SCM/P organization is extremely fat. All levels of SCM/P leadership have increased headcount with hefty pay grades. Very few positions provide value to the bottom line. The lack of engagement and understanding at the leadership levels have allowed this to occur. Someone has someone fooled. Will the worm turn in the new organization?
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@4ybu, don't believe the hype. Especially during trying times, people look to point fingers in hopes of protecting their own skin. SCM is not blameless in the least, but to let some folks here tell it, SCM was basically running Chevron and is the primary culprit for underperforming, overbudget projects. If anything, SCM at Chevron has less influence than does its counterpart functions at companies like Apple, Amazon, Boeing, FedEx Toyota, or Wal-Mart, where SCM is widely-acknowledged as one of their core competencies and strategic advantages. In my opinion, SCM was poorly integrated into Chevron's business model and used more to check boxes than to be a true partner in project development, which led to tensions from both sides.
As a non CVX person this battle is hilarious and super weird. I’ve never heard of SCM having so much influence. Bottom line is you need engineers and project mgrs to do a project. They can do it with or without procurement help. The opposite can’t be said. Good luck if you ever have to exist in the rest of the world, outside CVX bubble.
Any and every time that I hear someone proclaim “Oh, I know what I am talking about” and they are not onstage at the Comedy Club...I immediately stop listening! LOL
@AO The same contractors keep getting picked because the self-proclaimed PM "Professionals" like yourself and base business bypass the contracting process or/and or manipulate the contract evaluation process. SCM is there to keep YOU and your buddies from spending money that could have been saved had you understood the contract or managed the engineering or construction that you purport to know. Had the Project SCM process been followed, we would not have massively overspent and undelivered our megaprojects! And if this is you "doing your job", then YOU really do not understand your job! Look inward dude...you are not on any of the solution teams because YOU are the problem!
@3hte Oh, I know what I am talking about, go back and read the lookbacks. The level of project management competency in SCM is so poor that it does not allow them to incorporate basic PM elements into the selection and maturation of an optimized contracting strategy for the scope. And let's be honest, SCM's scorecards are not tied to the same metrics that the execution teams have to meet, therefore, there is very little incentive in going the extra mile and actually getting into the weeds. The alternative? Picking the same contractors and vendors that have constantly delivered the results that have derailed project after projects so they can keep doing business between themselves. At the end, the same ones that recommended the contracts will be handling the claims at the end of the project right?, when everybody is looking for a new project, they are busy cleaning their own mess. In short, these SCM consultants "never loose"....until now. Just saying. And by the way, this is me doing my job!
You obviously have ZERO understanding of SCM, CPMS or post-project analyses. The main reason for project overuns are over-engineering specs and change orders caused by engineers and construction managers without consulting SCM. Over 80 percent of change orders paid are and were totally preventable, but the non-SCM manager or engineer made an agreement without understanding the contract or consulting with their SCM team. I have been on both sides of EPC contracts, and it is the managers and engineers who do not work with SCM that we always targeted successfully. So perhaps you should worry more about YOUR performance, or lack thereof, instead of trying to justify your continued employment...just sayin!
Experts at breaking things up without ANY execution accountability. Then, they appear again wearing their super heroes caps to fix what they broke, claiming "savings" on someone else's behalf and partnering with the HR peers to walk in the front row of the rainbow parades. Their low level of Project Management competency is a root cause for developing extremely poor contracting strategies across the board.
It sounds like someone is Jelly of more talented employees who get paid more. You worry about your own position, keeping your job and doing the best that you can. What they get paid or do is none of your business. Don't concern yourself with it and you'll be better off.
SCM/P is the safe place for no-skilled losers.
Working with them is like hiring a lawyer who is your prosecutor and your judge at the same time. It is a BS organization with little accountability and inflated egos. But, it is a shelter for those who find themselves without a technical job, you know the drill “I think I can bring to this position the technical knowledge to increase economies of
Scale and uncover the value in these strategic partnerships”
@ddi, It's clear, then, that you are in the wrong business. Try something else after you get let go.
The massive number of people in SCM/P and then let's add consultants to their "cost saving projects". Projects that continue to spend but provide no true reduction in cost. Where is the leadership accountability?
If SC management has learned to make really good ppts, wave their hands wildly, add in a few new acronyms and redid some old workflows then they will be safe, just like PRC managements and execs.
I wouldn’t trust anyone in this business as far as I can throw them.
The Supply Chain management teams have worked endlessly to offshore work to Manila while saving their jobs. Hard working lower level employees continue to put their best feed forward while watching their jobs get sent to Manila. The managers, team leads and supervisors keep their jobs and get promoted and rewarded for eliminating jobs of lower level employees.
Well, I'm a supervisor and I feel the same way about many of the the "BS make-work overhead fluff " people who work for me, so there's that.
very true. Supervisors and Managers are so far removed and have convinced themself they are not. The upward lie...
Nothing will change. Chevron is a big, fat, bloated, bureaucratic organization. You must understand that the bureaucracy will always protect itself and will grow like a cancer. You will soon see for yourself that virtually all of the impending layoffs will be people who are front-line employees and not team leads, supervisors, managers, or various other BS make-work overhead fluff jobs.