Transforming how a global hi-tech manufacturer measures CAPEX project delivery in real time

How does a global manufacturer deliver complex capital projects quicker in a demand-driven market? 

Demand for technology components has skyrocketed. However, turbulent market conditions have also seen demand for raw materials and labour increase in the same way. Our client spends billions of dollars each year building, expanding and modifying their manufacturing facilities, with hundreds of investments underway across the globe at any one time. Managing these projects efficiently is key to keeping speed up and spend down, so the manufacturer asked Baringa to bring its experience in multi-billion-dollar investments in heavy assets and help them measure its portfolio consistently and intelligently.      

Inventing the wheel of repeatability

The global head of construction invited Baringa’s team of capital project specialists – who have worked on some of the world’s largest infrastructure projects – to create a global framework for measuring project delivery success. Together with a global delivery team from our client, we collaboratively defined the landscape measurements and key performance indicators to measure project performance throughout each project’s lifecycle.

This involved engagement from every enabling function across the business including engineering, contracting, trade labour, supply chain, off site manufacturing, and governance.

We then helped move the business from static, one-dimensional paper-based reporting of these metrics to fully-automated real, and near-real time dashboards, that allowed the directors of construction and their teams to drill into these metrics from anywhere on site.

What made all the difference was gaining commitment on the exact mathematical measurements of each metric, at each layer of the project, which enabled repeatability, consistency, and insight.   It took e-meeting after e-meeting and wasn’t easy for either side. But we worked with stakeholders not through them – a key to unlocking success.

Saving costs and time all around

For our client, a standardised project measurement framework and reporting suite allows for rapid insight and decision making by their senior delivery teams.  It has moved precious time away from the development of reams of paper-based reports, each shaped differently, towards data interrogation and effective response management.   

The effects of efficient project management aren’t just internal, either: this new way of working makes it easier for our client to create a common language between the business and their engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) teams, and general contractors.  This means efficiencies not just for the business, but also for the ecosystem in which they operate.

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