Bridging The Gap From Project To Operations: The Pivotal Role Of The System Owner

By Aaron Roth and Harry Benson

To achieve a state of operational readiness is to complete all preparation required for the steady, sustained output of quality products. The concept of operational readiness can be best framed as it relates to three interfacing assets including the plant, its people, and their procedures. The synergy among these three “Ps” is the foundation of good engineering practice (GEP) and human performance (HP).

Explore the role of the system owner, starting from the perspective of the ingredients necessary to achieve operational readiness, as combined to form the two key disciplines of good engineering practice and human performance. When viewed from this perspective, the system owner role forms a natural bridge between these two disciplines and can be leveraged, from a project and site management perspective, to achieve faster speed to market, better production results, and a more integrated and diverse organizational culture with an emphasis on ownership and accountability, as opposed to the more typical, siloed departmental metrics.