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Government/Industry Forum on Capital Facilities and Core Competencies Summary Report (1998) / Chapter Skim
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3 The Business Stake in Effective Project Systems
Pages 11-14

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From page 11...
... Howard DirectorNonstruction The Business Roundtable Two years ago, The Business Roundtable Construction Committee, which supports the Construction Cost Effectiveness Task Force of Roundtable Chief Executive Officers, was very concerned with the declining state of project execution capabilities. The committee launched a strategic initiative to define the business value of maintaining effective project systems and professional competency.
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From page 12...
... The cyclical nature of capital programs in owner companies has meant that large, in-house forces carry substantial cost penalties when there are periods of minimal work. Engineering contractors can adjust to such periods because they have a large client base and are more flexible in adapting to the changing workload.
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From page 13...
... instead, as their deeply experienced, critically skilled personnel retire, they slowly lose the ability to define alternatives effectively. More immediate, they find themselves overly dependent on contractors, and in an increasingly poor bargaining position.
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From page 14...
... Finally, the best capital project systems all maintained some form of central organization that is responsible for preparing the work process for advance planning. This provides the skills and resources to pull in critical core competencies and the interpersonal organizational glue that binds the operations, business, engineering, maintenance, outside organizations, and affected project systems.
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Key Terms

  • effective project
  • capital projects
  • detailed engineering
  • supply chain
  • industry average

  • business opportunity
  • engineering costs
  • business stake
  • business leaders
  • major projects

  • planning stage
  • business objectives
  • minimal work
  • project planning
  • actively foster

  • engineering management
  • promote efficiency
  • process industries
  • particular technology
  • central organization

  • construction cost
  • maintaining effective
  • project execution
  • business plan
  • engineering staff

  • requires sophisticated
  • competing objectives
  • overly dependent
  • slowly lose
  • increasingly poor


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