Industrial Megaprojects: Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success - Hardcover

Merrow, Edward W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 047093882X ISBN 13: 9780470938829

Publisher: Wiley, 2011

Synopsis

Avoid common pitfalls in large-scale projects using these smart strategies

Over half of large-scale engineering and construction projects—off-shore oil platforms, chemical plants, metals processing, dams, and similar projects—have miserably poor results. These include billions of dollars in overruns, long delays in design and construction, and poor operability once finally completed.

Industrial Megaprojects gives you a clear, nontechnical understanding of why these major projects get into trouble, and how your company can prevent hazardous and costly errors when undertaking such large technical and management challenges.

• Clearly explains the underlying causes of over-budget, delayed, and unsafe megaprojects
• Examines effects of poor project management, destructive team behaviors, weak accountability systems, short-term focus, and lack of investment in technical expertise
• Author is the CEO of the leading consulting firm for evaluating billion-dollar projects

Companies worldwide are rethinking their large-scale projects. Industrial Megaprojects is your essential guide for this rethink, offering the tools and principles that are the true foundation of safe, cost-effective, successful megaprojects.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

As megaprojects sponsored by petroleum, chemical, mineral, power, and other related industries have increased in size and com-plexity, so has the fallout. Anyone with a managing stake needs to understand how and why things can go so wrong.

Industrial Megaprojects explains underlying causes of over-budgeted, delayed, and unsafe megaprojects. They destroy shareholder wealth and damage company reputations. Yet, current global economic needs are further complicating projects. Easily accessed resources have been depleted, national resource holders that control more easily developed oil and gas have driven oil companies into deeper water, and chemical companies seeking lower cost feedstocks need to exploit economies of scale.

For anyone who leads or finances big projects, for those who are concerned about the management of modern, publicly owned industrial corporations, and for those who teach others about how it should be done, this book delivers the critical information you need to ensure a safe and profitable future for megaprojects. Modern life depends on their success.

From the Back Cover

More than half of large-scale building projects, such as drilling platforms, chemical plants, or dams, have miserably poor results: billions of dollars in overruns, long delays in design and construction, and poor operability once they are finally completed. Occasionally, these fiascos make the news, but for obvious reasons, companies usually bury the disasters with as little publicity as possible. Yet, management at the companies know full well the complexity and the difficulty faced when mounting megaprojects.

Industrial Megaprojects explains the underlying causes of over-budgeted, delayed, and unsafe megaprojects: poor project management, destructive team behaviors, weak accountability systems, an almost pathological focus on the short-term, and the unwillingness to invest in deep technical expertise. Modern life as we know it relies on the success of these projects. Leaders and stakeholders of future megaprojects would be wise to heed the warnings and take note of the best practices outlined in this book.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 047093882X
• ISBN 13: 9780470938829
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384