews need them, not weeks early or weeks late.

Installation coordination. The project manager confirms site access, crane or lift requirements, electrical, and any after-hours or operations-coordination needs ahead of each install date. Crews arrive ready to work, not to discover problems.

Completion and documentation. Each install is documented with photos and sign-off materials for your records, certificate of occupancy support, or internal approval. The project manager confirms the job is done before the file closes.

Ongoing service. After the project is complete, most clients continue working with us on maintenance, repairs, tenant turnover, and future signage. The same project management discipline applies.

Why This Matters

Project management is invisible when it’s working. You notice it when it’s not.

The failure modes that project management prevents are the ones with real cost: install dates that slip and push certificate of occupancy, fabrication completed before permits clear, designs that won’t fit the actual site, crews arriving without site access, change orders that don’t reach production, signs that meet brand standards on paper but not at the location. None of these are dramatic individually. All of them cost weeks when they happen.

For a single-location small business, the cost is bearable. For a commercial developer with a hard CO date, a multi-location operator coordinating a rollout, or a property manager juggling tenant deadlines, the cost is not bearable. That’s the buyer this service exists for.

Common Questions

Who will I work with at Ortwein? Your project gets assigned one dedicated project manager who is your primary point of contact from project start through completion. You’ll also work with our account manager on commercial terms and our design team during design phases, but the project manager owns the day-to-day coordination and is your escalation point if anything needs attention.

How do you handle multi-location projects? Multi-location work is run as a single coordinated program, not a set of separate jobs. The project manager coordinates surveys, permits, design adaptation, fabrication scheduling, and installation across all sites as one sequenced workflow. For more, see our multi-site signage rollouts service.

What happens if something changes mid-project? Change orders are part of most projects. Your project manager handles the impact analysis, communicates timeline and cost effects clearly, coordinates the revised work across teams, and keeps documentation current. We’d rather flag a change and adjust the plan than discover the change at install day.

Do you work with general contractors and developers? Yes, regularly. Our project managers coordinate with GCs, architects, and property owners as part of commercial development projects, particularly where signage timelines affect certificate of occupancy or tenant opening dates.

Do you work on projects outside the Southeast? Yes, when the project warrants it. Our project managers run work primarily across the Southeast, but for the right project, particularly larger multi-location programs, we extend beyond that. Reach out and tell us what you’re working on. We’ll be straight with you about whether we’re the right partner.

How do you keep me updated during a project? Your project manager provides regular status updates through whichever channel works for you, whether that’s email, phone, or scheduled check-ins. For multi-location projects, we typically establish a recurring touchpoint at a cadence that fits the project’s pace.

Related Services

• Site Surveys, the survey work that informs every project we run
• Sign Permit Acquisitions, permitting handled in-house by our project managers
• Multi-Site Signage Rollouts & Rebrands, coordinated programs across multiple locations
• Sign Branding, brand identity and visual adaptation across signage mediums

Ready to Talk About Your Project?

Call us at 1-866-867-9208 or request a quote. Tell us what you’re working on, and we’ll tell you what running it well actually looks like.