N E W S
Making a ‘smart’ move:
engineering/industrial operations
in distress “The world has certainly been turned
adopt a pragmatic sustainability and
on its collective head in these first few
dispute-avoidance approach and
months of 2020 with the COVID-19
intervention in such distressed project
pandemic, and the ongoing global
and engineering/industrial operations
responses to it and the challenges
situations. He says that can be
it presents. And the impact globally
advantageous to all parties in seeking
on projects and indeed the broad
to alleviate the distress and ‘rescue’
engineering-oriented environment
the situation through more sustainable
is already significant, and becoming
and mutually beneficial outcomes –
more so”, says Ian McKechnie, CEO and
that is, “seeking the more ‘win-win’
principal advisor at engineering and
and sustainability types of scenario
project advisory firm Engenamic.
outcomes”.
“Consequently, many projects and
“Such an approach creates opportunity
engineering/industrial operations
- for those willing to embrace it - to
are finding themselves in distressed
evaluate, rethink, reset, change and
conditions and situations”, he notes.
find positive, broadly-beneficial and,
“This applies to both ‘conventional’ and
perhaps most importantly, sustainable
public-private partnerships, and to a
ways forward. To move forward
broad-range of engineering, resources
smartly.”
and industrial sectors”.
While noting that, of course, this
He notes that there are reports around
preferred outcome (or approach)
the world of projects with contractors
is not always possible or feasible,
and/or the clients declaring force
and disputes and other adversarial
majeure or similar, and there is a growing
situations can nevertheless arise, he
potential of adversarial/dispute and/or
states that “we advocate strategically
of failure or other undesirable situations
adopting and pursuing such a
and outcomes quickly developing. He
pragmatic sustainability disputeavoidance
continued that these can potentially be
approach and process in
very costly and detrimental to parties
seeking such outcomes, as a preferred
and relationships, but that there are
option” he says.
other, and potentially more preferable,
“This could be the smartest move in the
options.
circumstances”.
McKechnie says that a smarter move
McKechnie notes that parties should
in the circumstances, and certainly
be encouraged to start such processes
at least in the first instance, would
as soon as possible, and that these
be for the parties to strategically
processes would benefit from external
and independent, objective facilitation
and support.
“This is where Engenamic, with our
‘troubleshooting and fixing’ as well as
strategic advisory expertise, and an
ability to understand and integrate the
‘big picture’ scenario (technically and
non-technically), can add significant
value to constructively facilitating and
supporting such an approach and
process” he says.
He observes that the Construction
Leadership Council in the UK on
Thursday 7 May 2020 published its
COVID-19 Contractual Best Practice
Guidance. The introduction to this
document notes, significantly, that
"there is a real concern that the
construction (including maintenance)
industry will become embroiled in
costly and long-running disputes...
if it does not look to engage in
collaborative discussions..."
Ian McKechnie says that “this resonates
with the ‘pragmatic sustainability’
approach that we advocate at
Engenamic, and of course pertains not
only to the construction sector”.
He says that Engenamic are
particularly geared to provide advisory
and support services (worldwide) in the
‘virtual space’ (as well as the physical
space), leveraging technology, and
bridging physical, country and timezone
barriers.
Gates Australia
launches
Industrial Webinar
Series
Gates Australia, as part of the
Gates Corporation, a leading
global provider of application
specific fluid power and
power transmission solutions,
announced today the launch of
a comprehensive webinar series
to help build industrial fluid power
and power transmission professional’s
knowledge.
The Gates Australia webinar
series is designed to deliver
online content to help educate
and further the knowledge of
industrial industry professionals
in the fluid power and power
transmission industry through a
range of topic specific webinars.
The webinars are all scheduled
on Tuesday’s starting at 10am
and run for approximately one
hour including Q&A conducted
at the end of each session. The
webinars commence on Tuesday
the 12th of May and will run
throughout 2020.
The webinar series was designed
to enable industry professionals
that deal directly with fluid power
products such as industrial and
hydraulic hose as well as power
transmission products to expand
their knowledge currently while
many professionals are either
isolated at home or have the
time to attend webinars due to
reduced work hours.
Topics covered include new Gates
safe hydraulics course, technical
topics and problem solving issues,
safety with industrial products
and in industrial environments,
in-depth product reviews and
market overviews. The webinars
suit a range of industry segments
such as industrial product distributors,
resellers and end-users
like technicians and maintenance
personnel.
The full webinar schedule can be
viewed at https://info.gatesaustralia.
com.au/Webinars.html, this
is a live schedule with the topic
heading linked to the registration
page for each. Registration will
open up for each webinar seven
days before commencement, so
regularly visiting this web page as
new webinar registrations come
online is recommended.
Any queries about the webinar
series can be sent to marketingAUS@
gates.com or contact
Gates Australia directly on +61 3
9797 9688.
www.engineeringnews.co.nz 13
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