INTERCHANGE ONLINE The News Pages of the Interchange Working Party

October 2001

ACTIVE and ECI In Action

Introduction

ACTIVE is a UK process and engineering construction initiative aimed at "Achieving Competitiveness through Innovation and Value Engineering". In April 2001 ACTIVE merged with ECI, the European Construction Institute. ECI was formed in 1990. It brings together clients, contractors and consultants from across Europe in order to build a strong, globally competitive construction industry. The new partnership will continue to promote the raising of performance by:

• aligning objectives throughout the project value chain;
• identifying and applying best practices;
• establishing a respected and influential network of competent organisations.

ACTIVE Pilot Projects

Over the past 4 years, 11 projects involving ACTIVE members have been piloting the application of the ACTIVE principles and the Value Enhancing Practices (VEPs) set out in the ACTIVE Workbook. These projects vary in terms of capital value, complexity, location and type of project. They range from a major new ethylene expansion project at BP Grangemouth at BP to revamps and extensions of existing smaller scale processes at Elementis, Rohm & Haas and INEOS. Not all of the projects are complete but most are in the final stages of construction

Each of these pilot projects uses the assessment process set out in the Workbook to measure performance at 5 key milestones in the lifecycle. Results are scored for each of the 8 ACTIVE Principles:

1. Effective Project Concept & Definition
2. Effective Project Team Management
3. Effective Supply Chain Relationships
4. Effective Information Management & Communication
5. Effective Project Risk Management
6. Effective Innovation & Continuous Improvement
7. Effective Project Execution
8. Effective Performance Measurement

The feedback from all the projects is that these applying these Principles in practice has improved project performance and limited the impact of the problems that are inevitable in the "real world". Whilst average scores are all above 50%, those for individual Principles vary. Project Definition, Team Management and Supply Chain Relationships all score particularly well throughout, but Information Management & Communication scores are more variable. Clearly, we still need to raise awareness in the industry of the contribution that the effective management, exchange and sharing of engineering information can make towards building and operating cheaper, safer and more efficient processes.

This news item is based on a report by ECI Programme Manager Stephen Weatherley in ECI News for Summer 2001. For more information, see www.eci-online.org.

EPISTLE home page | Interchange Online

Editor: Paul Sawyer, PES Associates
Web design and maintenance: PDT Solutions