An emerging tool is based on applying a data analysis technique called "artificial neural networking" to the task of helping EPCs identify key individual issues and actions that most affected past project outcomes, says Hunter. Modeled on human thought and learning processes, the analysis approach can improve future decision-making by training the software to "learn" using heuristic techniques.

Fiatech and a Clemson University research team have successfully demonstrated a proof-of-concept neural networking tool to identify key "predictive performance indicators" on sample project data.

They also have created an Excel-based tool to study data from unfolding projects as a way to forecast—sometimes months ahead—where schedule-busting delivery issues are likely to arise.

Fiatech members are preparing now to move the project into larger-scale testing, with member-company project data and participation. John Fish, director of project support services at Ford, Bacon & Davis, an EPC contractor, is engaged in the project, which he hopes will lead to an integrated dashboard with predictive indicators built in.

Colliding Worlds?

Virtual work stations also are making their way into global work teams (see related link). Greg Smith, virtual design and construction director at contractor Skanska, which has been piloting the use of virtual reality, sees plenty of challenges.

"One hurdle involved the tools we use daily on our construction projects and the lack of interoperability with the virtual-world tools," Smith says. The working environments of the two "worlds" also collided, he says. "To be effective in the virtual world, the team member needs to focus on that environment, which is challenging in a typical construction-trailer atmosphere," says Smith.

Firms also note new risks to the global work-share management process when more parties are involved: guarding information security and enforcing intellectual property protections. "People may potentially share sensitive project information on social networking sites indirectly without realizing the impacts," says AMEC's Ewens.

Clemson University also is on the forefront of deploying better technology for global work sharing and supply-chain management. With seed funding from Fluor, the school's industry-focused online graduate-degree program has had 270 students, says William Ferrell, who heads the school's program. All are working in the field for at least three years and include managers from a number of EPC firms, he says.

Ferrell, also dean of Clemson's industrial engineering program, says supply-chain approaches in manufacturing can be applied to construction. "The fundamentals of industrial engineering and logistics that have worked for other companies can work for capital projects," he says. "It's how you buffer the impacts of variability. E&C people say you can't standardize, but we can show areas of cost savings."

The program now expanding internationally, with its first conference in India this past spring and plans to offer focused learning modules on construction supply-chain management issues in that country. Ferrell says the Middle East and China also are potential focuses.

Even with the proliferation of technology, industry firms note that effective global work share still is dependent on face-to-face interaction and effective management.

In building a new U.S. embassy in Monrovia, Liberia, in 2009, project participants did not realize until a shipment of critical reinforcing steel failed to reach port on schedule that the 1,000-ton load had sunk in the Black Sea en route. Immediately upon confirming the situation, the firms say they worked to identify alternate sources of material to meet both the project specifications and schedule requirements.

"Communication is essential," says AMEC's Flore. "You can't just hand over the documents and hope they'll be worked on. You can't just let work share happen by itself. It needs supervision and support."

But firms also note the added impacts on managers' time and responsibility. "The real strain is on the project manager," says PB's Kelly. "The 24-hour clock can be a burden."

Cultural miscues also can abound among work-share locations, leading to lost time, work revisions and delays in decision making and project delivery, says AMEC.

The firm sends key participants to "cultural-awareness orientation," which involves immersion in the English language, differences in leadership styles, communication patterns and risk avoidance. The training "helped project staff to focus on differences in how people manage time, view rules and ethics, relate to tasks and understand managerial hierarchy in different countries," says company engineering director Ewens.

Supply-chain challenges are a "struggle" that a panel of owners told attendees at an ENR conference in June they seek contractor expertise to manage. "Can you get the materials in place to let the workers work?" asked Brett Henderson, Chevron's upstream director in Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East. But James Ellis, DuPont global engineering director, noted that the firm did not notice major improvement in productivity in use of global work share approaches.