System Dynamics Transforms Fluor Project and Change Management

Edward Godlewski (), Gregory Lee () and Kenneth Cooper ()
Additional contact information
Edward Godlewski: Fluor Enterprises Inc., Irvine, California 92618
Gregory Lee: Kenneth Cooper Associates LLC, Huntington Beach, California 92649
Kenneth Cooper: Kenneth Cooper Associates LLC, Milford, New Hampshire 03055

Interfaces, 2012, vol. 42, issue 1, 17-32

Abstract: Fluor Corporation designs and builds many of the world's most complex projects and serves clients in many industries across six continents. On our most complex projects, we have implemented a system dynamics model-based system that has improved our project management, transformed our change management, and brought large quantified business benefits to us and our clients. The model can be rapidly set up and tailored to each major engineering and construction project. We use it to foresee the future cost and schedule impacts of project changes, and most important, to test ways to avoid the impacts. Since 2005, Fluor has used the system on over 100 projects and has trained hundreds of project managers and planners in its ongoing internal use. Quantitative business benefits exceed $800 million to date for Fluor and our clients. It has also transformed the mindset of our managers away from the industry's typical retrospective view, in which disputes could become the channel for resolving cost responsibility, and replaced it with a proactive approach, in which we work with our clients to find, in advance, ways to mitigate impacts and reduce costs—a win-win situation for Fluor and our clients.

Keywords: project management; productivity loss; change impacts; rework; system dynamics; simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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