The great majority of respondents from the oil and gas, mining and construction sectors indicated that the standard of on-site food and facility management services had an important impact on lowering operational risk and meeting the overall project objectives in terms of schedule, cost, quality, safety and local content.

The same respondents who indicated that they considered that on-site food and facility management (FFM) services to have a high level of importance in lowering overall project operational risk and to meeting their own project objectives, indicated that their FFM expectations and requirements were generally not being met by their FFM providers.

Challenges

A recent poll of senior managers in the oil and gas, mining and construction industries suggests that their food and facilities management services requirements and expectations are generally not being well met. Why?

Procurement (End-User)

RFP/tender documents do not clearly specify the scope of work, work specifications and client responsibilities. This leads to disputes between the client and the contractor from the outset of the commencement of the services.
Contractor shortlisting processes lead to the inclusion of companies who lack the necessary technical and financial capability and management systems to perform the services to the expectations of the end-user.
Incomplete estimation of the contract cost based on end-user scope of work, quality expectations, operational standards leave the end-user 'blind' in assessing commercial proposals from contractors.
Ineffective control of the contractor, covering day to day overseeing of contract compliance and periodic review of continuous improvement KPIs in Performance Review Meetings.
Contract awards made on the lowest price rather than lowest total cost basis which includes costs associated with managing a poor quality service provider (food poisoning, employee productivity/retention, management, time, re-tendering etc.).
Insufficient facilities and equipment provided to the contractor such as size, design and layout of catering facilities, the type, functionality and maintenance of client-provided equipment.

Contractor (Service-Provider)

Lack of documented operational procedures; in the scope of work being provided, internal control procedures to support it and a lack of staff training programmes to operate successfully on site.
Inadequate equipment, tools and resources necessary to perform the services in the scope of work professionally, efficiently, safely and hygienically to the client's expectations.
On-site contractor management lacking in key competencies and who are unable to take decisions related to the execution of the contract without referring back to Head Office and a lack of operational support from Head Office
Remote locations makes centralised management control more challenging given that off-site managers can only visit the site once every 1-3 months. There is a much greater reliance on the quality of the on-site operational team.
Locally hired staff from the communities are untrained, are often lacking in elementary or high school education and this further undermines service quality, especially in the early stages of a project
Lack of adequate planning in supply chain logistics fails to meet on-site operational requirements. This often was not adequately done leading to shortages of inventory on-site to perform the services.