Helios Terminal, McConnell Dowell
International Collaboration and Vendor Document Management
Client
McConnell Dowell (MCD) is a world class engineering, construction and maintenance company with business units in civil and marine, mechanical, electrical, pipelines, tunneling and underground services. The company employs about 5,000 personnel and operates in South East Asia, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Formed in 1971, McConnell Dowell South East Asia has the capacity to carry out a full range of integrated, multi-discipline projects on a self perform basis.
Project
MCD is the main contractor on the Helios Terminal in Singapore, a project to construct a 450,000 cubic meter oil storage terminal. The bunker is located on Jurong Island’s petroleum hub and comprises 18 oil production tanks. MCD’s section of the development is valued at approximately $95 million, with the total development valued at $150 million.
Requirements
MCD needed an information management system for controlling downstream communication with suppliers and subcontractors that could also support communication with the client’s project management team.
Suppliers for the project are based around the world, so MCD needed a system that could support global collaboration and manage the flow of information during the tendering and procurement processes – particularly for the high value orders that involve a large volume of documentation. Since MCD would be working with a number of external organizations, the system needed to be easy to use to support uptake by all participants in the project.
Solution
MCD selected to use the Aconex online information management solution to manage their documents and project correspondence. Aconex is a web-based system, delivered for the life of a project, that enables team members to manage their information using one central platform. The system allows internal and external participants to view, distribute and track their files electronically at any time and from any location.
Results
MCD used Aconex to streamline their document review processes and collaborate with more than 70 external organizations. Over the project’s first 15 months, more than 400 internal and external team members used the system to store and manage more than 46,000 documents and 24,000 pieces of project mail.
Tendering, Procurement & Vendor Document Management
Through using Aconex, MCD were able to manage their tendering and procurement documentation electronically. The system enabled them to create, distribute and access tenders through one online platform, which significantly reduced the time needed to manage the process for MCD and streamlined submission procedures for suppliers.
Jonathan Scott, Engineering Manager at McConnell Dowell, said, “The main use of Aconex was during procurement, where we needed to control a huge amount of documentation. About $55 million was spent purchasing equipment and materials and we had to manage drawings, data sheets, specifications, maintenance manuals, quality documents, certificates and records for each item. Aconex handled this perfectly.”
Using a web-based system to manage and track vendor documents was particularly beneficial when working with international organizations.
“We primarily used Aconex for collaborating with our subcontractors and suppliers,” said Scott. “If the purchase order was in excess of about $50,000, we’d insist they use Aconex. We had suppliers in France, Germany, the UK, Korea, Australia and Singapore, so managing this online with Aconex speeds up the submission and approval process by cutting paper transmittals. The result is much less work at our end and, because everything is traceable, it’s fool proof.”
Finding and Retrieving Information
When documents are stored on Aconex, team members can quickly retrieve them by searching on criteria such as date ranges, sender and recipient details, document types, status and keywords. Files can then be distributed electronically using the system.
Aconex maintains a full archive of documents and project mail, with audit trails of each transaction. As well as managing risks, MCD found that this helped minimize the impact when people left the project, making it easier for newcomers to get up to speed.
“In the past we’ve had issues losing information and knowing which document is the latest versions. These things always happen, but with Aconex we can be sure that when we look at a document, it’s the latest version.” Scott added, “There’s a big turnover of staff, so it’s a big benefit that everything is easy to find.”
Through automating manual processes such as updating document registers and entering data in spreadsheets, Aconex helped MCD to half the number of document controllers required on the project.
Scott said, “There’s a lot less double up in work. With the old systems, it would take someone to type in all the information then when it was transmitted it would have to be entered again at the other end. With Aconex there is an outright increase in productivity. I’ve been on similar sized jobs and they had twice as many document controllers. Because it’s easy to use, Aconex makes it easy for anyone to find what they need.”
In addition to documents, Aconex was used for sending and tracking project mail such as requests for information, instructions, advice, variations and memorandums.
“The main benefit of Aconex was the document control, but we also used it for issuing and tracking correspondence. The project management team used it to transmit letters and mail over the system.”
Training and Support
To effectively implement its solution, and ensure that participants are proficient using the system, Aconex provides on the ground training and round the clock support to all internal and external team members for the life of the project.
Scott said, “The support is really good, and it’s been good in every location we’ve needed it. We’ve got new people coming on all the time so Aconex has run session after session to get everyone up to speed. We also use the weekly open sessions at their office.”
Summarizing what Aconex has brought to the project, Scott said, “Aconex has been an excellent document control system and is a fantastic product. It’s performed exactly as it was promised to when we evaluated it. It’s very rare that you can say that about something but it’s met all our expectations on our job, and that’s pretty impressive.”
Back