CS-135

The Situation:

One of the largest oil production companies in Canada was experiencing schedule and cost overruns in capital projects. With more than $5 billion dollars in annual capital projects, it was determined that significant gains could be made by implementing a more formal system to manage the project work, remove barriers and improve performance in relation to productivity, schedule attainment, headcount control, indirect costs, overtime, and the tracking of contract terms and conditions. The Highland Group was asked to customize and implement a system for managing capital projects to deliver improvements in meeting budget and timeline, and deliver a 20% decrease in cost of execution.

The Driver Goal:

Reduce the cost of execution by 20% for major and base capital projects.

Actions Taken:

Designed and implemented a System for Managing with tools to manage the work, remove barriers and improve performance. Specific components include:

• Daily and weekly schedules
• Daily project controls
• Daily and weekly reviews
• Short interval management tools
• Barrier identification & removal
• Schedule attainment and tracking
• Modularized training for future projects

The Results:

• On target to achieve a 20% improvement in capital project cost and schedule attainment by and across projects
• A methodology for tracking cost and schedule attainment