The National Championship

July 2024

Manufacturing facilities exist to serve their Stakeholders by providing products that can either be consumed internally or sold in the retail market. External market conditions (raw material quality and prices, facility utility costs, and contract labor costs) can impact the cost of producing the products being marketed. Due to limited capital funding, there is intense competition between the facility groups for each discretionary dollar. Similarly, within the Capital Projects slate of projects, there is a second level of segregation for funding between three distinct types of projects: Regulatory, Maintainability, and Discretionary (typically requires economics to support any funding request). If facilities are to continue to improve their profitability over time, they must continually improve their competitive position year-over-year in their marketplace. Failure to do so will result in reduced income and, thereby, reduced funding for Capital Projects.

Simply stated, the manner in which Capital projects are executed directly correlates to the facility's future.

So, how do we compete in a competitive marketplace? The answer lies in your hands. We can maintain our competitive advantage by consistent use of the Five Pillars of Project Management Execution on every project. Your role in this process is crucial and empowers you to make a significant impact on your company's position in the market.

The goal of our Capital Projects Group was to execute projects using the five pillars of execution:

• Cost-effective execution within the approved Budget;

• Safely implemented and completed with no Lost Time Incidents;

• Deliver a Quality Project to our Customers that they are proud to operate (Operations, Maintenance and Safety);

• Schedule is achieved on time; and,

• Mitigate Risks throughout project execution.

Failure in any one of these areas will affect the facilities profitability.

I quote Jimbo Fisher, former football coach for Texas A&M, "Every time you touch the football it is for a National Championship."  Likewise, every activity performed during capital project execution should be completed with the goal to improve the facility's profitability.

Our goal should be to identify the 'Ideal Operation' and then work to 'close the gap' between our current position and the Ideal position. The challenge is that the Ideal position is constantly improving over time. However, this also means that there is always room for growth and improvement. So, we must continually improve over time. If we do not choose to improve, we will lose both our market position and Customers who buy our products.