Article written by Garrett Harley (Director, Engineering & Construction Strategy, Oracle Primavera) and appeared on the Oracle EPPM Blog.
Don’t be late, be better informed
If nothing else, construction and engineering projects present ample opportunity to fail. Complexity in assets, supply chains, finance, workforce skills and client requirements all present risk that could jeopardise success. A small slippage or error in any of these areas can easily cascade through the project to contribute to catastrophic failure. It’s little wonder construction and engineering project management is such a tough job.
In a survey of 304 senior executives from a variety of asset-intensive industries, more than a third said they miss their budget (39%) and schedule (34%) targets on major projects at least a quarter of the time[1]. The study by the Economist Intelligence Unit also found more than 60 percent blamed unexpected change for at least half of all project overruns.
The answer is in the data
It’s true that data is everywhere. But finding that nugget of data can help to reduce risk and improve the chances of success. To achieve this, you need to have the ability to manipulate your data in searching for better questions….this is where there is real value.
Every project creates a huge volume of data. From the bid process through to the project’s handover to clients or operators, there is a myriad of Word files, spreadsheets, PDFs and databases. But is the small valuable data easy to find and use? And is it available to the right people at the right time?
There are five main areas where construction and engineering firms are benefiting from improving how they organize and access data:
- Lead to contract execution: win the right work with the right customers, at the right margins
- Project and construction execution: manage change while reducing risk and improving margins
- Digital handover: simplifying the transition to Operation and Maintenance
- Project visualization: simulating construction sequences and spotting challenges
- Lifecycle data hub: organizing data and making it coherent
But as with anything in life, it’s impossible to eliminate risk. But you can improve the chances of success.
[1] Building in change: Project construction in asset-intensive industries, http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/primavera/building-in-ch…