PROJECT RISK ASSURANCE PROCESS™

HS’s Project Risk Assurance Process (PRAP) provides an independent, unbiased evaluation of a project using hydrogen from inception to completion. This pro-active management process maximizes project time and cost savings in a managed risk environment.

The Challenge
All projects, especially those using innovative hydrogen –based technologies, are continually becoming more complex and technically demanding. The scope of supply and the financial demands of these projects create the need for innovative and effective methods to manage project risks. The ability to control project responsibilities and to execute against a realistic schedule and budget is an essential ingredient of the accountability standard to which those responsible for planning, financing, and contracting projects are increasingly being held responsible. The more you know about each component of a project, the more you can reduce the risk of schedule delays or cost overruns.

Hydrogen Safety’s Approach
We provide assistance to all participants who are involved in the design, supply and construction of projects by identifying risk exposures, proposing recommendations, and helping to implement solutions to effectively manage the associated project risks. Our focus is on total project risk management.

Typically, every project evolves through many developmental stages. Each stage has its particular characteristics and potential pitfalls. At the conceptual stage, the project goals and fundamentals need to be realistically established. It has been our experience that critical questions need to be raised before valuable resources are further committed. During the proposal development and bid submittal stages, the competitiveness of the response to the RFQ is crucial. Risk contingencies, performance guarantees, and commercial terms, especially regarding liquidated damages and bonus/penalty situations, are dictating factors. Of course, contract execution becomes the challenge to maintain completion schedules and obtain final project acceptance.

The PRAP Process
PRAP provides a “Process” to assess the risks associated with each stage of a project. The process includes these functional activities:

Project Risk Overviews provide a total review of the organization, costing, tasking, scheduling, and quality of the proposed project risk management plan. Specifically they identify, rank, and recommend risk reduction alternatives or allocation methods for the issues associated with participants' responsibilities and relationships. It can apply to the conceptual stage of a project as well as the bid preparation stage.
Engineering Risk Reviewsidentify areas of actual and potential risk with specific recommendations made for avoidance, abatement, reallocation, or control. This activity is helpful during both the preliminary and final design stages.
Procurement Risk Assessmentsevaluate existing systems for defining, monitoring, and managing procurement risks. Recommendations to improve procurement processes, maintain technical quality standards, meet project schedule requirements, and reduce the costs of goods and services without inordinate risks are the product of the assessment. This activity can also be tactically applied to address specific issues with a particular project such as global sourcing or risk transfer to subcontractors.
Construction Risk Evaluationsinclude commercial, contractual, economic, engineering, financial, insurance, and managerial reviews. They provide an independent reporting, review, and evaluation system to ensure the project is complying with the conditions the parties to the project agreed on and recommendations for achieving project objectives. If claims develop either internally to the participants or externally with the end customer, the process can facilitate an equitable resolution.
A longer-term focus is the intent of the Risk Control Programsthat address the establishment or modification of an existing system of Project Risk Assurance within the client's organization. The Programs provide assistance in mobilization and project start up to augment permanent staff or to establish a training curriculum for employment development. Our qualified and experienced staff can work with your personnel to provide written procedures for monitoring and reporting, payment reviews, contract pricing and negotiation support, training seminars, and lectures on relevant selected topics.

PRAP Benefits

Independent Monitoring / Evaluation / Resolution Approach enables the common goal of project acceptance to be achieved while satisfying the goals of individual participants in the project.
Objectivity in the Evaluation is based on in-depth technical experience and knowledge of the specific project circumstances. These same skills are essential to proposing pertinent risk transfer mechanisms.
Timely Identification of Problems as they occur is done so that alternative courses of action can be pursued as part of proactive management approach.
Recovery of Cost through an on going rather than "after-the-fact" resolution of issues is realized.
Parties Perform Their Traditional Roles in an efficient manner without the added distractions of the consortium considerations.

Why HS?
Our staff has years of specialized expertise and hands-on experience in the hydrogen industry. Our technical, project management, cost accounting, project recovery and proprietary risk management process, provide a solid foundation to assist our clients in achieving maximum control over project risks, costs, schedules and project quality.