Emerson Exchange '15: Project Certainty to reduce capital costs, schedule overages
PRAMOD KULKARNI, Editor
DENVER – Addressing a growing industry demand for transformational improvements in capital project execution, Emerson has launched Project Certainty, an innovative technology and engineering-based approach for improved capital efficiency and more reliable project schedules.
“The industry has reached a tipping point in which projects are not sustainable with current budget and schedule excesses,” said Jim Nyquist, president of Emerson Process Management’s Systems and Solution business, at the gathering at the Emerson Users Exchange underway here. “In order to achieve game-changing performance in projects, it will take a truly transformative and comprehensive approach like Project Certainty.”
Emerson’s Project Certainty begins with early engagement during engineering and design studies to define project goals and high impact strategies to meet those goals. Despite traditionally accounting for approximately 4% of a project investment, automation is revealing unique and repeatable ways to eliminate cost, reduce complexity and accommodate late-stage project changes, beyond the automation discipline.
For example, Nyquist explained, Project Certainty relies on the right design engineering strategy to eliminate centralized control system room requirements by 70 to 80%, and can eliminate piping in some applications up to 50 to 60%. Additionally, tens of millions of dollars in capital spare parts can be eliminated through project-wide equipment reliability analysis.
“Project Certainty also tackles complexity by decoupling the dependencies suppliers have on each other, eliminating bottlenecks and allowing concurrent work streams,” said Nyquist. “Likewise, we are addressing the complexity of data and documentation with innovative technologies that provide features like a single source of project data as well as automated documentation.”
Addressing one of the greatest project vulnerabilities, Project Certainty improves project schedule performance. Technologies like Electronic Marshalling with CHARMs, and pervasive wireless field instrumentation are helping project teams accommodate inevitable last-minute design changes without impacting schedule.
“The path to Top Quartile project performance is right in front of us,” said Nyquist. “The technologies and proven methodologies are here. It will take collaboration and commitment to eliminate outdated project approaches and drive change into the industry.”
The Emerson Global Users Exchange continues in Denver until Friday, October 16 with workshops, training sessions and technical exhibits.
