Control Tower Concepts: What might go wrong? A case for a strong project ...
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The other day I was speaking with my father and I asked for his opinion on the value of using software to integrate supply chain planning with project management. This might not be the typical father daughter conversation but we enjoy these chats, and I have always valued my father’s opinion. My father, Don Lambert, is a chemical engineer retired from a career at Imperial Oil and Exxon. Dad was a business and technical manager for many years and he often speaks about the oil well drilling and refining in Talara, Peru, where we lived for a few years.
Industrial activities, particularly those in lesser developed areas of the world, rely heavily upon the establishment and maintenance of the supply chain. For example, the first activity when drilling an oil well is the building of a road to the well site. These roads must be able to carry very heavy loads. In Talara, they relied on Caterpillar equipment shipped from the US. Downtime of this equipment was critical, as a one day delay in the completion of a well could have tens of thousands of dollars of negative affect on cash flow (With today’s crude prices, it might be millions of dollars). Any part or component that could be on the maintenance critical path had to be identified and its supply had to be appropriately managed. The difference 40 years ago was that inventories could be bigger and leadtimes were longer. Global competition in recent decades has driven the need for tighter budgets. There is constant pressure to be on time and on budget.
Dad spoke about critical path scheduling, which identifies those activities and resources that dictate and control the completion date. The paths have to be continuously monitored as they change, or as new problems/events take place. One key word here is ‘planned.’ Dad’s experience was that successful project management was based on testing the current plan with the question “what might go wrong” and then conducting reassessments where necessary. The most obvious insurance was to have spares for all the equipment and lots of surplus people to handle any eventuality. This was impractical and lacking the technological tools available today (there was a heavy reliance placed upon experienced personnel). Analysis was performed (pen and paper at that time!) on identifying the critical paths in the project plan, and actions were put in place to reduce their impact on project completion.
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Ever since I was a kid I always wanted a fast car, an oil well, and an elephant. I have the first but I am not sure that the other two are very likely. At least I have a Dad who worked in the industry and helped me make an oil rig for my science
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He continued: "Then why do you turn your doctor bill in? Why do your turn your blood work in? Why do you turn your X-rays in and then say, 'Why are my insurance premiums going up?' Because health insurance isn't insurance anymore. You're paying the insurance company to pay your bills, and then you're wondering why it cost so much. We need to get the insurance company out of paying bills and back into insuring against high cost health care. Things that are unanticipated expenses, that is what insurance is for -- unanticipated costly expenses. It isn't to pay all of your bills." I'm one of the millions of workers who are now paying as much or more for high-deductible medical insurance than we did several years ago for low-deductible insurance. Which means, that we're already paying for our health care costs ourselves unless we are having serious problems. Heck, I don't even have any drug benefits in my plan.