Currently the process industries in the US are confronted with a challenging combination of factors that could seriously degrade the quality of capital investment in the next five to 10 years. These challenges are not the typical market-driven variety: instead they are in many ways self-imposed. Three of the most pressing challenges include the following. 1. an increase in capital spending to recuperate from several years of retrenchment; 2. 2) an aging workforce with a dearth of more experienced personnel to backfill imminent retirements; and 3. 3) the continued absence both of available company processes and the discipline to follow them. Although not at a crisis level yet, the combination of these three challenges could lead to a significant erosion of capital project quality in the near future if not addressed. To ensure that these converging and synergistic forces do not result in a "Perfect Storm" it is essential that companies begin standardizing (within an acceptable bandwidth) and enforcing processes and procedures for capital project development and execution.
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