Mind the gap between finance and engineering in mining and industrial projects

Mining and industrial organisations need to adopt integrated business solutions that enable them to bridge the gap between their engineering and finance departments if they are to maximise the profitability of their projects and gain visibility into - and control over - project costs and performance.

With margins in this sector under severe pressure, it has become more important than ever for organisations to have a firm handle on tendering, procurement, project costs and time. They can only achieve this when they have access to real-time data that enables them to monitor project processes so that they can make better and faster business decisions.

Historically, a lack of integration between the finance and engineering departments (and their data and systems) has prevented mining and industrial organisations from achieving this level of real-time insight and control. Estimators and accountants do not speak the same language and there was a disconnect between financial data and engineering information.

Both finance and engineering are key to the profitability of any mining or large-scale industrial project, considering the number of variables, changes, people and equipment involved. Engineering control includes generating and managing allowable and actual quantities of resource, wastages, manhours of labour, production of equipment and time for construction activities. This is every bit as crucial as finance to the success of a project.