PM Network - December 2016

For instance, whenever a worker made a mistake or deviated from a predefined process, a project team member would log it into the system. Over time, the team was able to identify patterns, homing in on times and activities that had the greatest safety risks.

“With this information in our system, we knew that Monday mornings
between 10 and 12 had the most deviations, meaning the highest risk for acci-
dents,” Mr. Millan says. “So we had to take some actions to minimize risks dur-
ing that period on Mondays.”
Encouraging the team to stick to the process helped the team set a new stan-
dard for worker safety: The project closed with the lowest accident frequency
rate of any pulp industry new construction project in Brazil.

“I’ve been on other projects just like this one, and always in Brazil we had some
kind of bad injuries or fatalities—and this has not happened
here,” says Mr. Zanotti Schneider. “We did very good project
management to avoid and to eliminate this kind of problem.”
Proactive planning also helped the team manage external
risk factors. In 2014, the team had to deal with two major
disruptions in Brazil: national elections and the World Cup.
Each event brought its own obstacles. For instance, the
government rolled out special rules during the World Cup
that limited the type and quantity of materials that could be
shipped by road.

“Also, the people in Brazil wanted to watch the games on TV,” Mr. Lídio Nunes says. “So we stopped the construction when the Brazilian team played. We created internal rooms for workers to watch TV. But we planned all these activities in a proper way from the beginning.”

A VIRTUOUS CYCLE

While the project plan included significant environmental and social investments, the bottom line was still top priority. Every month, the team estimated the cost required to complete the remainder of the project. If the budget wasn’t aligned to plan, they had the information early enough to take corrective action.