According to Jamie Gerbrecht, global technology sponsor of research and engineering for ExxonMobil, it's imperative to reduce and remove any inefficiencies across the supply chains for advanced work packaging (AWP) projects, particularly when it comes to contractor and subcontractor selection. Furthermore, contractors submitting bids can be more competitive by presenting a thoughtful AWP approach to a project even when others are not, Gerbrecht said.
"Theoretically, you should be able to demonstrate you are bringing a more solid execution approach that the owner should appreciate," he explained.
Another top concern owners consider when choosing contractors, Gerbrecht said, is expertise in identifying safety hazards and how they can be mitigated.
"So much of this is about the worker in the field," Gerbrecht said as a panelist at the 2017 AWP Conference held recently in Houston. "If you think about what we are demonstrating in terms of care for workers, when we take the time upfront to help create a work environment on the worksite that better enables success and safety in performance, to me that's huge."
Gerbrecht noted when he learns about a potential contractor's process methodologies not only promote safety but also improve quality, scheduling, cost, productivity and predictability, "it is worth trying to figure out how we can engage with the contractor ⦠and this entire community to do this well."
Upgrading technology, changing culture
Co-panelist Michael Van Swol, vice president of project development for Jacobs Engineering, shared that his company is committed to investing internally, both in work process changes and in new technology.
"We are also investing in our people," Van Swol said. "These are things that we think a client would want to look for."
Van Swol observed overall performance in meeting owners' objectives has been lacking.
"They [the projects] are either late or over budget, and we are all looking for ways to improve this," he said. "We are all looking for corporate résumés that demonstrate a historical improvement in how we manage capital dollars and how we effectively work these big projects."
Jacobs, Van Swol said, is also actively leveraging new technology and AWP concepts to improve the various ways the company delivers projects.
"We are committed to continuing to improve our ability to perform in AWP methodology, and we're changing the culture and improving the capabilities of our personnel," Van Swol said. "Clearly, we want to leverage technology, work processes and personnel skills across the platforms to improve productivity, our safety performance, quality and the turnover process and, hopefully reduce operating costs for our clients in increased facility uptime."
It is essential that work processes are optimally efficient and integrated, Van Swol added.
"You can't take your technology -- and deploy old technology with new work processes that were based on old methodologies and existing deliverables -- into this new way of executing work," he said, explaining that AWP concepts must "be fit-for-purpose" in order to gain advantage on both small capital projects and larger projects
"As we operate at the optimum level, we're getting much more sophisticated and have better capabilities of transferring information to the client as well, so our information handover capabilities go up," he explained. "There are many other secondary benefits than just improving productivity on jobsites. We're working with information in ways that also provide value to the owner community in how we turn over these projects.
"We are trying to create value and become better partners with our clients."
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