Engineering Inc. - November/December 2004 - 21

Alard `Al' Kaplan J. Russell Laird, Jr. Vice president of major projects
Senior vice president Marathon Oil Carter & Burgess Fort Worth, Texas
Looking to the future, how do you envision What improvements are needed in
the procurement the design and engineering process will be and delivery of
engineering services? different than it is today for your firm? rojects
will be built in more locations wo of the most underrated skills a firm
can P T and with more parties due to the possess, in any situation, are
effective commu- influence of increasing reliance on nication and a clear
understanding of the client's directive. We can improve specialist
companies and the use of low-cost the procurement and delivery of
engineering services by maintaining an open engineering centers. line of
communication, allowing the engineer to accurately assess the project's In
addition, on large projects, work is scope and responding to the exact
qualifications needed to meet the project's likely to be performed in
multiple locations, goals. It also is essential that the firm be able to
ask the proper questions in order due to partner and governmental require-
to elicit a clear understanding of the project and the client's needs.
ments and to compensate for workload Many times there is a scope
definition at the start of the project that may capability and the
location of expertise include only part of the client's expectations. The
firm should ask questions to within a client or contractor. define
expectations in order to eliminate surprises. In the life of a project, it
One-stop shopping is likely to be much seems that the most difficult times
come when the scope starts to change or more difficult, as the experience
level of grow and a definition of the scope of work comes after the work
is complete. contractors and the number of A teams available, which all
clients request, is lower today than ever before in our industry, and most
[contractors] are unwilling to take the entire risk of mega projects. Ken
Hirshey More emphasis from Marathon will be placed on contractors with a
full range of CEO experience, from engineering to construction and
including operations and maintenance, Cyntergy Technology if possible. For
instance, in our Alvheim Tulsa, Okla. project, which is a floating
production, stor- What improvements are needed in the procurement age and
offloading vessel FPSO project off and delivery of engineering services
from the aspect of Norway, the execution plan envisions four the client?
EPC contracts. In addition, a knowledge base of specific international
experience will hat we're seeing from our large corporate be key,
particularly for remote, onshore facili- W owner clients, such as
Wal-Mart, is that they are looking beyond tradi- ties, since that is where
Marathon's projects tional project management tools to program management
technology. increasingly will be located. They need software that is
designed to manage a large volume of projects, We also will have stronger
cross-fertiliza- improve the timeliness and accuracy of communication
across programs, and tion between the contractor and client support
reusable application of project and process data. Our product, worlds, to
ensure that the best person for the Thumbprint CPM, uses a learning
knowledgebase to solve these program man- position is utilized. This
better ensures that agement challenges for owners and engineers. we as
clients are setting clear and realistic A learning knowledgebase is a
smart database that captures, retains, and intel- expectations for the
project and the ligently applies project and process information across
your program. When a contractors. user has entered a new project or
process into the system, the knowledgebase will automatically push the
information to other project teams when it applies. Thus, project and
process knowledge is shared across programs to save time and money, while
improving communication both internally and externally. One of our clients
has said that they achieved an increase in total retail days and revenue
because the software helped them streamline project schedules and
accelerate store openings by weeks. Additional benefits that clients are
experiencing include consistent accessibility to all critical program
level information and elimination of manual reporting, as well as improved
productivity by sharing knowledge about process changes across project
teams. November l December 2004 ENGINEERING INC. 2 1
Engineering Inc. - November/December 2004

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