BATEMAN is project management
At the core of BATEMAN's ability to undertake successful projects
for clients wishing to convert natural resources into marketable products
is its project management capability. This capability coordinates the
company's collective conceptual development, financing, design, engineering,
construction, commissioning and commercial operation skills and focuses
them to maximise the success and profitability of a project.
BATEMAN makes use of leading-edge systems to control
all the stages of a project, from marketing to the hand-over of a facility
to the client and beyond. Drawing on global best practices and its own
hard-earned experience, the company has refined these systems extensively
and recently introduced several innovations which it now considers to
be leading-edge project-management tools.
The BATEMAN PMO (Project-Management Overview) system
governs the company's business process. In this task-force environment,
where every task force is led by a project manager, in line with the
international Project Management Institute's PMBOK (Project Management
Body of Knowledge), a high level of discipline is maintained during
project proposals, pre-feasibility, feasibility and bankable feasibility
studies and the eventual execution of the project. All resources are
optimised by using the most cost-effective organisation structures and
tight project controls. Extensive use is made of earned-value principles
in which task scheduling and costs are linked and integrated to provide
a meaningful understanding of the interrelationship of time and cost
in a project, so they can be closely controlled and optimised.
BATEMAN's IPROM (Integrated Project Management) system
covers all aspects of the project, ensuring that the project personnel
communicate effectively. IPROM is a major step toward the productive
utilisation of project manpower by integrating the entire information
process by providing for controlled entry points for data, detailed
change management and the integration of the best-of-breed software
packages for process design, engineering, 3D modelling, cost management,
planning, materials control and document tracking and control. Because
of IPROM's plug-in and plug-out functionality, client requirements and
preferences can easily be accommodated.
Improvements are continuously being introduced to
enhance project delivery. The concept of forming close alliances with
preferred suppliers, which was pioneered in BATEMAN by its modular-plant
business line, is being extended to good effect in other areas of the
business. A considerable reduction in the overall duration of projects
and more efficient and cost-effective designs are some of the positive
outcomes of the concept.
An open-book approach with all stakeholders has encouraged
win-win-win solutions between client, BATEMAN and suppliers / contractors.
Profit sharing between the participants and minimising waste is negotiated
to the satisfaction of all.
Stakeholder management has become an important component
of good project management at BATEMAN. A good example is the new concept
being explored with De Beers Consolidated Mines in which effective teamwork
between the client and contractor is promoted strongly. The objective
is to establish a long-term platform for meaningful collaboration between
the parties leading to a co-operative rather than adversarial relationship.
This approach has been adopted for the Elizabeth Bay diamond project
now underway and all parties are very enthusiastic about the outcome.
The containment of the risks usually associated with
natural-resource projects has been another issue with which BATEMAN
has had to deal. New risk-assessment models are regularly developed
and implemented, whereby project risks can be evaluated more accurately,
particularly during the estimation phase of projects. Cost and time
overruns are minimised by timeous management techniques such as these
risk assessment models which are applied from the outset of the project.
This has enabled BATEMAN to move away from reimbursable to lump-sum
contracts.
BATEMAN's long experience in the project-management business goes back
to the early part of the last century as part of the growing mining
industry in South Africa. This ongoing involvement has enabled the accumulated
development and refinement of this capability to enhance the effectiveness
of project delivery and to meet new and changing market requirements.
Many prominent and large projects have been completed
successfully around the world. For example, major PGM (platinum-group
metals) projects include Anglo's Rasimone, Potgietersrust and Modikwa,
Impala's EPMR and UG2 and Hartley, while base-metals projects include
Skorpion (zinc), Kasese (cobalt), Bulong (nickel) and Sanyati (copper).
Well known diamond-processing facilities include Argyle, Consolidated,
Jwaneng, Finsch, Venetia and Damtshaa.
In the oil and gas arena the Mossgas Project (1992)
was the world's first large-scale GTL project which was followed more
recently by large gas-compression projects in Siberia, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan.
More information may be obtained from:
JC Krüger, General Manager - Project Implementation
- Minerals, on +27-11-899-3163 or email jckruger@bmi.co.za
Gerry Wilson, General Manager - Project Implementation
- Metals, on +27-11-899-2493 or email Gerry.Wilson@batemanengineering.com
Riccardo Tonini, General Manager - Project Implementation
- Engineered Technologies, on +27-11-201-2300 or email Riccardo.Tonini@batemanengineering.com.
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