Sorina du Toit a South African Construction Cost Specialist and Chartered Quantity Surveyor currently based in Canada tells THIS IS MY STORY about a Mining Project that had a positive impact in her career
Please give us a brief summary on your career to date.
I qualified as a Quantity Surveyor in 2001. I moved to Europe for 3.5 years where I did contract management on various projects, including rail, retail refurbishments and social housing. In 2005 I moved back to South Africa and started working on mining projects as a contract manager.
In 2008 I was transferred to Canada where I branched out to Project Controls and estimating. I moved to a global mining company and later to an Engineering firm where I was department head for the Project Services department in the Power and Process division. In 2016 I started my own consulting firm and have been helping clients with procedure development, training and Project Controls and estimating services.
In 2018 my company joined forces with another firm, and we have been working closely ever since to provide Project Controls, Contract Management and estimating services to the mining and other industries. Through my career I have worked on projects on 5 of the 7 continents and traveled to multiple countries.
Give us details of a project that made an impact in your career.
A mine expansion project with the aim to mine and process a new ore type. There were multiple expats on the project and all the contractors were local to the country with little to no mining experience.
What was your position and duties on this project?
Project Controls Manager for the Owner's team
Why does this project stand out to you?
The project was fraught with issues that was mainly brought about by pushing for a start date without ensuring the project was set up for success. It did not have the proper systems in place to support the construction (document management, project controls, warehousing, etc).
Project Controls were tracked on multiple excel sheets. Document management was set up only 6 months after the project started and was a basic SharePoint system which made control difficult.
The contracts were not set up to industry standard and had no leverage to enforce performance, which the contractors knew and took advantage of. None of the Project Controls requirements, such as cashflow reporting, schedule reporting, weekly reports and tracking of key quantities were specified in the contracts.
The warehousing and logistics were only set up 1 year after the project started. There were major issues with equipment delivery as no-one was tracking performance of the suppliers.
There were also a lot of resentment of the expat experts which were brought in (myself included), which made for an exceedingly difficult work environment. Part of this was driven by the lack of privacy as to payment structures, etc.
What were the important lessons you learnt from this project?
It is important to set a project up correctly. Rather spend extra time at the beginning and make sure all disciplines are properly set up. Make sure contracts take into account local conditions and are set up to provide for proper and easy contract enforcement and reporting. Document Control needs to be set up before the project starts and use industry standard software. Warehousing and laydown requirements needs to be determined before the project starts and costs for these requirements developed as part of the estimate.
Disciplines should not function in silos and all disciplines’ requirements should be taken into account when setting up the project.
Have systems in place to ensure everyone's privacy RE salaries or fees.
Management needs to, from the start, work with everyone to create a cohesive team that respects each other.
Also read: THIS IS MY STORY - Richard Arnott
What were career mistakes or regrets you experienced on this project?
Being drawn into project politics.
Allowing to be pushed to do work within unrealistic timeframes, producing sub-standard work.
Going into self-preservation mode instead of reaching out to others during difficult moments.
How did you overcome your mistakes/regrets?
It is difficult to say as I haven't been placed in such a situation since. I believe being aware of my shortcomings will help me avoid these mistakes in future.
What has been the most satisfying thing for you personally about this project?
Being able to help the Project Controls team move forward in our abilities and capabilities. Helping develop work procedures to better manage change on the project and providing clear reporting.
This industry is said to be one of the toughest industries, how did you manage to stay in for so long?
Integrity is key and knowing who you are regardless of what others think. I have also surrounded myself with good mentors with whom I can speak any time and who will give me honest advice.
In your opinion what are the biggest challenges facing the industry currently and how can they be overcome?
1. Technology
The construction industry needs to better embrace technology, but also needs to find more cost-effective technologies that can easily be set up for smaller projects.
2. Funding
Due to the global downturn and stakeholder requirements, companies are finding it difficult to obtain the necessary funding for projects. Companies are holding on to free cashflow and when projects do get awarded, they tend to be pushed too quickly into construction just in order to secure whatever funding has been provided.
3. Personnel
The construction industry and especially the mining industry is sitting with an ageing workforce and young people are not being trained to effectively take over the reins, especially in the softer disciplines like Project Controls, Contract Management and Project Management.
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