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MISSION STATEMENT

"To develop a long-term working relationship with clients to provide the most cost effective and timely execution of their projects"

Merit is committed to keeping the scope of a project in the "Owner's Control" by acting as an extension of the Owner's management team and assisting in the selection and coordination of project resources best suited to the project.

The Principals and staff associated with Merit Consultants International Inc. have created a "history of success" in costing, scheduling, and managing capital projects from the conceptual stage through to completion, with a smooth hand over to the Owner's operations team.

Merit Consultants International Inc. is staffed with personnel of proven background. Our depth of construction experience, our scheduling professionals, and our customized "Merit Cost Control System", ensures that the Owner's projects are designed with economy and quality in mind and that budget vs. actual costs and schedules are current and closely monitored. Our senior management are "hands on", ensuring that engineering design and special equipment deliveries meet "construction driven - fast track" schedules.

The project management and construction services we offer include:

1. Project and Construction Management duties such as:
   
   
   • Project Coordination and Administration;
   • Construction supervision, coordination, and inspection of on site construction activities;
   • Contract administration;
   • Procurement and Expediting;
   • Project cost control and reporting;
   • Project scheduling and reporting;
   • Project quality control;
   • Start-up and commissioning;
   • Equipment inspection; and
   • Risk Analysis.
     
     
2. Preliminary planning, costs and scheduling. We have a reliable database of industrial project costs and schedules assembled from our past and present projects.
3. Development of construction level cost estimating, budgeting, scheduling, and reporting.
4. Assisting the Owner in calling, analyzing, and awarding tenders for Engineering and Procurement Services.
5. Value input during design and engineering to ensure economical and efficient construction. This includes design and specification reviews and the preparation of pipe spool drawings.
6. Pre-construction evaluations and logistic analysis of initial needs such as camp, temporary plant and services, freight, transportation, availability of local labour, site accessibility for equipment deliveries and personnel travel.
7. Assessing and qualifying local contractors.
8. Contract tender preparation and calling, evaluation, and recommendations to the Owner for the final selection and award of the various construction contracts.
9. Preparation and administration of construction contracts on behalf of the Owner.
10. Procurement of material and equipment including material quantity take-off, expediting, shipping, receiving, and warehousing.
11. Selecting and providing specialist project personnel from a comprehensive database that ranges from project managers to site engineering staff to supervisory and operations personnel.
12. Providing services for the start up and commissioning of the operations including system packaging, status of system check-out and testing, and collation of vendor information for the operations manuals.

Bringing Value to the Project

Merit has often been asked to provide our experienced and knowledge to help bring added value to a project from the Scoping Study phase through to the start-up of an industrial plant including:

• Providing a comparative analysis to other projects of a similar nature;
• Unbiased consideration of the best available resources to engineer, construct, and deliver bulk materials and equipment to a project;
• Independent input to pre-construction activities on behalf of the Owner including engineering constructibility, consideration of alternatives, project strategizing, scheduling, and cost system preparation with a view to improving the project's schedule, costs and execution;
• Negotiating with contractors and material suppliers to obtain the best prices for the work involved;
• Developing practical and workable contract documents incorporating construction management techniques and know-how;
• Developing and pursuing the project schedule to identify all Consultant/Owner activities, group interactions and critical path items;
• Developing a comprehensive and user friendly cost system to monitor and control project costs and purchases;
• Maintaining communication between the Owner and the consultants, contractors, major vendors and government where appropriate;
• Researching and inspecting used equipment;
• Providing qualified personnel to handle the site construction management;
• Monitoring the various consulting groups as they participate in the development of the project;
• Seeking to independently achieve the best value cost for a project for the lowest cost;
• Seeking to achieve or beat the project schedule initiatives.

Controlling the Project

Merit has developed a number of systems and procedures to control projects, including:

• Procedures Manual and Project Forms/System
• Cost Monitoring and Control
• Scheduling
• Contract Status Reporting
• Contractor Progress Tracking/Forecasting
• Consultant Progress Tracking/Forecasting
• Procurement Control
• Productivity Reporting
• Expediting Reporting
• Warehousing and Inventory Reporting
• System Testing
• Commissioning

There are a number of additional procedures available for use by the construction management forces at site. The Merit Project Procedures, established at the start of a project, details all systems necessary to fully manage the work through the pre-construction and construction phases.

Providing and Co-ordinating Capital Cost Estimates

The Merit Capital Cost Estimate System provides a traditional approach to costing a project. The details are established by Merit, the Engineer(s), Contractors and the Owner and combined into a format that helps to identify all of the project components. The estimate format is linked to summaries by area and overall, as well as being available for linking to special purpose cost formats.

Once established, and agreed, the Capital Cost Estimate forms the basis for the Project Budget and input to the Project Cost System for monitoring and controlling costs during the execution of the work.

Managing Project Costs

The purpose of the Merit Cost Management System is to provide both the client and the project team with an effective and dynamic cost monitoring and control tool. The system allows construction costs to be monitored on a continuous basis to compare actual costs to the budget, enabling corrective action to be taken immediately if needed. It has been specifically designed for the construction management level of project needs. It includes the ability to provide:

• Development of a Code of Accounts;
• Budgets, commitments, forecasts, and variances;
• Accounts Payable;
• Control of purchase orders and contracts.

The Merit Cost Management System is available as a part of an overall project management package or as a stand-alone tool to supplement the Owner's cost and project implementation methods.

The Merit Cost Management System software comprises a custom designed, flexible, application compatible with most other conventional accounting programs that often do not have the flexibility to handle importing, exporting, forecasting and variance reporting.

The types of cost reports available include:

• Project Area Cost Report,
• Project Detailed Cost Report,
• Committed Cost Report - sorted as required,
• Cash Flow Projections,
• Detailed Cost Report by type of expenditure,
• Cost variances,
• General Ledger.

The Merit Cost Management System acts as a job cost control sub-ledger, which is balanced monthly to the Client's job cost control account, used to issue checks, and track retentions, as well as summarize the individual assets to form part of the Client's fixed asset ledger system.

Scheduling the Project

Merit primarily utilizes a variety of computerized scheduling techniques to monitor and control projects, including Primavera, SureTrak, and Microsoft's Project Planner.

Initially, Merit prepares a Master Project Schedule to define the project's targets and milestones, as well as all the detailed component activities required for successful project control.

The schedule is a critical path type of network, prepared with input from the Owner, Project Manager, Construction Manager and Trade Specialists. It is coordinated by an experienced Project Scheduler. In addition to construction activity sequencing, it also establishes the engineering details and capital equipment delivery requirements. The schedule is generally construction driven, and activities preceding field activities are scheduled to meet with the desired construction needs.

The schedule acknowledges the most effective cashflow and use of resources to complete the project within the established timeframe. A large selection of graphics and reports are available to the project team depending on their needs.

Construction contractors invited to bid on the project are required to schedule their work to "dovetail" with the Master Project Schedule.

The Contractor is required to produce a more detailed Construction schedule two weeks after contract award for Merit's review and approval.

Contractor's schedules are monitored by Merit on a regular basis. The Master Project Schedule is also updated on a regular basis as deemed necessary by the Project Manager and the Owner. These updates flag potential problem areas and allow for early detection and alternative action planning.