Many of you may be familiar with an IPA site benchmarking – a holistic evaluation of 8 to 10 small projects at a given manufacturing site. Typically we look at completed projects so that we can provide metrics on cost and schedule predictability and competitiveness. However, you may not know that IPA can also examine ongoing projects, or a combination of ongoing and completed projects.
What is the purpose of looking at ongoing projects? Even though we can’t measure outcome metrics such as early operational performance and cost growth, there are many advantages to assessing a set of small projects that are in the definition phase.
Here are some examples:
A site has recently made improvements to its work process…
The improvements are so recent that they are only reflected in projects still in the Front-End Loading (FEL) phase. We look at a mix of completed and ongoing projects to contrast the two groups and determine if the new process resulted in a significant improvement to the site’s level of FEL.
A site has consistently struggled with target setting…
The site uses Best Practices, but tends to set soft targets, which means they don’t deliver projects that are as cost effective as they could be. We assess cost and schedule estimates for a set of projects that are nearing authorization and identify opportunities for improvement.
A site has a portfolio of projects to be installed in the same shutdown…
We measure their level of definition early on and again closer to the shutdown to make sure they are on track to achieve optimal integration with the shutdown.
All of these evaluations helped answer a very particular question from a site. Could a site benchmarking of ongoing projects help answer your question? Contact me at pkulkarni@ipaglobal.com.
As IPA’s Manager of Plant-Based Systems, Phyllis Kulkarni oversees all global small project benchmarking, turnaround benchmarking, and licensing of the FEL Toolbox software. Phyllis joined IPA as a Project Analyst in 2002 and has led numerous site benchmarkings, project evaluations, and onshore and offshore megaproject assessments. She is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Phyllis can be reached at pkulkarni@ipaglobal.com