Business process orientation (BPO) - a case study of a Canadian firm

The first part of this project study is to identify all the processes in the engineering procurement and construction (EPC) organization, with a detail view of how all disciplines interrelate to accomplish an objective of producing an engineering deliverable. Most of the activities involved input from various technical and business units of the organization or even third party supplier or vendor which is external to the organization. The process involves lots of activity mapping between related departments through detailed investigation of the relationship between process operations and the locations of resources made available in the organizational structure and hierarchy of the EPC. The second part of the project was an attempt to identify the root causes of the problems occurred and its impact on project duration and then finding possible solutions to eliminate similar problems in future. The study is based on the data and information retrieved from the projects completed in the past. The study indicated required manpower shortage, lack of required core skills among personnel hired, delayed payments on invoices led to project delays and increased cost of project execution. --Leaf ii.