PTAG Team partners with 360ºKIDS to help prepare the yards at their two youth shelter homes in Markham, Ontario.

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PTAG values the communities that we live and work in. We are committed to extending our support to social causes and we encourage our employees to be involved in local social responsibility initiatives.

Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to volunteer preparing the yards for the fall season at two youth shelter homes through 360ºKIDS in Markham, Ontario.  360ºKIDS is a community organization assisting homeless youth in York Region for decades.

This volunteering drive was spearheaded by PTAG resident gardeners Michael Dubreuil (Managing Partner) along with Basil Mocherniak (Director of Operations) and Shannon Sahota (CFO) bringing with them their extensive experience and passion for gardening.  Their energy and experience guided the team on various aspects of the job. “It was a great learning and a fulfilling experience.” said one of our young associates.

Putting aside their day jobs the PTAG team spent the entire day bringing back the charm to these homes.   When we arrived we were met with a mini jungle — bit by bit we dug in and started cleaning. The outcome was very fulfilling, and we all felt touched by the feedback received from the caretakers of these homes.

We at PTAG harbour a very open work environment, where people are encouraged to interact and learn from each other keeping aside their professional hierarchy. We believe this helps us nurture talent and prepare leaders for tomorrow. Volunteering days are a fantastic example of this.

See the before and after photos.

To know more about 360ºKIDS visit their website: https://www.360kids.ca/about-us/

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Today and every day PTAG stands in solidarity with the residential school survivors, their families, and our indigenous community members.

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Today September 30th, 2021, marks Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, promoting awareness of Canada’s residential schools and the trauma they caused Indigenous and Métis Peoples for generations.

PTAG team stands in solidarity with the victims, survivors, their families, and the indigenous communities. We honor and respect this national day for Truth and Reconciliation and every day throughout the year. We are committed towards the upliftment and strengthening of our indigenous community.

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Join the presentation on the spectrum of approaches to Contract Strategy at CII’s AWP + Lean Virtual Summit to learn various contracting strategies that can provide the most benefit in either your Advanced work packaging or Lean project scenarios.

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The Construction Industry Institute (CII) is presenting its first-ever CII AWP & Lean Summit focused on the exploration of (and recommendations around) aligning and combining Advanced Work Packaging and Lean Construction approaches for effective and efficient integrated project delivery.

PTAG’s Partner for Capital Projects, Bruce Burwell, a subject matter expert on contracting strategies will be discussing contracting approaches available that incorporate Advanced Work Packaging alongside Mr. John Strickland, Project Delivery Leader at Burns & McDonnell who will focus on approaches with a Lean Construction perspective. This session will help you understand how to apply Lean methods and Advanced Work Packaging in a Collaborative contracting model.

Wednesday, September 29th, 2021
7:30am CDT / 8:30am EST / 5:30am PST

> Click here to register <

Construction Industry Institute’s (CII) best practice – Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) is a planned, executable process that encompasses the work on an EPC project, beginning with initial planning and continuing through detailed design and construction execution. AWP focuses on bringing alignment amongst project teams – engineering, procurement, construction at the front-end of the project. The team helps determine the best project execution strategy to have a successful outcome. With the end in mind approach, AWP helps improve project visibility and predictability.

Lean Construction Institute’s Lean Project Delivery (LPD or Lean-IPD) aligns the key project participants as an integrated team with the common objective of acting as one team to deliver a project that creates the best value possible for the owner and success for all the stakeholders. The integrated project team helps the owner decide what they want and not only realize decisions and perform activities.

Lean-IPD offers collaborative tools to provide a clear framework with specific goals. Whereas AWP is a method that develops a clear path to construction, develops work packages that support the path to construction, aligns stakeholders, and has dedicated planners that affords the foreman the time needed in the field with the trades and crew.

Often projects face challenges in terms of their performance by way of budget, cost, and schedule overruns. Some of the common issues faced are but are not limited to scope creep, lack of communication between the stakeholders, lack of clear objectives, inadequate risk management, conflicts, and lack of accountability, etc.

To improve project performance, we need to change the way we deliver projects. Choosing the right contract strategy early in the project can help address these issues and significantly improve your project delivery. Aligning various stakeholders involved in the project such as owners’ team, supplier, sub-contractor, engineering, construction, etc. is important to meet the common objective i.e., the successful outcome of the project. However, one size does not fit all, and it is imperative to learn various strategies available that would suit your project requirements.

This joint session will discover multiple contracting approaches to strengthen both Advanced Work Packaging and Lean Project Delivery.

The topic for the session is spectrum of approaches to Contract Strategy.

Wednesday, September 29th, 2021
7:30am CDT / 8:30am EST / 5:30am PST

Register today to attend the event.

> Click here to register <

If you would like to learn more about Contracting Strategies, please contact us.

Get to know PTAG’s speaker:

Join us for a panel discussion on Successes and Developments in Large Energy Projects at the Canadian Nuclear Association’s virtual conference.

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PTAG is pleased to participate at Canadian Nuclear Association’s (CNA) virtual conference and Trade Show, a premier event for Canada’s nuclear industry. Now in its 22nd year, the event regularly attracts over 850 attendees from industry, government, and academia. The theme of CNA2021 is “Leading Innovations to Achieve a Net-Zero World.” PTAG’s thought leader Michael Dubreuil will be in a panel discussion on Successes and Developments in Large Energy Projects with other industry leaders to look at the success of two very large energy projects that have experienced great success using some of the new methods and principles on collaboration and integration.

Canada’s two largest nuclear projects refurbishing – Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) Darlington Unit 2 and Bruce Power’s MCR Unit 6 are examples of the use of collaboration and integration methods to improve planning and execution on large complex energy projects.

Large capital projects are inherently risky and notorious for incurring significant cost and schedule overruns.  In August of 2018, at its annual conference in Indianapolis the Construction Industry Institute (CII) published its two years of research on collaborative contracting resulting in Integrated Industrial Project Delivery (I2PD) that provides a structured framework for rigorous implementation of nine principles and twenty-one methods to support intense collaboration and integration on large scale industrial projects. Industry results going back thirty years show that these principles and methods are proven to improve project success rates across all key performance areas including quality, safety, and early schedule and cost certainty.

The panelists will look at the success of the first stage of OPG’s Darlington Unit 2 refurbishment and the Bruce Power’s Life-Extension Program and MCR Project using some of these principles and methods. They will also discuss growing industry support for I2PD, and some of its core Principles and Methods such as Lean tools, integrated schedules and estimates, pooled contingencies, collaborative decision-making, and shared risks and rewards.  

The topic for Panel Discussion: Successes and Developments in Large Energy Projects

Panelists:

  • Michael Dubreuil – Managing Partner, PTAG Inc.
  • Jeff Phelps – VP, Major Projects, Bruce Power
  • Greg Thede – VP, Nuclear Strategy & Business Development, AECON Nuclear
  • Subo Sinnathamby – Senior VP, Nuclear Refurbishment, Ontario Power Generation
  • Eric Gould – Partner, Modus Strategic Solutions

Wednesday, September 15th, 2021
13:15 CST / 14:15 EST / 11:15 PST

Register today to attend the panel discussion
> Click here to register <
If you would like to learn more about Integrated Industrial Project Delivery (I2PD) please contact PTAG.

Join this conference to explore the leading-edge projects and technologies that are poised to make Canada’s nuclear industry an indispensable part of our clean energy future. While CNA2021 will take place in a virtual space, you can still expect plenty of opportunity to network with industry leaders and peers.