Project Excellence Award

►Application
►Award Recipients

Eligibility

Any steel manufacturing firm (owner of the project) who wishes to submit, a project is eligible to do so. The firms involved in the design, construction, commissioning and/or equipment supply for the project are encouraged to participate with the Owner in submittal of the project.

Judging

Entries will be judged on the basis of total project excellence in accordance with the selection criteria. The judges will consist of members of the AIST Project and Construction Management Technology Committee. A subcommittee of the Project and Construction Management Technology Committee Members will analyze and evaluate the entry information and make a presentation to the committee membership for a vote.

General Criteria

  • Project entries MUST be submitted by an iron and/or steel producing company. The point of contact for the submittal must be an employee of the Owner company.

  • Commissioning of the project must be completed and the project should be in operation a sufficient length of time such that the achievement of technical objectives and economic benefits are measured and documented.

  • The project should be a significant capital investment for the Owner. The definition of significant may be other than the magnitude of the investment.

  • Complete the entry form. The entry form must be completed and submitted by 15 June. The entry form advises AIST that you will be submitting your company’s project for consideration. If your project qualifies, you will be invited to submit a final submittal.

  • The final submittal is a detailed response that addresses all aspects of the evaluation criteria — business success, safety performance, technical success and project management success. Final submittals are due 31 July.

Criteria for Judging

  1. Business Success — 35%

  2. Safety Program and Performance — 25%

  3. Technical Success — 20%

  4. Project Management Systems — 20%

Definition of Criteria

Business Success

  • If there is a clear business case for the project? What techniques were used in evaluating the business need?

  • Does this project fit with the Owners strategic vision? How does the project fit with the Company business plan?

  • What are the expected results of the project? They can be stated in financial measures, in terms of market penetration, in terms of quality or service improvements, or other tangible goals.

  • Are the business results as anticipated before authorization of the project? If not, what has changed?

  • Did any issues associated with project exe0cution affect business results? These issues might be in the areas of cost overruns/underruns changing the actual financial measures, scheduled changes impacting the financial measures, acceptance of product in the market, or others.

  • Significance of the investment. What is the relative size of this project compared to other projects the Owner has managed? What is the size of this project compared to average yearly capital budget of the Owner? Other factors that impact the business success of the project.

Safety Performance

  • Provide the field manhours worked, along with the total number of OSHA (or equivalent) Recordable and Lost/Restricted Workday Incidents.

  • Calculate the OSHA (or equivalent) RIR (Recordable Incident Rate) and LWCIR (Lost Work Case Incident Report) and provide in the submittal.

  • Were there any Incidents without Injury (Near Misses)?

  • Was a safety program/agreement designed for the project? Describe the program and techniques applied to this project in detail.

  • Was there a Substance Abuse Program on the Project?

  • How were accidents/incidents investigated?

  • Were any unique safety programs and or incentives used to improve the safety performance?

  • Other factors that impacted the Safety Performance on the Project.

Technical Success

  • Has the project used new technology representing a breakthrough in the general knowledge in the industry?

  • Does the project represent a unique application or arrangement of known technologies that have not been used in this manner before?

  • Does the entry advance the state of the art of the industry?

  • Has the project performed up to the technical design specification?

  • Was the project completed on-time and within budget?

  • Were there any unique technical challenges the project had to overcome?

  • What were the Environmental/Industrial Hygiene/Health and Safety compliance issues on the project and how were they overcome?

  • Were necessary Permits recognized and applied for in a timely manner?

  • Did any overlooked Regulatory issues lead to project delay or increased cost to the Owner?

  • Has the project enhanced the Owners overall operating capabilities?

  • Were there any significant rework issues on the project?

  • Were any process simulation techniques used? What were the results and how did they affect the project?

  • Other factors that impacted the Technical Success of the project.

Project Management Success

  • Does the Owner have a formal Project Management System? Does the project have “approval gates” the project must pass through? Describe.

  • How was the project team organized?

  • Did the project team have a clear “charter?” Did the team understand the goal and drivers of the project? How did goals and drivers influence the project organization?

  • When were major project partners (architects, engineers, equipment suppliers, constructors, etc.) brought into the project? What was the rationale for selection and timing?

  • What was the project contracting strategy and why?

  • Did the cooperation project management system represent a novel business approach between the Owner and the builder(s) and equipment suppliers?

  • Did the project use a resource-loaded integrated network scheduling technique?

  • Were there any unique scheduling methods utilized to reduce operating interference to a minimum? What else did the team do to avoid interference with other operations?

  • Did the project use benchmarking techniques? Describe

  • Describe any unique or detailed engineering practices and Project Management techniques applied on this project. What was the expected benefits and were they achieved?

  • Was there a Commissioning and Start-Up plan? Describe. Was it achieved?

  • When was the project scope, budget and schedule frozen? What changes were authorized after freezing the scope?

  • Did the project use a formal Change Management procedure? Describe.

  • While executing the project, did the team need to take corrective action to achieve schedule or budget compliance?

  • Did the project make use of Decision and Risk Analysis techniques? What were the outcomes and how did they affect the project?

  • Other factors that impacted the Project Management techniques/success of the project.

Format of Final Submittal (If requested by the committee) - Due by 31 July

All entries are to be submitted in a professional manner, electronically or hardcopy, and include the following:

  1. Cover page with project title and name of sponsor.

  2. Copy of the Entry Form.

  3. Brief Executive Summary of the Project description including the nature of the facilities, the business purpose of the project, the economic drivers justifying the investment (e.g. cost reduction, new product, new market, etc.), an outline of the contracting strategy for engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and management thereof, the project management system utilized, performance to the project schedule and overall budget and any unusual circumstances encountered during the execution of the project. If a greenfield site, please provide a general description of the site selection criteria.

  4. Detailed Description of the project addressing the General Criteria in detail. This detailed description must be divided into the four criteria (Business Success, Safety Performance, Technical Success and Project Management Success) and should discuss as a minimum, the bullet items listed in each category. Additional information is welcomed and any information that will assist the Judges in evaluating the merits of the Entry should be provided.
    Award judges understand that financial results are sensitive. Because the major judging criteria is Business Results, it is important that the entry convey, in as confidential or abstract a manner as the owner feels necessary, both the Business Case that justified the project and the Business Results after the project was completed.

  5. Graphs and photographs that serve to clarify or further describe pertinent information to the judges are welcomed.

  6. Judging
    Each member of the panel of judges will evaluate the entries independently. The Chair of the panel of judges will present the recommendations to the Project and Construction Management Technology Committee (PCMTC), along with the justification for the recommendation. The Project and Construction Management Technology Committee will then approve the recommendations, or send the recommendations back to the panel of judges for further consideration. The PCMTC must approve the final recommendations.

    The panel judges apply their own good judgment and wealth of experience to the judging process. The weighting in each category will be divided into two major areas – process and results.

    These major areas have been selected to recognize the critical importance of applying best practices and processes to the science of project management, and at the same time, also recognizing that good practices that do not drive positive results, are hollow. Entries that emphasize results, without meaningful discussion of the process employed to achieve these results, will be at a disadvantage in judging. Similarly, the best planned and organized project that does not produce results will also be at a disadvantage.