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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!

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.

Project Change Management

Change happens in projects, it is unavoidable. Changes on projects are often perceived as a negative, Scope Creep, Overruns, delays, poor performance, however, not all changes are negative.  Read more on our site.

Sign-up Open: The Importance of Front-End Planning and Leveraging Industry Best Practices

Join Feroz Ashraf and Michael Dubreuil for a two-part Webinar. Each 1hr session will be direct and to the point providing practical and validated examples on the Importance of Front-End Planning and Leveraging Industry Best Practices.

Click here to Register:

Globally, an increased focus on health, safety, environmental, and regulatory requirements is impacting project costs, all while the pressure to maintain project objectives to meet tighter budgets, schedules and quality requirements exists. It is becoming imperative to rigorously plan and define the projects well.  The ability to do so is defining company and project teams success

Join us, as Senior PTAG practitioners walk you through practical step by step approaches and strategies covering the following topics:

Session One – 1:00 to 2:00 pm EDT, September 22nd:

  1. Understand the top 8 reasons why projects go off-track
  2. Examine how Front-End Planning and a rigorous staged-gate process is crucial
  3. Learn how and when to use Construction Industry Institute (CII) Front-End Planning tools, such as the Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) to determine the “state of readiness” and “maturity level” of your project.
  4. Review how to assess the Project Complexity Index and Maturity Levels– and to adapt the Execution Plan accordingly
  5. Determine why Initial Project Set-up, Team Alignment and a focussed List of Deliverables are important

Session Two – 1:00 to 2:00 pm EDT, September 29th (will build on our first session)

  1. Review why a consistent Project Controls and Risk Analysis methodology is critical
  2. Learn how a simplified, interactive Project Management & Project Controls Handbook – is a key to Project Management and Delivery Success
  3. Quick review of Value Engineering and Value Improvement Practices
  4. Look into Integrated Project Management Structure and Systems – I2PD
  5. Understand why an Integrated Project Execution Plan (IPEP) is a roadmap to success
  6. Bring it all together, the PTAG Playbook for successful project execution.

These 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 this ever growing complex and uncertain environment.

Advanced Work Packaging

Advanced Work Packaging is the process of defining project scope into manageable work packages early in the project lifecycle to ensure efficient execution of the project.

Outage Improvement Program on Mining Project

Overview 

Company – Iron Ore Client 

Industry – Mining – and Pellet Preparation 

Category – Shutdown Planning and Construction 

Project Budget – $35 million 

Goal – Improved Detailed Planning, Shutdown Preparation, Outage Management, and Construction Productivity while meeting all safety requirements. 

Obstacles – Brown field site, Old plant, Machine Rebuild in a tight fifty-seven-day shutdown (with 3 rounds the clock shifts) with Commissioning going on simultaneously while constructions continues. 

Solutions – Subject Matter Expert assigned, assessed, and developed a compliant PCO processes, procedures, and supporting software. Additional staff assigned for implementation, administration, and transition for long-term support. 

Results – Project Completed on time and budget vs 30% cost over-run and 2 weeks of delay costing the company significant lost production. Safety was good with no lost time. 

Goals 

To complete the Machine Rebuild within budget and time with no safety incidents 

  • Carry out the Outage for Machine Rebuild in a safe environment and to ensure start-up and operation after 57 days of shutdown.  
  • Improve site communication on a shift by shift basis 
  • Improve timely decision making  
  • Ensure Materials and Spares availability to avoid schedule slippage risk. 
  • Improve contractor performance 
  • Implement Lessons Learned procedures to ensure continuous improvement on future Outages 

Obstacles

Management of Change and Implementation of Best Practices and Lessons Learned to Achieve the goals of the project 

  • Tight brown field site, with complex work processes 
  • Lots of vertical construction, pre-com, and commissioning starting within a week of shutdown.  All while the machine rebuild, and other modifications were under construction 
  • Revised processes and procedures required to mitigate risk and  achieve safety compliance that would require a culture change across the site 
  • Over 200 workers at site in tight conditions working three shifts 24/7 
  • Historic Project Execution planning practices 

Solution

Developed and Implemented streamed lined processes for Project Controls and Contracts Admin Program to minimize and correct for Outage delays on a shift by shift basis to eliminate Outage schedule delays and cost overruns 

PTAG’s Advisory Team was engaged in May 2017 to provide a complete assessment of past Outage programs to determine gaps and the develop improvements to achieve more reliable and certain cost and schedule outcomes. The team developed an improved execution plan with real-time project controls to execute the project on budget and time with no lost time accidents. 

The Team developed and implemented the PCO processes and procedure (see slide 6) and developed a detailed list of deliverables and milestones to monitor and track the progress and state of preparedness of the Project before the shutdown. 

There were 3 critical areas (1) list of items that needed to be addressed as shown in slide # 3 under “ Goals” (2) overall work flow processes were developed including RACI charts to ensure that everyone was aligned (3) implement a Field Management system so that daily progress data could be compiled, reviewed and analyzed on real time basis, allowing for corrective and timely actions to be taken on a shift-by-shift basis as opposed to typical weekly project reviews. 

Improved timely decision making using detailed Organization RACI charts communicating who is responsible for change management and scope management, amongst other project functions. 

Improved site communication and overcame the requirement for full face masks and a work environment with high-ambient noise levels by providing 2 positive pressure shacks located on each floor where masks could be removed, and where issues could be easily and openly discussed 

To improve Contractor performance and acceptance of new control processes and feed back loops – A “Great Save” program that identified weekly the “best safety behavior” was implemented with rewards to the contractor for the best save. 

A real-time QA/QC application was implemented to ensure seamless transition from construction to pre-com to commissioning to operation on a system by system basis. 

PTAG PROCESS

SMEs Delivered, Implemented, Administered and Monitored the Program 

  1. Review, Assess and Plan 
  2. Report Results on Near – Real basis 
  3. Develop Field Management Admin Program and FM Training 
  4. Implement and Administer 
  5. Monitor and Report the Results 
  6. Plan for Next Machine Rebuild 

PROCESS RESULT 

Project Controls (PCO) and Contract Admin(CA) team members Delivered and Implemented the Project based on the overall process as shown below: 

PTAG TEAM of SMEs developed and implemented new streamlined Project Control and Contract Admin processes from May 2019 to completion of the Project Dec 2019 to improve contractor feedback, corrective action, decision making and scheduling.  The Program was tailored to work within site constraints and training over 200 workers in a congested area at site. 

RESULTS SUCCESS 

  • Completed the 8-month project with 57 days of shutdown within budget and time  
  • No Lost Time Accidents 
  • No cost-overruns and claims as compared to previous 2 similar machine projects which were delayed by 2-3 weeks and 30- 40% of cost over-runs 
  • Past lessons learned and best practices were identified and implemented by Joint Client/PTAG team 
  • Implemented real time progressing at each work face of the round-the-clock shift work allowing timely corrective actions to be take on a shift- by- shift basis to maintain schedule vs typical daily or weekly review meetings. 

ACHIEVEMENTS 

“At the end of every shift we knew where we stood … and we could take timely and necessary corrective steps?” 

Client Project Manager and Construction Coordinators

PTAG provides leading firms in the Power, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Mining, and Capital Infrastructure markets with qualified People, efficient Business Processes, and Information Management Systems that ensure consistently successful delivery and efficient operation of major capital projects. 

How To: Categorize, Analyze and Report Project Construction Delays

Construction Delays are unplanned events that happen during both work planning and execution that result in a cost and/or schedule variance to the original project plan. Delays can impact your project cost and extend your project delivery schedule.