The impact of maintenance on the bottom line has never been greater. By skimping on maintenance, you run the risk of increased downtime and decreased revenue generation.

Millions of dollars and the success or failure of critical projects are on the line every time a skilled craftsman lays a wrench on an important piece of machinery.

Similarly, maintenance is tasked with keeping equipment running longer and more efficiently as the combination of an aging infrastructure and many new plants coming online challenge a diminishing maintenance work force.

As a result, maintenance and reliability teams are being asked to do more with less.

In September 2015, the US government pledged US$160 million in new funding as part of a sprawling smart cities initiative. It came on the heels of new commitments for new infrastructure projects throughout the world, including China’s announcement that it will spend US$1.1 trillion dollars for roads, bridges, and other resources in the years ahead. In the following interview, Oracle Director, Industry Strategy and Business Development for Oracle’s Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Guy Barlow explains how public sector agencies throughout the world can derive the most value from large-scale infrastructure investments while mitigating risk.

The average engineering and construction firm only wins one in every four bids for capital asset projects. For a $1 billion company, that’s around $75 million wasted on failed bids every year.

If nothing else, construction and engineering projects present ample opportunity to fail. Complexity in assets, supply chains, finance, workforce skills and client requirements all present risk that could jeopardise success. A small slippage or error in any of these areas can easily cascade through the project to contribute to catastrophic failure. It’s little wonder construction and engineering project management is such a tough job.

The challenge in ensuring that all project information is shared with suppliers, contractors, and project management teams is a reality felt by many. The risks associated with this are great. Now is the time for a solution that can provide complete project insight

Successful Strategy Execution requires disciplined Project Portfolio Management

If you don’t know where you are, you don’t have much hope of arriving at your planned destination. C-suite executives and senior management understand this only too well when they tackle their number one problem: executing on strategy.

Capital industries feel pressure on all sides

All industries need to keep pace with changing economies, disruptive technologies and public policy. But for companies building and operating large capital assets – whether in engineering and construction, infrastructure, energy or transportation – the challenge is different. While there is pressure for continuous improvement, projects take time.

By understanding what most people experience when you are introducing new ways of doing business, going through a merger, or making any major changes in your company, it will help you to manage the transition process.

For an E&C contractor managing tight margins or an owner with limited funding resources, today's economic climate demands a careful and diligent selection process for evaluating which projects to build or rehab in any given year.

"Good communication between contractors and owners is the biggest factor for project success. If you're not communicating about change, risk and your vision for the project, you'll run into problems down the line," says Joe Johnson, PMO manager for construction projects at Texas Health Resources.