The establishment of an Integrated Project Management Control Office (IPMCO) is the fastest growing concept in project management today and is very important for the effective implementation of projects across mining and engineering.
To keep pace with increased competition and tougher economic conditions in a fast-paced global economy, mines must do more using fewer resources. This is according to SA's largest project, program and portfolio management solutions provider, UMT Consulting SA.
With budget cuts across the industry, mining companies need to find ways to streamline their projects with the few resources they have to their disposal. Unfortunately, the scarcity of engineers makes this even more challenging.
An IPMCO has been identified as one of the several workable solutions to making better use of existing resources, by getting work to flow horizontally as well as vertically within a company. It is a single communication portal with key information for an entire organisation to understand the strategic context, project focus, individual project health and progress made on the project within portfolios.
IPMO is a business solution that brings together all the elements of typical projects, including project communication; project progress and overall tracking. It also provides strategic planning; tactical operational decision-making; document management; cost monitoring and tracking; scope management; risk management and mitigation; issue management and workflow; resource capacity management; and detailed project reporting.
UMT Consulting CEO Pieter Meyer and two of his mining IPMCO subject matter experts, Peter Gerber and Leon de Kock, stress that without an IPMCO business solution, projects are rarely completed on time and within acceptable cost - this is especially true of large projects.
“Improving delivery and reducing spend, especially during the current competitive business climate, can be determined by an organisation's ability to efficiently align resources and business activities with strategic objectives and could mean the difference between success and failure,” they explain.
They say IPMCOs can save organisations money by enabling better resource management and reduce project failures. “They can either outsource the IPMCO, or part thereof, or manage it in-house. The benefit of keeping it in-house is that one has full control over the project and the budget. However, managing it in-house means one is dependent on limited skills.”
There are two basic models of IPMCO business solutions, one that acts as an outsource model by providing consulting services to assist mining and engineering companies to build capacity, build the IPMCO, providing internal project manager, assist with training, mentorship and skills transfers, provide strategic project guidance by using best practices.
Meyer says the advantage of this model is to assist companies to build their own excellence and capacity in the IPMCO space. “The other model is to outsource all work to an engineering procurement consult and management (EPCM) company. This means the EPCM will retain control of delivery and at the same time, build capacity and skills for within the EPCM future projects. This model does suit some mining organisation because their strategy in not necessary to build capacity, but to get the job done through contractor management.”
Furthermore, earned value management is a proven systematic approach to objectively measure project progress and performance measurement, while integrating technical scope, schedule, cost and risk. It forms a crucial part of project, programme and portfolio management when establishing the true status of a project, and can be applied to any life cycle of a project, to any phase of a project, or as soon as a scope, budget, schedule and the appropriate milestones have been agreed upon. It is also internationally recommended as a best practice in the latest Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), including engineering and construction best practices.
Ideally, the IPMCO should be the focal point for project management improvement and enhancement. This mission is met by establishing best practices and by providing training in all project management knowledge areas. It becomes the responsibility of the IPMCO to focus on areas such as development of lessons learned and standardised methodologies.
UMT Consulting SA focuses on ”Project Intelligence” by collecting and consolidating relevant data and enabling processes to support management with their decision-making process through dashboard reports, practical day-to-day collaboration, workflow management and linking project and portfolio management to strategic business value.
Project Intelligence assists executives, middle management and programme managers to consolidate initiatives to make sound business decisions that will save money and deliver maximum value to ensure sustainability.
One of the more visible functions of an IPMCO is developing, recording, compiling, and disseminating the best practices in project management. This repository of information will be continuously evolving. The IPMCO will maintain project archives containing data on project life cycle performance and project scope, cost, and schedule.
De Kock says companies need to ensure solid financial control. “The problem most companies face is that they control projects on cash flow rather than on cost flow. By controlling projects on cost flow allows them to be proactive rather than reactive.”
“On these facets of the project, data will highlight the original value, modifications, and the final value. Additionally, lists of issues and problems of previous projects will be available to all new projects. Thus, successive projects are able to build upon the lessons learned of previous projects,” he concludes.
UMT SA has proven successes with IPMCO at various mines across South Africa, including Grootegeluk.
For more information contact UMT Consulting SA on (012) 345 3518 or visit http://www.umtsa.co.za.
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