lesson 11 - onpoint

Lesson 11Contractor Responsibilities & Adherence to Contract

LEARNING OBJECTIVESThe learning objective is to gain awareness of the following: • Housekeeping

• Working Safely

• Performance of Quality Work

• Productivity

• Schedule Compliance

• Maintaining Prescribed Staffing Levels

• Adherence to Materials Provision Guidelines

• Recordkeeping, Reporting and Document Control

4 EXECUTION COORDINATOR TRAINING CURRICULUM

Housekeeping EFFECT ON SAFETY - A lack of housekeeping is a major factor

in slips, trips and falls. Nationally, over 20% of all accidents are due to slips, trips and falls. An effective Execution Coordinator will ensure contractors maintain a clutter-free work area. Parts, debris,

spills, hoses, cords and even unnecessary scaffolding are promptly minimized, removed or properly placed.

EFFECT ON PRODUCTIVITY - Lack of housekeeping can inhibit the

free movement of workers, causing delays and longer durations.

EFFECT ON MORALE - Navigating clutter can be frustrating for workers and may affect worker attitude toward a site.

EFFECT ON SAFETY CULTURE - The moment a worker enters the site, he must be greeted with a clear and consistent message that safety is priority. The level of tidiness at a site affects outsiders’ first impressions. A lack of

housekeeping may make it more difficult for workers to take your safety messages seriously.

LESSON 11CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITIES & ADHERENCE TO CONTRACT

LESSON 11 |

EXECUTION COORDINATOR TRAINING CURRICULUM 5

Working SafetyHow can safety be discussed every day without inspiring boredom? One way is to make use of the inherent selfishness of human nature. At heart, even the most generous individuals are interested in personal benefits. Present safety in terms of what’s in it for the attendees. Instead of talking “safety”, talk about what is of natural interest to people. JOB SECURITY - When safety becomes an issue, employees can lose jobs, contractors can lose contracts and companies can be shut down by regulators. Working is not an inalienable right, but rather a privilege that must be protected continually.

JOB SATISFACTION - When accidents happen, more rules are put in place and the work environment becomes more stringent. Closer supervision becomes necessary, more controls are implemented, and job satisfaction can be adversely affected.

QUALITY OF LIFE- accidents can be inversely proportional to how much we enjoy family, special occasions and vacations for the rest of our life. Who wants to take an adventurous, scenic drive across the country if they are suffering from chronic back pain? How do you tie a tie or button a shirt without a thumb? How do you enjoy a sunset with a loss of vision or enjoy a fireside chat with a loss of hearing?

PROFESSIONALISM - safety is a mark of a true craftsmanship. Those who are

truly skilled know more than just how to do the job—they know how to do the job safely. Amateurs take short cuts, ignore warnings and fail to calculate risk.

LONGEVITY - according to OSHA, twelve people will die at work today

due to accidents. For every death, there were on average 30 Lost Workday cases leading up to the fatality according to a 2003 study conducted by ConocoPhillips Marine. It’s not just about safety—it’s about living longer.

MORAL DUTY - Our conscience tells us it is wrong to get someone hurt when it could have been avoided. When we ourselves are injured by our carelessness, our loved ones suffer with us to some degree. It is wrong for us to put our loved ones through it unnecessarily. We have a moral duty to work safely.

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6 EXECUTION COORDINATOR TRAINING CURRICULUMLESSON 11 |

Performance of Work QualityTHE IMPACT OF REWORK

• Rework is often a function of inadequate labor skill or lack of clarity in scope or mistakes in specifications. Obviously,

labor skill-sets must be agreed upon in advance and the cause of rework must be quickly identified and eliminated.

• Familiarity with bid documents, contract provisions and scope definition are important to ensure quality of work.

• QC/QA must be accommodated in the field and strictly enforced. Punch list items must be correctly assigned to the

accountable party for proper remediation. Any suitable substitutes on materials or specifications must be identified,

approved and documented in advance.

Productivity • Execution coordinators should maintain accurate notes of

workers’ productivity and should insist that contractors require peak performance from their workers.

• Contract supervisors and workers who are known to be productive should be requested by name in advance of turnarounds.

• When less-productive workers are identified, a layoff should be planned early in the turnaround with the intent of having more

productive workers ready to replace laid off employees. This will send a message to workers that productivity is required and will

send a message to the contractor that he must hire only quality employees for your site.


Schedule Compliance • A good schedule presents an optimized game plan around which contractors and owners can agree and synergize. The degree of schedule compliance is the degree of schedule success. There is sufficient clarity to execute the various tasks and sufficient detail to track the progress of the tasks. There is ample strategy utilized in the schedule to exploit all opportunities for simultaneous scheduling of tasks.

