On 21st February 2018 over 60 high level representatives of ECI were joined by colleagues at CII at the offices of Fluor in Amsterdam to debate Existential Crisis – Rethinking how capital programmes are delivered.
Delegates were welcomed by John Fotherby, Chair of ECI and Arne Siewertsen, DM Project Controls & Estimating, Fluor our hosts for the day. Paul van Weert, Shell Global EPC Manager and Bernd de Jonge set the context for a sector that needs to change. Paul spoke of the need to halve the costs of capital projects to enable them to do twice as many projects with the same allocated budget, not through putting more cost pressure on supply chains, but through fundamentally rethinking the delivery model. From a client perspective they want to see more continuity and learning across projects, greater standardisation and higher levels of collaboration. Bernd made the case for making capital programmes more affordable, investable and bankable through better utilisation of capital. He proposed that more R&D, greater use of digital technology and more collaboration were the keys to delivering projects more effectively.
There was significant agreement amongst delegates that the sector is facing an existential crisis, with 87% either agreeing or strongly agreeing. On the topic of whether we need to rethink capital programme delivery there was overwhelming support in the room with 96% agreeing or strongly agreeing.
