Advanced work packaging (AWP) and workface planning (WFP) is nothing new to our industry and its success is well documented, but implementation isn't necessarily easy. It requires identifying and removing barriers to our success. Above all, it requires unrelenting attention to safety. When all these objectives are met, the rewards are significant.
What a difference technology tools make
Inarguably, the future of AWP and WFP is dependent on technology. As our projects become larger, costs increase and the impact of falling behind schedule or going over budget is significant, and the use of technology and real-time data is going to make a huge impact. It’s mindboggling and more than a little humbling to think about technological developments coming in the future. By 2019, everything will be online and integrated. We’ll be able to walk through a 3-D model and look at things as they’re being built.
We embrace specific on-site AWP and WFP technologies that make a huge difference in our collaborative productivity. Breaking it down into simple terms, we all know construction projects require a piping plan, an electrical plan and a structural plan. We also know those teams don’t always work together. Unfailingly, lack of collaboration leads to conflict in the field.
That conflict leads to inefficiencies, wait time, downtime, excess equipment and material in the wrong laydown. Other inefficiencies could include not being able to find the material when the scaffolding is going up and down or there is rework and double handling. All of these things occur on projects if we don’t plan properly. AWP and WFP helps us remove those inefficiencies and can eliminate them at the very beginning of a life cycle by tying all these integral disciplines together.
One of the technology tools we employ is Intelliwave’s SiteSense®, which tracks materials from vendor sites to site storage locations to the final installation locations at the workface with radio-frequency identification and GPS.
We applied SiteSense to a project that was recently completed. By tagging most of the materials, SiteSense proved to be an invaluable workface planning tool by providing the status of material availability on-site.
A small fraction of materials on this project, less than 1 percent, were not tagged. Guess which pieces were lost? Obviously, the unnecessary cost of finding those pieces can build up. All projects are cost-driven when they start, but when owners have as much as $2 billion invested in them, something as basic as knowing where your materials are has a huge impact. If we can get the materials to the workplace faster and we know where everything is, it makes a huge difference in our productivity.
The SiteSense technology can be used for tracking personnel and to tell who is working on specific work packages. On our last project, we knew the location of every single person, when they came through the gate and how close they were to the gate before they went out for the day. That eliminated the inefficiency of 500 people sitting 50 feet away from the gate the last 15 minutes waiting to finish their shifts. SiteSense also helps stay on top of maintenance activities. It tells you what equipment is available and where it is on-site. And it makes a big difference in efficiency.
Thanks to SiteSense and similar technological advances, companies have gone digital in their yards and in their shops. Personnel are able to examine fabrication work packs in real time, live and obtain any piece of information. When the workers in the field, pipefitters and supervisors can all look at the model on a tablet and see the specific progress of what they’re building, it makes a difference. It’s not “Big Brother;” it’s “Big Data.”
Numbers don’t lie
Stakeholders who might be initially hesitant to adopt AWP and WFP practices will be convinced by the end result in increased productivity and profitability. Documented benefits include as much as 25-percent productivity improvement, a 10-percent decrease in total installed cost, a 20-percent increase in quality, more predictability of costs, as much as 30 percent in improved safety and performance, and improved contractor and stakeholder relations.
Breaking it down even further, most field studies indicate stellar opportunity for improvement in tool time on most projects. On any given construction site, tool time represents approximately 37 percent, with 15 percent of the time of an average worker’s day spent waiting for material for construction or information. AWP and WFP offers a chance to impact that wait time significantly. When we increase tool time through productivity, we lower costs.
People are our most valuable resource
Beyond the financial and productivity inefficiency of wait time, a poorly run job leads to high turnover. One of the first things I look at on our jobs is turnover. If we have high turnover, we’re typically not planning very well.
Turnover is an expense no one can afford and the current crunch on labor is extreme. Baby boomers are retiring, and the demand for construction is greater than we’ve ever seen. The 21st century hydrocarbon revolution from natural gas, fracking and light oil in the U.S. is immense and creates a huge opportunity. One hundred billion dollars in new projects have been announced for the coming 10 years on the Gulf Coast alone; some say that number is as high as $300 billion.
In building these projects, it’s absolutely critical to do everything we can possibly do to improve productivity to get the materials to the site safe, fast and efficiently, and get the information on an as needed basis. By 2017, two and a half times more people will be needed in the Gulf Coast area to not only construct these projects but also to maintain them after they’re constructed.
If we don’t get workface planning right, we’re not going to have the manpower to participate in and complete this work. If we get it right, we’ll have the luxury and the opportunity to build more.
The value of value
It may sound simple but the essence of AWP and WFP is to “plan the work, then work the plan.” Build it on paper and then in the field — planning, planning and more planning.
AWP and WFP has allowed companies to build great things with great people. You can have really good performance with a small number of people doing good work. You can build great teams, take care of each other and have an excellent safety program. You should care about how you treat the folks on your team and always challenge the status quo. It’s how we think and how we build. Simply put, you need to value value.
And it’s important to value innovation. The innovation of AWP and WFP has allowed companies not only to create value for customers, but it’s also allowed companies to push its people further. That innovation breeds itself, and everybody gets excited about what they’re building. And that is what allows these companies to be successful.
In the end, projects are expanding in size, complexity and competiveness. While there is no strict rule of thumb that can be applied to assure the success of every project, AWP and WFP provides a unique support path to success.
For more information, visit www.jvdriverusa.com or call (713) 338-2469.