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Right first time
Avoiding potential pitfalls helps bring mega-projects to successful completion.
Developing a large and complex facility from the design stage through to production without major mishaps is quite an achievement. According to research by Independent Project Analysis Inc. (www.ipaglobal.com), half of all mega-projects are completed substantially over budget and schedule.
A major cause of this is the failure of the owner’s organisation to require all the parties involved in mega-projects to learn from previous mistakes, particularly those that only showed up during start-up, believes Roel Cornelisse, Vice President, Production Commissioning and Start-Up for the Pearl GTL Project, Qatar Shell GTL Limited.
This is understandable, because many flaws only become evident at the end of the construction and commissioning process, when the facility is started up and all the engineering, procurement and construction contractors have left the site. If the contractors are not informed at the time, then the failure to learn remains. “Not sharing lessons observed during start-up of previous projects leaves these project organisations ‘unconsciously incompetent’ in eliminating these potential flaws early,” he says.