FEL Toolbox

• Improve sustaining capital project cost and schedule performance
• Accurately measure the level of a project’s overall FEL and the three main components: site factors, engineering status, and project execution planning
• Compare project FEL score against industry and your company averages
  (when available)
• Use detailed recommendations to analyze gaps and opportunities in project preparation, improve project definition, and reduce risk
• Quickly determine whether a project is ready for sanction or needs further work
• Align the project team on key project objectives and deliverables

What is FEL Toolbox?

IPA research has shown that sites with better Front-End Loading (FEL), or project definition, achieve better cost and schedule performance. Although FEL is one of the most significant drivers of project success, many organizations do not employ an effective project definition work process in a consistent manner, which degrades project outcomes and hurts a site’s return on capital. IPA’s FEL Toolbox software helps project teams overcome shortcomings by providing detailed recommendations—based on project-specific inputs—to improve a project’s FEL quality, and thus improve cost and schedule performance. In fact, projects that use FEL Toolbox have shown to improve cost and schedule performance by 10% or more!

Latest Updates

• Intuitive navigation
• Improved report layout
• Better performance
• Enhanced data export
• Improved on-screen help
• Cleaner look and feel
• Enhanced security
• Bug fixes

Key Features

• Built on IPA research, analysis, and benchmarking of over 10,000 sustaining capital projects
• Licensed on an annual basis
• Captures data for an unlimited number of sustaining capital projects

How Does the FEL Toolbox Work?

Project teams enter information into the online project worksheet describing the project scope and the work that has been completed to date. Using smart logic, the application adapts questions to the type of project under consideration. All data input into the system is submitted to IPA’s secure server. Once the project worksheet is complete, the application generates a detailed report on the project’s FEL Index score, how it compares to industry, recommendations for improvement, and more.

Based on Validated Industry Data

The FEL Toolbox software is powered by IPA’s FEL Index, which rates the level of a project’s overall FEL and across the three main components—site factors, engineering status, and project execution planning—compared to industry averages. The index is derived from real benchmarking, analysis, and research on 10,000+ site and sustaining capital projects in IPA’s proprietary database. All data are collected directly from project teams and validated through interviews. None of the data used in FEL Toolbox are collected from public sources.

When Can FEL Toolbox Be Used?

• Projects under US$20 million
• Projects not installing any technology that is brand new to the industry
• Projects installing materials such that engineering resources are required
• Software is designed to handle nearly any kind of capital project regardless of scope, including civil, mechanical, instrumentation, and process projects
• Can be used during FEL 2 or FEL 3

Why IPA?

Since 1987, IPA has been the preeminent consultancy in project evaluation, project system benchmarking, and  quantitative analysis of project management system effectiveness. Site and sustaining capital expenditures represent an increasingly significant portion of project portfolios. However, many companies do not extract enough value from their smaller projects. IPA works with owner organizations across all industry sectors to improve the effectiveness of site-based projects to help save millions.