Pcubed Portfolio and Resource Optimization
Petroleum Products Company, Capital Expenditure Portfolio Optimization, Global Refining
The Challenge
The optimal allocation of capital to proposed projects in a multi-billion dollar capital expenditure portfolio is key to the long term health of the refining business and to achieving an acceptable return on capital employed for the enterprise. Projects were previously assessed primarily on financial measures, with decisions regarding other selection criteria made in a disjointed and unstructured fashion. Senior management could not assess the strategic value of a particular mix of projects or have confidence that strategic value was even considered in selecting the projects in which to invest.
The Pcubed Solution
The Global Refining management team engaged Pcubed to define a methodology for assessing the strategic value of proposed capital projects, and optimize the three-year capital project portfolio for Global Refining. In addition, senior management was provided with enhanced information regarding the business case and benefits for all proposed capital projects.
The Results
The primary benefit delivered by the engagement was transparency of decision making in selecting capital projects for investment. This translated into a three-year, optimized capital expenditure portfolio, using strategic impact as the basis in addition to understanding the financial return. This was made possible by Pcubed by creating a common language for assessing strategic value in the form of business drivers - measurable, actionable and discrete strategic objectives against which all proposed projects are assessed using clearly defined metrics.
Petroleum Products Company, Project Management, Oilfield Management
The Challenge
The Facilities Technical team on the oil field had responsibility for the project management of all technical projects, and for the coordination of all asset development projects. Multiple partner companies provided resources for the projects, with resource pools being used across all projects. Projects were consistently running late, resources were underutilized, facility engineers were unable to accurately forecast time and schedule, and project prioritization was haphazard. Faced with these challenges, management explored options for consolidation of their schedule and resource management processes.
The Pcubed Solution
The Company engaged Pcubed to develop project management processes in order to better manage all resources and projects. Pcubed consolidated all business partners' schedules and resource management, using Microsoft Office Project Server, to provide all parties with single-sourced information. All processes were validated for the ability to provide the data needed to support timely resource and project decision making, after which the solution was prepared for a roll-out across the rest of the organization.
The Results
Amongst a wider array of benefits the client achieved from the implementation, the primary results were consolidated visibility of Technical project schedules, accurate forecasting of project timelines, and the optimization of resource availability. Both operation and business partners were included to provide a complete resource management picture. As a result, the team was in the position to proactively manage all resource assignments to ensure highest utilization.