Factory Physics: Methods for Efficient Project Management in a Scientific Environment

About

As the architect of Chevron's major capital project system which was used to guide development and execution of about $500 Billion US dollars of projects, Gary became frustrated with the poor cost and schedule performance of those investments and launched a search for something better. In his search he discovered Project Production Management based on Factory Physics and Operations Science. After using PPM to rescue several projects that were years behind schedule and 100's of millions over budget, he began to implement PPM throughout Chevron.

In this lecture Gary will describe his personal journey that took him beyond those industries that use conventional "best practice" project management methods to focus on how manufacturing industries have realized multi fold increases in productivity over the years and to adapt their underlying principles to complex construction projects in the energy sector.

Short bio: Gary Fischer is the Executive Director of the Project Production Institute (PPI), as well as Chair of the PPI Energy Working Group. Prior to that, Gary spent 40 years in Chevron's capital projects organization and has held a variety of executive positions, most recently as Special Projects Manager at Chevron Project Resources Company. In that role, Gary was responsible for Chevron's implementation of Project Production Management and digital transformation on major capital projects. Gary was also responsible for Chevron's project management system and led the group that provided functional expertise across the corporation's worldwide major capital projects portfolio.

Throughout his career, he has held numerous technical and leadership positions across downstream, chemicals and upstream including Lead Engineer for a Shale Oil Semi Works Plant; Construction Manager for a Dimersol Project; Engineering Manager for a Linear Low-Density Project; Construction Manager of a High-Density Polyethylene Project; Project Manager of a Clean Fuels Project; and…