It’s Time for Project Certainty

Today our industry is experiencing a crisis. Most existing capital projects fail - more than 65% of projects over a billion dollars, and 35% of projects under $500M are more than 25% over budget or 50% late.

Increasing size, growing complexity, and shorter schedules are some of the challenges that can cause a billion-dollar project to miss both budget and schedule targets. The impact of failing to meet those challenges is daunting when you consider that the cost of project overruns and lost revenue can exceed the project budget by tenfold.

With so much riding on your project, you must reduce the risks to your project’s success and ongoing performance. It’s time to look at projects differently. It’s time to investigate strategies that will deliver your project on time and within budget.

A study of capital projects from Independent Project Analysis (IPA) Inc, shows that top-quartile performers have 54% lower costs and 49% shorter schedules than fourth-quartile performers for the equivalent scope of work. Valuable investment capital is being wasted instead of being used on new projects that could help organisations grow their business and improve shareholder value.

Now, here’s the good news: Emerson can reduce project waste. The path to top-quartile performance in capital projects is right in front of us. New technologies and proven methodologies can change how projects are executed. Emerson calls this transformative approach Project Certainty - focused on eliminating costs, reducing complexity, and accommodating change.

Project Certainty begins with early engagement during Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) to define a better project approach. Despite traditionally accounting for approximately 4% of a project’s investment, automation strategies can impact cost, schedule, and complexity beyond the automation scope.

For example, complexity created with multiple suppliers, engineering firms, and stakeholders can be tackled by decoupling hardware and software development, facilitating global concurrent engineering and fabrication, and using new technologies that provide a single source of project data to reduce the impact of data and documentation changes.

Emerson technologies like Electronic Marshalling with CHARMs and pervasive wireless field instrumentation are helping project teams accommodate late project changes while reducing impacts on schedule and cost.

Our industry needs a step-change in how capital projects are executed – it’s time to think about projects differently. Emerson, as an automation supplier, shares the responsibility with our customers and have taken steps forward. We must all work together to use capital efficiently and improve the health and well-being of our industry. It is time for Project Certainty.

Learn more – download an eBook with Three Strategies for Integrated Project Execution