Better lab project management

Nowadays, the majority of industrial projects are subject to delays and cost over-runs. Usually, these result from the tendency to award projects to the lowest bidder. But environmental oversight as well as multiple governmental, environmental and social reviews can also cause significant amounts of delays. In extreme cases, these can add more than 10 years to the length of a project.

Therefore, cost management becomes an even more pressing concern for all parties involved. Relatedly, parties tend to pursue increasingly complicated terms and conditions in an attempt to minimise risk, adding greater regulatory burden. As a result, risk management may be weakened beyond the basic requirement for the project to complete test runs before it starts to generate an income.

Of course, such risks are far higher in zones of hostility or instability, and any inability to certify products as ‘fit for purpose’ automatically causes product prices to drop significantly. We have seen price drops of 90% due to minor contamination or potential disposal costs due to the need to dispose of off-spec materials found at sites.

As such, confidence in product certification results is an absolute essential and labs must have contingency plans in place should they become operationally compromised via fire, explosion or contamination. Relatedly, contingency planning is essential to ensure that reliable product certification restrictions are well managed and technically feasible. Insurers also have significant interests in risk management practices and risk contingency policies. Contamination clean-up is often a very large cost consideration for insurers. Violent disruption, too, is now an additional risk being carefully evaluated in many parts of the world.

The team members at R&E Owen Laboratory Exerts, have direct experience in dealing with the above risks and ways in which they might be best managed, having worked in several war zones and over 74 countries to date. We directly work out of the UK, Europe and Canada. We are a reliable and knowledgeable entity with a wealth of useful experience over 50 years, including a real awareness of both price sensitivity and risks.