COSTMAN: A Real-Time Commitment to Cost Management

摘要

For a refinery maintenance organization, performance is often based on how productivity and budget spending relate to neighboring refineries. In other words, how well the organization can make use of its time and money versus the competition. The measurement of time and money relies heavily on the refinery's ability to accurately status and forecast its project-spending level. Fluctuations in spending levels, if detected early, can improve management's ability to minimize overruns or maximize its available budget. The potential volume of projects worked by a maintenance organization may often require a large amount of contract labor to supplement the company labor force. The combination of the two labor forces will allow managers to achieve productivity and performance goals in times of increased maintenance activity. However, the frequent oscillation in the size of the contract work force will facilitate the need for accurate commitment tracking to ensure all costs are accounted for when reporting project spending levels. Many organizations are capable of tracking their own costs, but will fail to forecast proper cost data if not supplied with adequate tools to forecast and manage contract work. This article attempts to demonstrate how one major US refinery attempted to diagnose and treat its failing cost tracking abilities through the development of an in house real-time cost tracking tool. By capturing the flow of contractual activity, data that is complied in real-time can be used to identify project accruals, provide a more complete monthly forecast, and ensure that project budget is being used to its full extent.