#Work Question# Project Cost controls during construction

[The Cosworth]

Hey guys,

Hoping to pick some peoples brains, I can pass along my work details officially if someone is interested. I've undertaken a review of our cost control, change management, and change notice systems in my company for capital spending and I'm struggling for novel ideas around the control when a project is in construction. Im hoping for someone with PM background or similar in an EPC or infrastructure company who would be willing to meet with me and one of my Cost Analysts for some ideas.


We are looking at our change management process and we would like to know what systems / controls you have in place once it goes to construction. The balance I am looking for / trying to improve is when our projects are in construction and a change occurs there. It seems the left end of the spectrum is no control at all, spend what is needed and get it done. The far right end would be 100% control by the Project Management / Project Control team. No approval for time or costs without approval. Neither of these are a practical balance. I’d like to understand if you guys have any novel ideas.

Feel free to PM me and I can send my work email / teams meeting.

thanks

Cos

[flipstah]

I can assist you in the change management side as there are various approach that you can try to see if it works. The success of these is deeply rooted in culture: If one division works in waterfall, Agile won't work.

[The Cosworth]

I can assist you in the change management side as there are various approach that you can try to see if it works. The success of these is deeply rooted in culture: If one division works in waterfall, Agile won't work.

Thanks, I've texted you. :)

[ThePenIsMightier]

Use an RFI system where the contractor is obligated to suggest a reasonable solution with a loosely estimated cost of said solution within their RFI.
Grant the Field Engineer (or a select person or a few persons) authority to review and approve those RFI's as they come in so that work can proceed.
Have the contractor create a Change Order with the RFI attached that firmly captures the cost and schedule impacts within ____ days of the RFI and mgmt approves the CO.
Set $ limits on what the contractor can proceed with before the CO is signed.

[The Cosworth]

Use an RFI system where the contractor is obligated to suggest a reasonable solution with a loosely estimated cost of said solution within their RFI.
Grant the Field Engineer (or a select person or a few persons) authority to review and approve those RFI's as they come in so that work can proceed.
Have the contractor create a Change Order with the RFI attached that firmly captures the cost and schedule impacts within ____ days of the RFI and mgmt approves the CO.
Set $ limits on what the contractor can proceed with before the CO is signed.

That's how it works on our larger jobs but our smaller jobs, the volume has proven to be difficult. Our cap spend is about $155m a year on about 4,500 projects with ~100 designers / PM's and ~50 field staff. So it can be unwieldly. Plus we have in house crews, tender crews, fixed cost crews, and various management on them. So Im looking for a more defined structure that might help some or most of these jobs. I'm ok to split out the very very small and the very large and only focus on the 80% in the middle.

Edit: Perhaps this is scalable and we've done it wrong.

[FraserB]

Shoot me a PM, plenty of site and project controls experience