15th Annual Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) North American Conference

Advanced Work Packaging with the emphasis on the “A”

PTAG is proud to be a Platinum Sponsor for the 15th Annual Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) North American Conference in Houston, Texas, on October 10 and 11, 2023.

This Conference is supported by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) and promises to be an insightful gathering of industry leaders and experts.

Come network with industry leaders. Historically owners, EPC, and contractors have constituted approximately 70% of the total attendees.

Some of the biggest global constructors, engineers and technology providers attend this conference.

This Year’s Program

This year’s conference promises to be bigger than ever with the following categories being covered:

  1. AWP with the Emphasis on “A”
  2. Breaking Research
  3. Case Study
  4. Data, Data, Data
  5. Leveraging Technologies
  6. Next Gen Project Delivery
  7. People, People, People
  8. Reducing Waste & Decarbonization

Big Names, Outstanding Network

PTAG’s Michael Dubreuil, Bruce Burwell, Keith Henson and Michael Mcbean are honored to be presenting in the following sessions:

Tuesday, October 10th, 11:30 am

Using the Big Room as a Tactical Command Centre for Field-based Planning Collaboration on Brownfield Projects

Speakers: Keith Henson & Michael McBean

Keith Henson
Michael McBean

Tuesday, October 10th , 3 pm

Next Gen Project Delivery

Speaker: Michael Dubreuil

Michael Dubreuil

Wednesday, October 11th , 10:30 am

Culture Change Through Adoption of Collaborative Behaviour

Speakers: Bruce Burwell – PTAG & Amy Cameron – OPG

Bruce Burwell

Wednesday, October 11th , 11:30 am

Next Gen Project Delivery – A Deeper Dive

Speakers: Michael Dubreuil – PTAG, Fernando Espana – Construct-X, Mark Childerson – Garner, John Strickland – Collaborative Flow, LLC & James Choo – PPI

Michael Dubreuil

Who Should Attend?

Reach out to us ahead of time and let us know if you will be there. Hope to see many of you there!

Important Lessons learned from Modularization

Modularization entails the large-scale transfer of stick-build construction effort from the jobsite to one or more local or distant fabrication shops/yards to exploit one or more strategic advantages. However, the construction industry has been slow to achieve high levels of modularization. It has reached a ceiling regarding the percentage of stick-built work hours being exported offsite. The research effort led to the development of five distinct solution elements:

  1. Business case process
  2. Execution plan differences
  3. Critical success factors
  4. Standardization strategy
  5. Modularization maximization enablers

PTAG has industry-specific teams ready to address the question of what changes or adaptations in traditional project work processes are required to create an optimal environment for broader and more effective use of modularization. For successful modularization to occur, substantial owner involvement must occur early. The scope of research limited this team’s work to the industrial sector; however, its research findings may apply equally well to the commercial and infrastructure project sectors.      

The following figure shows the lessons learned for Front End Planning, Engineering, Contracts and Procurement, Fabrication, Transportation, Site installation, and Staffing.

Planning For Modularization

Planning for modularization is the evaluation and determination of offsite construction in the front end planning phase to achieve specific strategic objectives and improve the project outcomes. The process includes developing a business case and execution strategy for large-scale transfer of stick-built construction effort from the job site to fabrication shops or yards.


In order to achieve higher, more successful levels of modularization, industry and project
leaders should be attentive to the five different elements of the solution, as illustrated in the following picture:

  1. Business case process
  2. Execution plan differences
  3. Critical success factors
  4. Standardization strategy
  5. Modularization maximization enablers

The modularization business case process should be applied at the earliest opportunity. Project teams should consider the modular approach the “default” approach in order to
allow the advancement of modularization in the industry

Industry-wide barriers continue to challenge the broad-based achievement of high levels of modularization. There are ten maximization enablers to act as counter-measures to these challenges and to accelerate modularization across the industry.

At PTAG, our industry-specific teams are ready to implement modularization on your project to enhance various aspects of project management, including time, cost, safety, quality, and productivity.

Lessons Learned Program (LLP)

Lessons Learned (LL) is knowledge gained from experience, successful or otherwise, to improve future performance. Each company should develop a Lessons Learned Program (LLP) to promote success and achievement. The Lessons Learned Program involves the people, processes, and tools that support an organization’s collection, analysis, and implementation of validated lessons learned. People possess organizational knowledge. The procedures must be structured to allow people to collect, analyze, and share knowledge easily.

Overall, Lessons Learned Programs are essential to the construction industry. The key to achieving an effective and sustainable Lessons Learned Program is the degree of continuing commitment and leadership from the organization’s top management. Lessons Learned will become even more critical as employees age and retire and turnover increases. Additionally, globalization also increases the need for LLPs to ensure that an organization is able to address critical issues such as culture, language, distance, and diversity.

  • Every organization should move forward in developing or improving a lessons learned program.
  • Leadership, top-level and tactical, is the essential prerequisite for the success of these programs.
  • Organizations should become “teaching” organizations rather than organizations that only collect or learn from the past in an ad hoc or passive manner.
  • Organizations should adopt an active implementation strategy to ensure that lessons are used.
  • Although technology is vital in developing and using the Lessons Learned Program, the importance of organizational culture should not be underestimated.
  • The quality of lessons learned is more important than the quantity of lessons in the database.
  • Both owners and contractors can benefit from lessons learned programs. Necessarily, the captured lessons learned will be focused on different areas based on the organization’s business needs.

There are three main components to the Lessons Learned Program (LLP):

  1. The collection involves gathering data and information on the experiences of individuals and teams in the organization. Collection can occur at multiple stages of project execution.
  2. Analysis can be performed by a team or a subject matter expert (SME). This step is necessary to ensure the information gathered is relevant, correct, and easily understood.
  3. Implementation can involve changes in practices and procedures or changes in the project execution. Lessons learned should be implemented quickly to ensure they are helpful for the organization.

