Food and Consumer Products

A major focus of the consumer products industry is bringing new products to market and quickly responding to market developments. Flexibility and rapid execution of capital projects are frequently much more important than capital cost and distinguish the leading companies in this industry.

IPA's capital project evaluations in the food and consumer products market industry have demonstrated four critical findings:

• Clear and timely business direction is key to success. Business objectives shape the project scope and dictate engineering design and execution plans. Clear objectives enable the project team to fully engage with the business to find, shape, and develop the right scope that best corresponds to business needs. Adequate guidance from business is even more critical for schedule-driven projects that need to meet tight market windows.
• An effective work process provides a safety net. Late product modifications and design changes are the norm in the food and consumer products industry. Mastering a work process for developing and executing capital projects effectively allows the control necessary to easily incorporate late changes. In addition, a work process helps to ensure wrong projects are not developed. Executing capital projects in which the expected revenues are substantially below forecasted levels can be avoided.
• Team performance is essential for cycle time acceleration. Team alignment around business objectives, fully integrating necessary functions, team member continuity, and dedicated and focused attention have all been quantitatively shown to improve project performance. IPA's Team Development Index (TDI) is a key leading indicator of capital project performance.
• Trading cost for schedule performance is not necessary. The practices associated with fast schedule performance are also associated with low capital cost. Companies deliberately pursuing a trade-off strategy are at a disadvantage to those companies using Best Practices.
   

The leading consumer product companies are able to rapidly respond to market information and, after a decision is reached, are noted for rapid execution. Best Practices differentiate their performance and allow for consistent results.

IPA's Approach to Understanding Best Practices in the Consumer Products Industry

IPA's Consumer Products Database includes hundreds of capital projects executed by food and consumer products companies. The database contains variables for each project that cover the entire project life cycle, from early planning commissioning, startup, and early operation. All of this information is carefully protected to ensure proprietary information is safeguarded.

We have used these data to develop powerful statistical tools that enable us to understand, through analysis and quantitative measurement, the project procedures that are most effective to meet the business demands of each industry. Our wealth of capital project experience is aggregated, and used to provide key lessons to our clients. The result is knowledge of demonstrated Best Practices, not the advertised benefit a particular technique may provide. This knowledge is used to prioritize improvement efforts, reduce project risks, improve capital project outcomes, and significantly contribute to financial performance. IPA routinely evaluates individual capital products and project system performance through the application of our products and services.