• Contractors, as well as site employees, should be held accountable to comply with the schedule in a very strict fashion. A pattern of non-compliance should not be ignored, but rather provoke serious discussion, e.g., ‘is the schedule not realistic’ or ‘does the site have systemic impediments to productivity’ or ‘is the contractor disregarding the priorities of the operating company’?

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MAINTAINING PRESCRIBED STAFFING LEVELS

EFFECTS OF THE CONTRACT TYPES

• With Lump Sum contracts, the contractor may seek to increase profits by attempting to execute the work with fewer workers,

thereby putting the scheduled turnaround end date at risk. The Execution Coordinator must ensure the agreed upon number of workers are present.

• With Time & Materials contracts, the contractor may seek to increase profits by attempting to execute the work with more

workers than necessary, thereby putting the planned labor budget at risk. The Execution Coordinator must ensure the

agreed upon number of workers are present unless the contractor receives specific authorization to bring in additional personnel.

• Manpower Histogram - as a function of scheduling, a manpower histogram is produced to assign the exact number of workers needed by each contractor. The Execution Coordinator is responsible

to be familiar with the daily histogram and to enforce compliance with it. The histogram is tied to the success of both the turnaround

schedule and the turnaround budget.

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LESSON 11 |


RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROGRESSING FIELD WORK AND STAFFING

• Progress can be over-reported because of the lack of experience of the person updating the progress, over enthusiasm of the updater or the updater not wanting to report poor productivity. Over progressing also can be done on a lump sum contract to artificially show a need for fewer workers.

• Progress can be under-reported on a T&M contract to keep staffing levels artificially inflated.

• Progress updates should be captured by, or at minimum verified by the Execution Coordinators. Progress should be based on objective rules of credit established in advance, not on subjective estimates.

| LESSON 11


Adherence to Materials Provision Guidelines SECURITY

• Careful attention should be given in the unlikely event a contractor is working under a lump sum contract in one area on site while

simultaneously working under a T&M contract in another area on site. Profits may be increased by borrowing personnel and materials being charged to the T&M job for use at the lump sum job.

• Contractual provisions for materials, consignments and incidentals must be clearly understood, communicated, monitored and enforced.

LOST ITEMS

• Laydown yards, warehouse inventory and site deliveries can be daunting tasks to manage, resulting in confusing delays of turnaround activities and expedited shipping wastes.

• ‘Hide and seek’ materials can be quite impactful to the schedule, budget and overall morale when materials issues begin afflicting an otherwise successful turnaround. Material handling issues most often can be averted through proper tracking, handling and security enforcement.

• Execution Coordinators must recognize that material handling is of critical path value. Material management must be treated as an important science and given the same high status as labor and equipment on the critical path. It cannot be treated as an ancillary function.

RECORDKEEPING, REPORTING AND DOCUMENT CONTROL

• Execution Coordinators must, by definition, be good at record keeping, reporting and record retention.

• In addition, Execution Coordinators must require contractors to keep accurate records, submit timely reports and maintain a prescribed chain of custody for all documents.

• Contractors should be submitting ‘lessons learned’ data to Execution Coordinators on a regular basis to guard against loss of records and prevent scarcity of details due to faded memory by the end of the turnaround.

EXECUTION COORDINATOR TRAINING CURRICULUM 11 | LESSON 11

Lesson OutcomesBE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWING:

• Housekeeping

• Working Safely

• Performance of Quality Work

• Productivity

• Schedule Compliance

• Maintaining Prescribed Staffing Levels

• Adherence to Materials Provision Guidelines

• Recordkeeping, Reporting and Document Control


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Review SessionLet’s review some key points from this lesson. Read the statement below

and consider each one carefully. If the statement adheres to the principles we’ve covered circle ’T’ for True or if it’s incorrect circle ‘F’ for False.

T / F Housekeeping should be considered a low priority activity since it does not progress the turnaround toward completion.

T / F Safety should be conveyed in terms of interest to the average worker such as job security and quality of life.

T / F Familiarity with bid documents, contract provisions and scope definition are important to ensure quality of work.

T / F The degree of schedule compliance is the degree of schedule success.

T / F With Lump Sum contracts, the contractor may seek to increase profits by attempting to execute the work with fewer workers, thereby putting the scheduled turnaround end date at risk.

T / F The contractor, and not the histogram, must be allowed to control the number of people on his job to ensure the successful completion of the schedule.

T / F Over progressing can be done on a lump sum contract to artificially show a need for fewer workers.

T / F Progress should be based on objective rules of credit established in advance, not on subjective estimates.

T / F Contractor profits may be increased by borrowing personnel and materials being charged to a T&M job for use at a lump sum job.


NOTES

| LESSON 11


NOTES

LESSON 5 |LESSON 11LESSON 11

lesson 11 - onpoint

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