Matt Provenzano, AWP champion and chemical construction manager at Shell's Deer Park facility.
According to Matt Provenzano, advanced work packaging (AWP) champion and chemical construction manager at Shell's Deer Park, Texas, facility, Shell has implemented the AWP process in approximately 12 projects since the summer of 2018.
"The goal is to expand that for 2020," Provenzano said. "We're also expanding this into our pre-turnaround work that needs to occur to make that turnaround successful.
"We are certainly not at 100-percent AWP. We have a long way to go. We're past the crawling point; we're walking, but we still need to improve our processes."
Company leaders' vision for the site, Provenzano said, is to implement AWP on all projects over $500,000 to optimize its portfolio performance.
"When we talk about innovation and AWP maturity, we want this for the long term," he said. "So how do we do that? We know how it works on the big projects, but how do we scale it down? We want to execute this for anything that's a small capital project, so it should be applied to all projects."
As beneficial as this vision of AWP implementation inevitably will be, it will not be easy to realize, Provenzano admitted.
"In a facility like ours, a lot of those folks have been there for most of their careers, and they've been doing these projects their whole careers," he said. "Why would they change? They think, 'I've got to do more work now.' So you have to be very persistent. You have to engage them."
In the past, leaders found success in implementing new processes when they set clear expectations and did not oversell, Provenzano said in a presentation titled "Managing a portfolio of AWP projects with multiple contractors" at the AWP Conference held recently in Houston.
"You also have to be transparent. I made the mistake of saying, 'Hey, we can save 25 percent [on] construction productivity by doing something.' But we didn't save 25 percent," Provenzano said. "We saved 15 percent. You have to be open and honest, especially as you're planning how you're scaling the project."
It is also essential to get project engineers engaged early, Provenzano said.
"We've got roughly 20 or 25 project engineers on-site. Some of them I bonded with immediately, and some of them didn't want to talk with me. They're all different. But what we did in the selection of the projects was try to find some projects that would be quick wins," he said. "And if you get the right project engineers on board, that helps even more. What I found was once you get a couple of them on board, they talk to the others."
Contractors and engineers
Provenzano noted construction contractors are often the most open to change.
"I'm not sure why," he said. "There may be a little pushback, but at the end of the day, they're the ones that get it because it makes their lives a lot easier."
Engineers, he said, are sometimes more difficult to convince.
"They have their processes, and they don't want to deviate from those," he said. "When you start trying to force them, things get a little difficult. You just have to help them along the way to see the bigger picture of productivity [and] safety."
Getting the whole engineering team involved is vital, Provenzano said. "And I'm not just talking about EECs (environmental engineering consultants)," he added. "I'm talking about our technical authorities from the owner's side: project engineering, project services, operations reps, scaffolding and vendors.
"That's where these early engagements come into play. Last year, when you'd say 'AWP,' very few people had any idea what you were talking about. This goes back to collaboration and developing those strong partnerships. Get your teams aligned and pulling in one direction."