PTAG has industry-specific teams ready to manage and organize this knowledge to benefit your organization in the form of a reduction of total project cost and/or reduction of project schedule.

Implementation Planning Model

Once a new opportunity is identified, and an implementation path is laid out, the implementation process will result in the need for change. The implementation of new or improved practices is the driver for change management. Organizations face many challenges in overcoming barriers that come up during the implementation of new practices. An Implementation Champion will drive the implementation process with support and resources from upper management. Organizations face many challenges in overcoming barriers when implementing new procedures.

PTAG helps you to have a clear perspective on the overall stages required for the entire implementation process. A well-designed implementation plan will guide an organization to a successful outcome.

Follow steps that begin with needs analysis and end with implementation and benchmarking.

  • Stage 1: Needs Analysis – The Needs Analysis lays out the case for implementing a new practice. This case will need to be presented to both management and critical staff, so a compelling argument is required as an output of this stage.
  • Stage 2: Management Buy-In – The management buy-in will be based on the Needs Analysis developed in Stage 1.
  • Stage 3: Establish Steps – The Implementation Planning Model establishes four critical steps that will be followed during the implementation process. The third stage in the overall process requires one to understand these steps and develop an approximate schedule for the implementation process.
  • Stage 4: Adapt Matrix – In this stage, the implementation team must take the specifics within the Implementation Matrix and adapt the generic elements with organization specifics that address the unique requirements of the current implementation task.
  • Stage 5: Develop Plan – In this stage, the team will translate the details from Stage 4 into a plan that meets the specific organization’s requirements.
  • Stage 6: Communicate Plan – This stage requires the team to communicate the proposed implementation plan to both management and the proposed test group.
  • Stage 7: Perform Change Audit – The implementation team will perform a Change Audit that evaluates the readiness of the organization to undertake the implementation process.
  • Stage 8: Implement Tasks/Plan – The implementation team will now follow the tasks laid out in the implementation plan for each step of the implementation process. Each step in the process has a set of three to five tasks that are critical for success in that step.
  • Stage 9: Perform Step Evaluations – In conjunction with Stage 8, the implementation team will perform evaluations during each step of the implementation process to determine if the process is achieving the required goals.
  • Stage 10: Benchmark – The final stage in the implementation process is to benchmark the new practice internally and externally.

Steps In Construction Dispute Resolution

How much time do you spend managing conflicts in your projects?

In the construction industry, disputes are common. Identifying the aspects of a project that can lead to disputes early on and the steps required to resolve them is crucial for successful projects.

PTAG has industry specific teams ready to review the causes and administrative costs of such claims, recommend procedures for avoiding claims and investigate alternatives for the early, equitable settlement of claims. Dispute Review Boards (DRB) can be an effective way to facilitate timely on-site resolution of disputes, preventing matters from escalating costs and timelines. 

To create a comprehensive system for dispute prevention and resolution, a project must:

  • Start Right
  • Stay Right
  • Provide for Resolution

Within the bounds of feasibility, PTAG provides the solutions for your project’s requirements.

Principles of Effective Change Management

Change is complicated and understanding what to avoid is just as crucial as understanding what to do. Most capital projects face unexpected changes which can lead to problems and hinder project success if not properly anticipated and addressed. 

PTAG helps clients make better decisions about how to implement a change management program most efficiently. Significant savings in total installed costs of projects are achievable by improving the management of changes. 

 An effective change management process recognizes change as a modification to an agreement between project participants. 

At PTAG, we are familiar with the complexity and depth of our client’s projects. We work alongside our clients to develop and put into action solutions that directly and effectively address the full spectrum of capital project issues. 

Video Recap – Nov 17th Webinar – How to Plan and Execute Capital Projects in Volatile and Uncertain times.

November 17th, 2020
10am PST / 11am MST / 12 noon CST / 1pm EST

Join PTAG’s Gulf Coast General Manager Steven K. Hillyard, and principals Feroz Ashraf and Michael Dubreuil for a special 90min webinar on How to plan and execute Capital Projects in volatile and uncertain times. This extended 90min webinar will be direct and to the point providing practical and validated examples pertinent to planning and restarting your capital projects.

Throughout the United States and Canada, most capital project budgets have been cut. With few exceptions, no region has gone untouched by the impact that COVID has had on those of us working on capital projects.

The need to maintain existing facilities still exists. Capital spend is still needed to maintain operability, safety, and capacity. Commodity demand is still increasing.

Project teams have been reduced by 30% or more. Across the board our clients are seeing increases in material and equipment costs due to COVID, with continued commodity price volatility driving new behaviours.

Projects are experiencing significant productivity impacts due to the new normal COVID working conditions, as well as increasing pressure and social license related to climate change.

Our panel of seasoned capital project practitioners will walk through these issues with practical step by step approaches and strategies covering delivery models, best practices in detail for both the Planning and Execution phases of new projects and refurbishments.

Our webinar sessions are part of PTAG’s ongoing webinar series on Best Practises in Project Management & Project Controls. PTAG works with sustaining and capital projects owners around the world and is passionate about ensuring the successful delivery of every project, especially in today’s volatile and uncertain conditions.

Please register for access to post webinar session video and Q&A even if you will not be able to attend on our schedule date.

Get to know our speakers:

Project Objective Setting

In nearly every project, internal teams and parties will work towards an objective to satisfy their stakeholders and the project owner. This objective may be loosely defined by the project owner, but to accomplish the goals will require alignment of the internal teams’ objectives.