Pathfinder, LLC has been invited by the AACEI to design an Energy Industry Track for their 2014 Annual Conference scheduled for 15-18 June 2014 in New Orleans, LA. This track is specifically designed to address Cost Engineering issues that are impacting the Oil/Gas/Alternative Energy industry sector.
Be sure to register for any or all of the following exciting panel discussions at http://www.aacei.org/am/currentAM/
Attracting Project Control Resources - Monday, June 16, 2014 from 10:00am - 11:00am
The Energy Sector is as active as ever in North America as well as around the globe. Project planning and execution resources are in short supply and high demand. With this reality, how are owner, engineering, construction and consulting companies attracting and retaining cost engineering resources across the industry? How are companies currently finding resources and maintaining their interests within their organizations. Also, how do organizations plan to attract more staff over the next 3-5 years?
Contractor Support in Owner Front End Activities - Monday, June 16, 2014 from 11:15am - 12:15pm
As owners rely more heavily on contractor support for front end design and planning activities, contractors are being asked to play a more active role in the owner’s typical pre-award activities. In addition to the technical deliverables, Contractors also need to support the development of Owner baseline schedules and estimates. Has this been effective and if not, can it be? How are owners assuring that this execution approach results in the quality cost/schedule deliverables required by owner management?
Effective Use of Independent Reviews - Monday, June 16, 2014 - 2:00pm - 3:00pm
It has long been agreed that utilizing independent, 3rd party reviews can add a level of assurance that projects are well planned and cost/schedule expectations can be met. How are Owners utilizing this industry tested approach in today’s resource constrained project environment to assure high quality, predictable results? Various owner approaches will be discussed and what types of reviews are proving to be most effective.
Claims Avoidance Through Effective Cost Engineering - Monday June 16, 2014 from 3:45pm - 4:45pm
As our projects become larger, more complex and delivered with less experienced resources, the claims potential 2 – 3 years from now is very large. History indicates that when we get into highly active execution environments, claims activity picks up a short time after. With this historical track record in mind, what are the effective uses of cost engineering tools, processes and information to avoid claims and drive positive project performance in today’s marketplace?
Resource Loaded Schedules - Monday, June 16, 2014 from 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Many benchmark results indicate that to deliver a high quality owner cost estimate (+/- 10%) at project authorization, it is mandatory that the project team have a well-defined, resource loaded Critical Path Method (CPM) schedule. Most owners today have not maintained nor developed their internal capability to develop such schedules prior to the project authorization request. Why is it such a struggle to develop this industry best practices tool during Front End Engineering design phase? This panel will discuss approaches on how to ensure high quality resource loaded schedules are developed prior to project execution.
